A doomer's garden

hardtootell · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:53 am Post subject: Re: A doomer's garden

Great discussion
I did some calcs and realized there is no way to turn my suburban home into a garden large enough for what we need. By my estimates a family of 4 would need minimum 1-3 acres (44000-132000) to supply enough calories and provide required excess and reseeding material.

I would suggest we all get familiar with how to grow Potatoes, corn, wheat, beans and oats. I think pure breeding heritage cultivars (not hybrids which won't breed true after a couple of generations) and as many of those as you can find are a good idea. We need to understand the ecology of subsistance farming and how animals and composting contribute to healthy soil.

I have an excellent book i have not heard mentioned here called " the New Self Sufficent Gardener" by John Seymour. (I am sure it will be entered into evidence against me at some point Smile

) Nothing beats experience, so I think the actual "Practice" of gardening is very valuable and is a great skill if it needs to be scaled up to actually feed ourselves.
Good luck with your gardens

Ludi · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:55 am Post subject: Re: A doomer's garden

wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2968

GoghGoner · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 10, 2008 Posts: 414

By no means, do I know anything about supplying my own food; however, I planted potatoes in tires this spring and should get 10-30 pounds from on stack of tires. I could easily have a hundred stacks of tires and grow 1,500 pounds of potatoes. I think I could last through the winter on that without starving. After that, I can plant some grain in the dead people's yards. This is a worst case scenario that I don't think will come to pass.

The article raises a question about gardens and then dismisses them without having any facts -- a valid question but maybe the author should have done some research and provided some answers.

Lumpy · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:19 am Post subject: Re: A doomer's garden

Ludi · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:23 am Post subject: Re: A doomer's garden

source for One Circle
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wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2968

wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2968

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1521

We only have 1 acre of steep hillside, half of which is taken up by house, shop, driveway, and small barn/woodshed. I have no idea what % of our food we can grow on the remainder, but I intend to find out. We are terracing all of it we can. Some is already in orchard, and I'm trying to figure out what to grow under the trees besides grass.

Last week, I told my wife I was going to "farm" every square inch of it. Toward that end, I bought a second garden tractor, same as the one we had, but with a mounted 42" tiller on it's 3 point hitch. I plan to use them as a team to plow, till, and grade some terraces. They are old, but heavy duty units (Case 446 and 448 Hydrive, 16 and 18 hp Onan engines) that can do real work. As we powerdown in earnest, one will be cannabalized to keep the other going. By the time they both give up, it will probably be all hand work anyway, and the gas will be unaffordable. But I'm going to use these to get to a point where we hopefully won't need them to continue growing food.

What I'm planning is a series of terraces, to be treated like large raised beds. Half a dozen free range chickens are part of the plan, too. There is not enough area to grow much grain, but I'm surrounded by farmers who are my shop customers. I'll grow all I can, and trade for the rest. With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, we will eat.
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jlw61 · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:48 am Post subject: Re: A doomer's garden

I have no illusions that my property can grow enough food to keep my wife and I fed. Even if we turned the entire back yard and front yard into garden space, it just wouldn't be enough.

However, I garden because:

1 - I'm still a bit overweight and this helps me lose that weight.

2 - Knowing how to garden is invaluable knowledge for the future.

3 - I'm learning how to cultivate seeds for next year (right now my lettuce is bolting, so that's the next seed crop coming in). This is another skill for the future.

4 - It helps us reduce our grocery costs and the fresh produce tastes better. The extra money goes towards preps.

5 - I'll be teaching myself how to can and dry my produce during the harvest, again, another valuable skill.

6 - My wife loves the garden and it has helped me to get her onto the preps bandwagon. She now says that a rain barrel system is a good thing (total 180 degree change on that subject).

7 - It explains the seeds in the refrigerator and has allowed it to grow from a pint to gallon sized container with her full approval and support.

8 - It has allowed her to see "that ugly home made greenhouse" in our back yard become "the cool greenhouse" in less than 12 months. It's now a topic of conversation with her friends with some wanting their husbands to build one.

9 - It's therapeutic and allows me to turn some of my nervous energy into a productive process.

10- My greenhouse and garden has prompted several family, friends and neighbors to either start a garden or plan to garden for next year.

It has also brought people to me asking for advice and help on gardening, allowing me time and topics to plant ideas for preps. This now allows me to point out the one major downside: it's kind of hard to hide a greenhouse and garden, but I'm using that public knowledge to disguise any other preps I've been making.

One final thought: I've got about a year's worth of food and I'm working on more as time passes. If there is a sudden massive food shortage, and we can possibly make it through the bottle neck, I'll have some of the skills and knowledge to give us a chance for a future.
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wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2968

Cashmere · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 27, 2008 Posts: 1971

I keep trying to tell people . . .

1 handful of wheat is worth 1,000 cucumbers.

Think calories first.
Vitamins next.

A 1 acre garden with peppers and peas and beans will feed you for just about what? A few weeks? Not too many calories.

To put in perspective how many calories you need, a person with a 2,000 calorie per day requirement would need about 8,000 ears of corn worth of calories to live a year.

Think about that if you have no long term food supplies and if you are spending a lot of time on a low calorie garden.
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Ludi · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 10:20 am Post subject: Re: A doomer's garden

Sweet potatoes.
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