survival-garden

Potato Container Garden Harvest

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This particular potato bucket container garden was an experiment.

Knowing that it is recommended to use special ‘seed’ potatoes rather than grocery-store variety potatoes, I decided to go ahead anyway, and used a few older sprouting Idaho potatoes that were purchased at the grocery store. Apparently many grocery store potatoes are treated such that growth or sprouting is inhibited, so to last longer on the store shelves.

I also wanted to see if growing potatoes in a container could be successful with a mostly hands-off approach, except for watering.

Well, normally, potatoes will evidently grow anywhere from 2.5 to as long as 5 months, after two and a half months, the results are in…

Watch the short video to see what happened

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Onions – Easy To Grow and Store

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Over the past few years as we have been experimenting with our gardens, we discovered that one of our favorite vegetables, the onion, was easy to grow and store. It’s pungent flavor is used widely throughout the world. One of the oldest vegetables , it’s found in a large number of dishes throughout most of the world’s cultures.

The onion is easily propagated, harvested and stored. Like their cousin, the garlic, onions are members of the Allium family. Both are rich in powerful sulfur-containing compounds that are responsible for their pungent odors and for many of their health benefits.

Types of Onions

Onions are a great vegetable for anyone that is just starting a garden. They are simple to grow and they have many uses in the kitchen. You can grow them for use as green onions or let them mature and enjoy them as delicious bulb onions. They come in different varieties such as white onions, yellow, red, green and sweet to name a few. Even the sweet onions have their own claim to fame. The Vidalia from Georgia, the Walla Walla from Washington and the Maui from Hawaii are a few of the more popular sweet onions.

The kind of onion you plant will be up to your personal taste as well as the amount of space you have for planting. Do you want them for harvesting as food and storing them? Then you might want to grow the strong flavored yellow onion which keeps well. Do you want them for seed-bearing? Then  be aware that seed-bearing onions are day-length sensitive and require a certain number of daylight hours before they will begin to grow a bulb (long, intermediate, and short-day varieties). There are so many choices and considerations that it can be another post all to itself.

Our Onion Harvest

This is how we fared. The first year that we grew onions, we grew yellow onions. Although most onions seem to prefer full sun, ours did very well in a corner of the yard that gets moderate sun. Since we had never grown them before, we planted extra seeds figuring that we would lose some of them. Well, all of the seeds took and we ended up with one hundred onion plants! This actually worked out to be very beneficial for us.

You can plant the seeds directly outside, about ¼ – ½ inch deep and about 4 inches apart. As they start to grow, you can thin some and use them as green onions, or let them all mature to bulbs. We did the later. Other than making sure they were watered and occasionally weeding, they were pretty much maintenance free. Another nice feature is that they don’t take up a lot of space. We were able to grow these 100 hundred onions in an area approximately 8 feet by 4 feet.

Once they are ready for harvest, the green tops of the plant start to turn yellow and fall over. Simply pull them up and out of the ground, careful not to damage the bulb. We also recommend letting them dry out for about 2 weeks. Just place them in a dry place with the tops still attached and allow for air circulation. After they have dried for a while, remove the tops leaving about an inch and clean off any remaining dirt.

Storing Onions

As with most fruits and vegetables, onions can be stored in several different ways. One way is to hang them in a nylon stocking, keeping them separated in a cool and dry place. Place one onion in the stocking, then tie a knot, place another onion, tie a knot etc. until the stocking is full. In general, store them in a dry and cool place, the cooler the better.

I haven’t tried this but another simple technique is to wrap them separately in foil and store the fridge. Supposedly, they will last for up to a year. I will be trying this with a few of our onions this year to measure the effectiveness, but I wonder if there will be onion odor throughout the fridge affecting other foods.

You can always pickle them and store them in your mason jars. This year we will also try dehydrating some.

The method we first used was freezing. We peeled all of the onions, cut the ends off and them sliced them into about ¼ slices. We used Ziploc bags to store. I put one or two onions per bag depending on the size. Since they were laying flat in a Ziploc bag, they really did not take up that much room in the freezer. One thing I did find, was that when they were thawed, they were not very crisp, but, for lack of a better word, they were ‘soggy’. But this did not pose a problem for us at all since almost every time we use onions, they are sauteed, or put into a soup etc.

The only time I could really have seen that being a problem is if you are in the habit of putting onion slices on a hamburger or that type of situation.

As things turned out, with this harvest, we had enough onions that they lasted us almost a year to the very week we first stored them!

So, if you are looking for something simple to start with and perhaps you may not have a lot of space, try onions.



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List Of Marigolds That Are French Marigolds

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The French Marigold flower is one of the more amazing ‘beneficial’ garden companions that will help a number of your garden plants to thrive with it’s potent pesticide-producing root system while also offering a rather strong aroma to confuse other pests.


I believe there may be some confusion out there (I know I was initially confused) about which Marigold to purchase or to grow from seed, in order to be the ‘right’ one to classify as a ‘French Marigold’ so as to be the most effective in the garden for it’s beneficial companion properties to certain plants. During my initial confusion, I went out searching for this miracle Marigold, and all I could find were Marigold’s with other names (I was literally looking for ‘French Marigold’ to be included on the tag along with the name). I hunted everywhere in my area but didn’t find a one. Having returned home, I hopped online and began my search for an answer. Well, to my surprise, I discovered that there are allot of varieties that are French Marigold’s!

There are two basic types of Marigold’s, American and French, that make up most of the huge variety that is available out there. The French Marigold varieties are bushier, generally do not grow as tall and do not have really full flowered heads like the American varieties, but they do offer the most potent affect on repelling and eliminating underground nematodes while also confusing and repelling white flies and other insects with their strong odor.

Plant Marigolds everywhere in your garden. They will flower throughout the Summer and Fall, and maybe later if it doesn’t get too cold. They are particularly helpful to tomatoes, squash, broccoli, potatoes, and peppers. Apparently you should not plant Marigold’s along with beans. Unfortunately the Marigold is an annual, requiring re-seeding each year, although the affect of their root system is said to last for a few years afterward.

List of French Marigold varieties

• Aurora Series
• Bonanza Series
• Bonita
• Boy O Boy Series
• Brocade Mixed
• Colossus
• Disco Series
• Durango Series
• Dwarf Bonanza Blend
• French Brocade
• Golden Gate Series
• Golden Guardian
• Ground Control
• Gypsy Sunshine
• Harlequin
• Harmony
• Hero Series
• Honeycomb
• Jacket Orange, Yellow
• Janie Series
• Jolly Jester
• La Bamba
• Lemon Drop
• Little Hero Series
• Mars
• Moonlight
• Mr. Majestic
• Naughty Marietta
• Nema-gone
• Pesche’s Gold
• Petite Series
• Queen Sophia
• Red Marietta
• Safari Series
• Scarlet Sophie
• Solan
• Spanish Brocade
• Sparky Mix
• Striped Marvel
• Spice Series
• Troubador
• Yellow Boy

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Strawberry Survival Food?

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Whether for fun or for survival, don’t just plant the staple foods in your survival garden,

include some sweets!

A simple and deliciously sweet food to grow are strawberries. If grown properly, they can provide fresh strawberries from Spring into the Fall with a seemingly endless harvest throughout. What better treat from a garden than a bowl of fresh picked strawberries!

When choosing your strawberry plants, we suggest that you choose the ‘Everbearing’ variety which will keep on producing during the year, and will grow well for about 5 years before losing vigor, whereas the June Bearing variety only produce once during the year (you guessed it, around June), although the strawberries will be larger (they too will come back year after year for about 5 years.

Planting and location is pretty simple. They like full sun and well drained, sandy soil. I didn’t pay particular attention to the soil that I used and they have grown vigorously (I used regular generic soil from Home Depot). They like ample water each week (1 or 2 inches).

Having used these planters for several years for tomatoes, last year we re-purposed two of our ‘upside-down tomato garden’ planters to accommodate strawberry plants instead. Pots and containers work great too. We stuffed about 15 or so into each 2 x 2 foot container, which seems about right at the moment (this will be their 2nd year).

Why don’t you try it? Growing your own garden, big or small, is rewarding and liberating. Plus, a handful of fresh strawberries in a bowl of french vanilla ice-cream is to die for… (although ice-cream may be hard to come by after TEOTWAWKI 

Here is a video of our little strawberry patch:

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Survival Garden Potato Companions

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Potatoes are easy to grow and is a beneficial survival food to grow in your own in-ground garden or container garden.

Potatoes are the second most consumed food in the United States at an average consumption of 120 pounds per year (about one a day).

The potato used as a survival food staple is ideal because it is easy to grow,  nutritional, and able to store well for months at a time. It is a nutrition dense food with substantive calories.

Potato Nutritional Value

• Calories (110)
• Protein (3 grams)
• Carbohydrate (23 grams)
• Fat (o grams)
• Fiber (3 grams)
• Sodium (10 mg)
• Potassium (750 mg)

Potato Beneficial Companion Plants

Horseradish is a good beneficial plant for the potato. It deters the Colorado beetle and blister beetle which can eat the roots of the potato plant. Horseradish is a perennial that will grow year after year, and is grown from a root cutting. In addition to the beneficial aspect to the potato plant, if you are harvesting the root, best to replant each year from a new fresh picked root for better flavor. Be careful because it can spread in your garden (plant in a container to keep in check). It will grow about 2 feet tall and across.

French marigolds will repel whiteflies and round worm nematodes which live in the ground and will eat the roots.

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