Suburban Survival Gardens: Inexpensive Insurance for You and Your Family

Most people don’t give a thought to just how necessary the shipping, railroad, and trucking industries are to our modern way of life. However, in the event of a national emergency, any or all of these transportation systems could be interrupted indefinitely; thus causing a cessation in the flow of food and other commodities to our local stores. However, as mentioned in our previous article, the human body absolutely requires sufficient intake of approximately a dozen different vitamins and minerals in order to maintain healthy bodily functions. Also, because Humans have evolved as Omnivores, our bodies are specifically designed to extract the vitamins and minerals that we need from the plants that we eat. Therefore, by maintaining a small, urban survival garden in your backyard, not only can you be certain that you and your family will have food to eat in the event of a national emergency, you can also cheaply and easily provide yourself and your family members with a continuous supply of fresh fruits and vegetables that will enable you to maintain your good health without artificial supplements.

Of course, the first concept that you should be aware of when selecting plants for your urban survival garden is that there are Summer plants and there are Winter plants. Thus, by choosing accordingly, you can harvest fresh food from your garden year round. Also, for those of you who live in extreme Northern locations and/or colder climates, constructing a greenhouse is relatively simple and inexpensive undertaking and, even a small greenhouse will provide you with an amazing yield year round.

In addition, it is also important that you grow a wide variety of foods. For instance, because the production of wheat to make flour and then bread is a highly labor intensive process and requires a vast amount of acreage, growing corn is a far better choice for backyard urban survival gardens because corn produces far more kernels per stalk and the kernels are far larger and easier to harvest than those of wheat and they can be ground into flour. Furthermore, almost all of the vitamins and minerals the Human body needs to function properly can be obtained by eating green, leafy, vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, mustard, and collards which are all relatively easy to cultivate and provide a prodigious yield from a small space. Of course, in addition to green, leafy, vegetables, we also need to consume starches which we get from eating roots and tubers such as the many different varieties of potatoes as well as turnips and rutabagas. Plus, carrots provide us with an ample supply of Biotin (aka vitamin H) and thus they are an essential root crop as well. Last, we also need to have a readily available source of carbohydrates and thus, melons are excellent addition to a backyard urban survival garden. Therefore, such species as honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon are all excellent choices since they are all relatively easy to grow and do not require a large amount of space.

However, if even a small garden is fertilized either organically or artificially and tended regularly, it is capable of producing a prodigious amount of food; often more than you can eat at any given time. Thus, having a way to store the excess food that you produce is also an excellent idea. Therefore, one way to store both vegetables and fruits for long periods is to harvest them and then place them in the sun to dry. Then, once they are dry, they can be rehydrated by including then in soups and stews. However, another way to store fruits and vegetables for long periods without drying them is to can them. In fact, home canning is a relatively simple process involving nothing more than a pressure cooker, some canning jars with lids, and a little preservative. Thus, by canning your fruits and vegetables, they can be stored for long periods while remaining hydrated. Last, both roots and tubers can be stored for long periods in what was once known as a “root cellar” which is essentially nothing more than a deep hole dug into the ground and covered by a lid or door to block out the Sun. However, this type of storage facility was most often dug into the side of a stable bank in the form of anything ranging from a small tunnel to a small cave and thus, large harvests could be stored for the Winter although a simple plastic bucket buried in the back yard will serve the same purpose.

So, if you haven’t yet given serious thought to the construction of a backyard urban survival garden, then you might want to do so because, at the very least it will provide you an inexpensive and easily accessible means of obtaining the fresh fruits and vegetables your body needs to function correctly.

 

Written by,

Bill Bernhardt

Outdoor Professional