# If I had to live off of my garden......I would die.



## pops

Starting from seed to seeing the first "fruit" is almost a 3 moth deal.


My squash has bugs as I am trying not to use pesticides as I would not have any in the SHTF land. The tomatoes are doing well but it will be a few weeks before I can harvest them.

Carrots never came up. The okra did and is doing well.

All of the seeds were planted in early May and nothing to eat from any of them yet.

Just my attempt at doing this with neglect to see what makes it and what croaks.


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## *Andi

alright ...and ...


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## camo2460

It seems to me pops that you sowed your seeds directly in your garden, is that correct ? What you should have done is start your seed indoors, let them get a good start and then transplant them into your garden at the proper time. I started my seeds indoors about Feb./march and when the time came, when it finally warmed up I put them in the garden. My garden is doing great, except for the corn. If I can help just ask, I'm not the sharpest tool in the box, but I have learned a few things over the years.


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## Grimm

I agree with Camo. I started my seeds Jan/Feb and they are doing great.

Also, the idea of living 100% off your garden only works if you preserve the harvest. This is how the previous generations were able to go from crop to crop harvest to harvest.

I can't wait til my strawberries and raspberries ripen!


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## Davarm

If you are going without any type of pesticide(organic or chemical) you can make it easier getting the squash bugs if you drench the plants down with water, from a hose or bucket. The bugs think its raining and will crawl to the top of the leaves to keep from drowning, its easy picking them off. Check the under and top side of the leaves for egg clutches and if you find any, pinch the spot off the leaf and crush them thoroughly between your fingers(away from the squash plants in case any survive). This is a pain in the butt to do but it is easier than digging into the leaves and searching for each bug in the "jungle" and its much easier to control the adult squash bugs than the nymphs that will hatch and swarm over your vines and suck them dry.

You would have better luck planting the carrots in the fall or winter and harvesting them in the spring, they will survive and thrive in just about any Central Florida weather, its likely too hot/dry for them to thrive in the spring and summer there.

The Okra will come up and grow in the spring but will not usually thrive until it gets hot.

Tomatoes, like camo said, start them inside around the the first of the year, keep them in pots big enough for the roots to develop unhindered, nurture them and transplant them after the last frost.

There are quite a few vegetables you can plant in the fall/winter(in Central Florida) for spring harvest:

Cabbage
Chard
Collards
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Turnips
Radishes
Lettuce
And many more...

Fall/Winter planting will also avoid many of the garden pests that plague summer gardens, require less water and less weeding. 

This will also make you less dependent on the grocery stores during the winter months and spread out any preserving(canning/dehydrating/freezing) work through the year instead of having it all to do in the summer months.


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## talob

Pops I'm pretty much in the same boat here, I'm real lucky I dont "have" to live out of my garden this year a real learning experience here, seed potatos I saved from last year didnt come up second planting is just now comeing up, carrots were a no show, beets a few of the second planting came up thought I'd save the few for seed thad did come up now rabbits are eating tops off, beans second planting came up great now rabbits are eating them to, next garden investment is a good pellet gun since the fence didnt work.


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## mosquitomountainman

This is one of the reasons we always recommend that people do these things before TSHTF. It's not as easy as it seems when you read about it.

Good tips so far.

I've planted marigolds around and in the squash to repel squash bugs. It worked great for awhile but they came back later in the summer. If I tried it again I'd stagger planting the marigolds (each batch a couple of weeks apart). The side effect was that the marigolds became almost as bad as the weeds in their attempt to take over the garden.

The _Rodale Problem Solver_ is a good book to have and use. It's filled with organic recipes for pest control and covers about every garden plant disease and pest known. It's saved my garden many times in the past.

One advantage to where we live is that the cold keeps many garden pests at bay. We have no problems with squash bugs, potato bugs/worms, tomato bugs or even cabbage moths. Of course growing anything in our climate is a bit of a challenge.

Also, one of the first rules of the self-sufficient garden is to plant what you can reliably grow. We concentrate on root crops for our staples simply because they are reliable (and we like them).

Get some fruit trees, berry plants (we like raspberries), and other perennials started now on you own the land. They'll keep producing many years with little upkeep.

Plant non-hybrid seeds also and save the seed for the next year.

Leave a few carrots in the carrot patch. They'll go to seed the second year and will grow a bunch of "volunteer" carrots the third year. After that just leave some first year carrots in the ground each year and you'll have a perennial carrot patch. Incidentally, if you aren't' saving seed yet, now is a good time to get started.

There are a lot more ideas in my book, _Creating the Low-Budget Homestead._ It's available on Amazon books at a decent price most of the time.


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## Grimm

mosquitomountainman said:


> This is one of the reasons we always recommend that people do these things before TSHTF. It's not as easy as it seems when you read about it.


This is why we love your's and your wife's posts! They are so packed with info we can use now!


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## Onebigelf

I'm with you pops. I'm pretty sure I was NOT born to be a farmer. What I *AM* doing is edible horticulture around our new house. Plums, Mulberries, Lemons, Asian Pears, Blackberries and Chesnuts so far. I'm looking at sweet potatoes and just let them go wild as a groundcover in a raised bed. Rosemary and Garlic as permanent plantings. There is a strawberry that is everbearing and apparently will spread runners and keep coming back. I'm thinking about planting that in a raised bed as well. 

My tomatoes all dropped dead in a weekend (3-4 days). I'm thinking about trying some beans. I understand they are more brown-thumb proof.

When the canned goods run out, I'm doomed. 

John


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## Bobbb

This is why gardening and canning go hand in hand. The way to be secure with a garden-supplied food source is to get this system up and running before you need it. 

To get that system running on all cylinders means that you need to increase the quantity of food you have in stores. Can the products of your garden and slowly build up the quantity of food so that it can carry you through a bad harvest.

When starting out I'd suggest that if you're new to gardening, that the first step is not to overproduce but to simply learn how issues play out on your land and develop your gardening skills. With that accomplished set out on the next task of planting more than you need and if you're lucky harvesting more than you need and put up that food and put it away in storage. Then next season get a little more ambitious and stockpile some more.

I'd modify the OPs point to the following - If I had to live off my garden THIS YEAR - I would die. Counting on a bountiful harvest, really counting on one, is a roll of the dice. You're gambling with your life. However, the laws of chance make it unlikely that you'll be rolling snake eyes every time you throw the dice, so spread your risk of a bad harvest over many years and you should have enough food to continue living even as your garden disappoints you.


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## Grimm

Onebigelf said:


> I'm with you pops. I'm pretty sure I was NOT born to be a farmer. What I *AM* doing is edible horticulture around our new house. Plums, Mulberries, Lemons, Asian Pears, Blackberries and Chesnuts so far. I'm looking at sweet potatoes and just let them go wild as a groundcover in a raised bed. Rosemary and Garlic as permanent plantings. There is a strawberry that is everbearing and apparently will spread runners and keep coming back. I'm thinking about planting that in a raised bed as well.
> 
> My tomatoes all dropped dead in a weekend (3-4 days). I'm thinking about trying some beans. I understand they are more brown-thumb proof.
> 
> When the canned goods run out, I'm doomed.
> 
> John


You are aware that "everbearing" does not mean strawberries year round but 2 good strong harvests- one in the spring or summer and the other is in the fall.


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## JayJay

My squash has bugs as I am trying not to use pesticides as I would not have any in the SHTF land

pops, have you tried diatomaceous earth> I use it for some of my plants bugs love--like the knock out rose bush, and the sweet potato plants and esp. the tomato plants.
Hard to do when it rained 7 out of 10 days here. I covered my raised bed with plastic this morning but should have done that Wednesday.


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## JayJay

talob said:


> Pops I'm pretty much in the same boat here, I'm real lucky I dont "have" to live out of my garden this year a real learning experience here, seed potatos I saved from last year didnt come up second planting is just now comeing up, carrots were a no show, beets a few of the second planting came up thought I'd save the few for seed thad did come up now rabbits are eating tops off, beans second planting came up great now rabbits are eating them to, next garden investment is a good pellet gun since the fence didnt work.


I have a real nice one for sale I can't cock. Ruger .22...and pellets!!!

Now, I am not a city girl, but can grow some things. Our soil here is depleted of nutrients, so I put 8 tomato plants in a raised bed I made. Well, I decided to fertilize with 10-10-10.. Oh, lordie, I scorched the plants, so I raised the bed, moved it over, and planted 8 more 3 weeks ago.
I am just now getting tomatoes from my *first* tomato plants in the flower bed, just now getting blooms on the raised bed, have 2 plants in buckets, and 4 more around the house-total 20!!!
So, I should have tomatoes in stages for a few weeks.


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## mosquitomountainman

Bobbb said:


> This is why gardening and canning go hand in hand. The way to be secure with a garden-supplied food source is to get this system up and running before you need it. ...


We're weaning ourselves off of canning wherever possible. Canning requires more energy expenditure, a renewable supply of new lids (you can stock up on lids but as they age they don't work as well and you can sometimes re-use old lids). Canning requires a large number of jars and a lot of shelf space.

We use the root cellar as much as possible because it's easiest and most energy efficient (meaning you don't have to do a lot of preparation) and we've gone more to dehydrating our food instead of canning it. There are some things that canning works best for and we still can those foods but overall, drying your food might be a better option. Dried foods are lighter, take up less space, and do not need to be stored in a non-freezing environment. We often store our dehydrated food in canning jars and re-use old lids.

We have three electric dehydrators but most of our food drying is done outdoors on hot days.

We absolutely agree that the time to start is now. If you can't survive the first year there will be no second year.


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## Bobbb

mosquitomountainman said:


> We use the root cellar as much as possible because it's easiest and most energy efficient


It's funny that you mention a root cellar tonight.


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## jeff47041

It would be really boring eating, but if you would plant greenbeans every ten days and can the heck out of your harvest, you could eat them everyday.
Kale just grows like leaf lettuce and is very nutritious for all summer.
Acorn squash is a super food and can just be stored in a cool place all winter and most of the spring.
It would suck to eat the same thing all of the time, but you would survive off of what you grow.

Neem oil is an awesome organic pesticide, as well as D.E. as other have said. With Neem oil, if you leave a couple of plants untreated, bugs choose those over the treated ones. 

Many others said get started and practice. You will find what grows good for you.

I plant lots of different things for a variety. We haven't bought a vegy from the grocery store for a couple of years now. But when it comes to SHTF, I know what we will be growing most of to make sure we survive.


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## mosquitomountainman

jeff47041 said:


> It would be really boring eating, but if you would plant greenbeans every ten days and can the heck out of your harvest, you could eat them everyday.
> Kale just grows like leaf lettuce and is very nutritious for all summer.
> Acorn squash is a super food and can just be stored in a cool place all winter and most of the spring.
> It would suck to eat the same thing all of the time, but you would survive off of what you grow. ...


Don't forget calories and oils/fats. It's difficult to get enough on a pure vegan diet while living in cold climates and/or doing hard physical labor but some things give little except taste in return. You can starve with a belly-full of some foods. Even though I love green beans they are little more than a filler at meal time. Surviving on salads gets a little difficult for the same reasons. Oils/fat can come from nuts, etc. but you need top plan for this in advance. (I don't think that's what you had in mind when posting this so it's not a personal attack.)

Don't forget that you can also plant dry beans like Pinto Beans, Red Beans. Limas, etc. Just let them grow in the garden or field then harvest the beans when the plants/beans are dried out. We've even done it here in our short growing season. The same with grains such as wheat, oats, barley, peas and corn. We grew popcorn every year in Kansas. It'd be a nice treat, post SHTF.

Once the grains are dry/harvested just store them in a cool, dark, dry place. They'll keep for years if stored well. (We use canning jars with re-used lids.) You can also cook beans and rice then dry and store them. They reconstitute very quickly when you cook them (that's what "instant" rice is). Get an oat roller to make your own oatmeal. You can use a rolling pin on a hard, flat surface but a real oat roller works a lot better with less effort. "Quick" oats are just rolled thinner to cook faster than the "regular" oatmeal.


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## Meerkat

If tshtf today we may have a couple weeks to survive.

We have used all the can meat, beans and potatoes except for the sweet potatoes and a dozen or more carrots.

We have got cabin fever in florida. No play just work and feed the piggy's and pits.

But we did do much better with the containers this year than putting crops in the dirt. We built another greenhouse and still use the leanto. So this fall we should have plants started.

We planted okra,watermellons,squash peppers and bought lemon and orange trees.We have lemons and oranges all over the two trees and figs all over the fig trees. A banana tree that has already produced 4 babies.Planted them in containers too. And two apple trees that always get frost bite when they bloom.

Its too much to keep up with especially when you never have time to refresh and get away.

We may go back to hydroponics if we can find something other than very expensive chemicals. Or aquaponics :scratch not sure. The hydroponics grew 3 times faster than the soil based plants,same seeds started same time. I had it up here but got paranoid and took it off both sites I go to. 


We also have 2 plum trees that have not done anything since we cut them back. They still look good just no fruit.

Its been a bad year for crops here all have drown or took attacked by weeds and pest.


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## pops

So this was a test to see how little work ruined a garden. Wanted to see what lived or not.

I will do some more canning this summer as work slows down.

I have a tiller sort of..one of those that goes on the end of my weedeater. Not that I will have gasoline in a STHF.

Want to get the corn working so I can make alcohol <to run engines ;-) > not drink then.

I did very little with the SAND in my yard again to see how much of what is the bare minimum.

THANKS for ALL of the replies!!!


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## *Andi

well alright then .............

.....................................


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## pops

More corn came up this week. I wonder if some of the seeds were old.

I think I can make a go of this experiment.

Definitely wanted to try prior to needing to. Just like all the rest of my supplies and tools etc.

So now the concern would be, how to protect my garden from 2 legged predators. 

:flower:


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## drfacefixer

My garden was looking great, but all the sudden it looks like my squashes were hit with what looks like fusarium wilt. Now it's spreading to my cantaloupes. Any advice on treating this would be great. Its an above ground garden with great drainage - although there has been killer amounts of rain over the past few weeks.


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## pops

drfacefixer said:


> My garden was looking great, but all the sudden it looks like my squashes were hit with what looks like fusarium wilt. Now it's spreading to my cantaloupes. Any advice on treating this would be great. Its an above ground garden with great drainage - although there has been killer amounts of rain over the past few weeks.


Mine now has the same thing. I have only one squash plant left now.


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## SouthCentralUS

Same thing here. Started out with beautiful vines covered with blooms. I got exactly 4 squash from the whole bed. Pulled them up and threw them over the fence.


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## Davarm

If the problem is "fusarium wilt" or another type of fungus, applying copper sulfate(considered an "Organic" solution) and trying to keep the plants as dry as possible may help control it. 

Fusarium Wilt can spread to other plants(melons, tomatoes, pumpkin...) so try to get a handle on it as soon as possible.


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## pops

Glad to be learning all of this now and not when my life really depends on it. 

I will start another planting in about 2 weeks & if all goes well I'll be giving my canning equipment a workout.

If all fail I will be giving my canning equipment a workout for the produce that I buy at the Farmers market. 

Either way I win.


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## pops

My corn. Sad.


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## cowboyhermit

Davarm said:


> If the problem is "fusarium wilt" or another type of fungus, applying copper sulfate(considered an "Organic" solution) and trying to keep the plants as dry as possible may help control it.
> 
> Fusarium Wilt can spread to other plants(melons, tomatoes, pumpkin...) so try to get a handle on it as soon as possible.


Copper can be very useful against fungus and disease, oddly enough in plants and animals.
There has been a bunch of research that shows that adding copper to the soil can prevent these diseases to a certain degree as well, and possibly boost yields. It depends on your particular soil and is never 100% of course.


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## Grimm

pops said:


> My corn. Sad.


Stir fry anyone?


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## crabapple

pops there are some great post here.
You should build your soil as well as your knowledge of the gardening.
Perennial vegetables are great: 
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/growyourownfoods/a/Perennial_Foods.htm
These will keep you in food for years.
Some pear trees live to be 100 years old, mine is over 60 year old.
Blueberries last over 25 years, raspberries,blackberries are easily root & you will have many young plants, before the old ones die.
If you get to many after TSHYF, you can sale them or trade them.
Perennial food plants are a win win.


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## lilmissy0740

To me, every year is a new adventure in gardening, one year I will have tons of one thing and the next not much of it. But I will can and dry as much as I have that year cause next year I might not get a good crop. Like this year, so much rain and cool nights I won't have 1 pint of tomatoes to can, but last year I put away 80 quarts.
Don't give up.


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## *Andi

lilmissy0740 said:


> To me, every year is a new adventure in gardening, one year I will have tons of one thing and the next not much of it. But I will can and dry as much as I have that year cause next year I might not get a good crop. Like this year, so much rain and cool nights I won't have 1 pint of tomatoes to can, but last year I put away 80 quarts.
> Don't give up.


And their we have it... 

My (spring & summer) garden sucked this year because of the rain also. (But) It was a great year for corn and squash. My tomatoes ... :gaah: ... yea, well ... again much like yours.

With any garden some years will be better than others. Some years will good for this crop and not for that. We put by what we can and hope for a better year come the next season.

The fall garden looking rather nice, if for nothing but dinner. (then we have the greenhouse... :2thumb

lilmissy0740 ... Post of the day!


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## AdmiralD7S

pops said:


> My corn. Sad.


It's not the size that matters...it's how you shuck!


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## boomer

We are lucky to have lots of space here, so we plant enough for everyone: us, birds, bugs etc. And production is highly variable. I like lots of root crops and getting the carrots to germinate can be difficult. With root crops I spend the following spring/summer dehydrating the left overs. This year the peas were plentiful but very tough, so we will be using them for sprouting over the winter. Some of the squash is doing well, others very poorly. The beans have been planted three times and are still not likely to produce anything as only about three plants came up. I froze the raspberries, I will be making jam until Christmas, and there were almost no strawberries.

I put the tomatoes and peppers out late and then neither watered nor weeded. There are a fair number of them out there in the weed patch. If we had to, we would likely be alive but not very well fed by the time the next harvest rolled around. We have access to fishing and hunting so would have to supplement.

We continue to find storage, weather, rodent, and insect proof to be the biggest barrier to producing our own food. Root cellaring/cold room space are our greatest asset. It buys some time between harvest and processing, and we also are leaning more and more towards dehydrating; I particularly like cooking with dehydrated onion, tomato and gr pepper.


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## Meerkat

Tell me about it!!!!! Makes me sick to work so hard and get so little. We did get lots of tomatoes this past year. But only canned 7qts.The rest we ate and cooked with.


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## CoffeeTastic

All I get this year are some peppers, everything else died off or didn't produce anything. This is harder than I thought. I even managed to have my lettuces die off (of the iceberg variety).

Oh well, it is my first year doing it.


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## pops

And this is why I wanted to try my hand at this now instead of later.

I will revise my tactics in a month or so when I re plant.


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## pops

Revised my methods. See here. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.480110882120742&type=1
But I am still not totally happy. Going back for round two at the end of August.


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## Urmomma

I don't have a garden this year because we are moving. But I did surprisingly well even my first year. Compost, compost, compost.


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## Dakine

I have 3 buckets of carrots going and a cardboard box I did potatoes in. I started the carrots late, but they seem to be doing fine. I started the seeds in a little sprouter thing and then transplanted when they were a few inches tall. They're really going nuts now.

The taters were the standard "in a bucket" hilling thing, but I used an old cardboard box instead. They're doing very well and the only problem I had was that 2 of the 4 potatoe parts I planted shot up so fast that they deprived the other one of light. One of them sprouted through the hilling process 2 times and then never came out of the 3rd hilling so I guess it just gave up and died.

The potato plants are starting to wither and my understanding is that once they die off that's when I pull up the potatoes for harvest so I'm guessing in a couple weeks I'll see what came out of that very minimal amount of effort. I may end up doing an entire section of the yard.

I bought a little greenhouse on sale at Big Lots, they had a heck of a sale going on, this fall I'll start a bunch of seeds and have a respectable garden started through the winter and early planting, maybe try to follow it up with a late planting of other stuff and try to get 2 harvests in next year?


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## crabapple

pops said:


> Starting from seed to seeing the first "fruit" is almost a 3 moth deal.
> 
> My squash has bugs as I am trying not to use pesticides as I would not have any in the SHTF land. The tomatoes are doing well but it will be a few weeks before I can harvest them.
> 
> Carrots never came up. The okra did and is doing well.
> 
> All of the seeds were planted in early May and nothing to eat from any of them yet.
> 
> Just my attempt at doing this with neglect to see what makes it and what croaks.


 :ignore: If you are in a heavy snow winter, with months of white & cold Ignore me.
But if plant will live though the winter, then plant Cole plants:Broccoli,Brussels Sprouts,Cabbage,Cauliflower,collards,Kale,mustard,onions, to keep you feed till you can plant beets,turnips,radishes,lettuce,carrots,white potatoes, then tomatoes,peppers,okra & so on.


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## tsrwivey

pops said:


> Revised my methods. See here. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.480110882120742&type=1
> But I am still not totally happy. Going back for round two at the end of August.


It says "content unavailable"


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## weedygarden

pops said:


> Starting from seed to seeing the first "fruit" is almost a 3 moth deal.
> 
> My squash has bugs as I am trying not to use pesticides as I would not have any in the SHTF land. The tomatoes are doing well but it will be a few weeks before I can harvest them.
> 
> Carrots never came up. The okra did and is doing well.
> 
> All of the seeds were planted in early May and nothing to eat from any of them yet.
> 
> Just my attempt at doing this with neglect to see what makes it and what croaks.


I think it is great that you planted a garden. You will have learned much about what you did that worked, and what did not.

I think every county has an Extension Office that can help you. I think they can evaluate your soil and tell you what it needs.

Soils in different places require different kinds of amendments. Where I live, we have heavy clay. It chokes plants. I rake the leaves in my yard and add them to my garden beds and till them in. My garden beds have better soil every year. The problem is, I don't have enough leaves, but I do have my neighbors pile their leaves in my garden beds, instead of filling the dumpsters. The leaves that get tilled in, in the fall, are disintegrated into the soil by the time spring comes, adding nutrients and lightness to the soil.

Someone mentioned compost. If you take all of your kitchen waste, except oils and meats, and work a compost pile, when you add it to your garden before your plant, the improvement will be noticeable. I think compost is good, no matter where you live and garden.

I also suggest that you find other gardeners in your area to talk about gardening with. Get ideas and suggestion about what to grow and what not to grow in your area.

This year, for the first time, I have a plot in a community garden. Every time I am there, I get to visit with other gardeners. I ask about their gardens, and ask their opinions. There are some plots that are completely over run with weeds, and some that never have any weeds. There are more than 30 garden plots in the garden, and it is amazing just to walk around and check out what others have growing.

We have gardening centers or stores. A friend of mine is 60, has never gardened at all, before this year, nor does she come from a gardening family.  She asked me to go to a gardening center with her. As soon as we walked in, one woman came to help her, and stayed with her and talked to her about varieties, what to seed, what to buy in seedlings, etc. I was so grateful for this woman because for this previously non-gardener, the questions were almost unbelievable.

I planted my first garden when I was 7. I then went to stay at my other grandparents and the weeds took over while I was gone. That was when I got my nickname, weedygarden.

I want to make a suggestion. Look at your garden everyday. Water it if it needs it. Weed it if it needs it. Hoe between the plants to keep the soil loosened and ready to accept water. Gardens need regular attention.


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## readytogo

*PRESERVED your crops.*

This is a good post and ideal reading for new members, the idea is to PRESERVED your crops, just like anything else, drying, canning your meats or stews and continue on for the next year, eventually you will have your full pantry for when the situation comes along that is needed, the main key here is to never give up and keep learning from your mistakes.


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## Beaniemaster2

This hint is not for long term storage but I go to the store and get those Styrofoam holders for big roasts and I cut the tops off peppers, clean them out and put them in the tray, vacuum pack them and freeze them... I have peppers for stuffing all winter long...


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## TheLazyL

Grimm said:


> I agree with Camo. I started my seeds Jan/Feb and they are doing great....


SHTF Would you have heated quarters that would allow you start your seedlings in Jan/Feb ?


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## crabapple

TheLazyL said:


> SHTF Would you have heated quarters that would allow you start your seedlings in Jan/Feb ?


IF you had:1) a solar house, 2) a rocket stove/wood stove, 3)A window to let sun light in.
4) you could put stones,gravel around the seed flat, even in it if you would carful not to cover the seeds, to hold heat till mourning sunlight.
No I have not tried this.


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## Dakine

I haven't tried it because our winters are so mild here, annual temp avg is 72, but I have a book on four season gardening and I was looking through that and he was showing how a simple raised bed with a glass lid to hold in the warmth from the dirt itself is plenty good even when there's snow on the ground, you just need the right plants for the cold season


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## musketjim

My garden at BOL has done very well so far this year even with wet cold conditions. Potatoes, cabbage, beans, kale and peas. It's been such a long slow struggle up there. 7 years of tree cutting, stump pulling and tilling what a mess it was at times.:brickwall: Nobody else saw it as I did and now it's my pride and joy.:beercheer: Keep at it, never stop. Learn now when you can afford to screw it up and improve next year, that's what I do.


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## Seneschal

Maybe I just have a black thumb, but my garden is doing terribly this year. The tomatoes did fantastically at first, but then we started getting our seasonal daily rains much heavier than usual this year--it has been VERY wet--and from then on, we haven't watered the garden in more than two months, but it's just soup--even with drainage. The tomatoes are splitting and rotting on the vines before even turning red. 

Eggplants are doing ok, but the peppers appear to be sickly--not sure what's going on with them, but I suspect too much water, since normally peppers like hot weather. Just not doing well this year, I guess, but it makes me glad we don't live and die by the garden!


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## pops

Well, this year I did much better. Still need to start my seeds well, from seeds. Been using Home Depot plants so far. 

Soil has made all the difference. Bugs are a constant battle as well as the nematodes.

Early next year I think I'll have the hands on experience to make this a go. Always test your preps prior to needing them. 

Had I not done so I would have died if I had to live off of my garden alone.

Big smile!!


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## Jewel

pops said:


> Well, this year I did much better. Still need to start my seeds well, from seeds. Been using Home Depot plants so far.
> 
> Soil has made all the difference. Bugs are a constant battle as well as the nematodes.
> 
> Early next year I think I'll have the hands on experience to make this a go. Always test your preps prior to needing them.
> 
> Had I not done so I would have died if I had to live off of my garden alone.
> 
> Big smile!!


Don't give up, it gets easier as you go! except for the occasional drought etc which will make you think you've never gardened in your life *-* I've been at this for many, many years. I grew up gardening! and have had the worst gardens the last few years.

Saving your own organic and heirloom seeds is easy and very worthwhile!


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## Tucker

pops said:


> Still need to start my seeds well, from seeds. Been using Home Depot plants so far.


Pops, I grew up dirt poor (but happy!) on a small farm. We grew almost all of our produce so I have gardening in my blood. I started seriously gardening again in 2005 so I guess you could say I'm a seasoned gardener. While we did use seeds exclusively when I was a kid, like you I bought all my starts until *this* year. *This* year! Gotta tell you - it was so satisfying to see my babies grow up!

I did have one glitch though. I used the peat pots and put them in a large container which I kept inside to keep it warm. To make sure I knew what was what, I laid out a grid on paper. One day I accidentally put the container in a place where my naughty ferrets could get to it. They "reorganized" the entire container.  OMG. What a mess! I was able to figure out most of them as they grew up but I'm still not sure about a couple herbs. I may end up giving them to my friend for her rabbit since I can't ID the plants.


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