Container Garden On Your Porch
May 18, 2012, Submitted by: Ken
Just because you may live in an apartment or rent or live in a home with little or no garden availability (or permission to dig up part of the yard), don’t let that stop you from trying your hand at growing some vegetables this summer!
There are lots and lots of things that you can grow in ordinary containers or pots that can simply sit out on your deck or somewhere sunny in whatever you have for outdoor space. Most places seem to have some semblance of a deck or balcony, which should be perfectly adequate for holding a few pots of choice vegetables.
My container garden currently consists of a few tomato varieties (Big Boy, SuperSweet), a dozen peppers (Sweet Pepper, Jalapeno), and several herbs (Oregano, Herb Chives, Garlic Chives, Sweet Basil, Rosemary) in container pots, all of which are setting on the back porch. I plan to add more, but this is my first start with it this late spring.
Container gardening is unique in that it makes for easy and controllable gardening. For example you can use purpose mixed soil or buy nutrient rich garden soil, weeds are easily controlled, the pots themselves act as a barrier for some pests or insects that may otherwise be in your yard soil, and having the pots on a porch or balcony will deter some of the 4-legged creatures who would otherwise munch on your bounty.
The procedure is simple. Buy the plants. Buy the pots. Buy the dirt. Of course you could’ve started your own from seed, and you could come up with your own dirt (be aware if it’s ‘good’ dirt or not). But for the sake of easy container gardening, it’s simple and cheap enough to buy what you need. Your vegetable bounty will more than make up for the costs involved.
I like to cut a piece of porous ‘landscape’ ground cover cloth-fabric material to put on the bottom of the container to keep the dirt from clogging the drainage holes. This year I’m trying something different with the tomatoes, and am filling the entire inside of the container with the fabric rather than just the bottom. The thought being to keep the container in good clean shape for next year (even though I could scrub it good next year).
Before planting, be sure to pick the roots with your fingers and pull them apart some, instead of leaving in a tight ball when you take them out of their original pot. It makes a big difference in how their root structure will end up and will promote better growth.
When finished, water very deeply.
Here’s the thing to remember about container gardening… they tend to dry out fairly quickly because everything is exposed to the sunlight. One thing that helps maintain the soil moisture is to add about two inches of wood chips on top. So, be sure to leave some room at the top for this (don’t fill the pot all the way with dirt).
You will need to be diligent about checking the moisture of the soil. If you see any signs of wilting, they are probably running dry.
Enjoy!
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It’s Almost Garden Time Again
February 14, 2012, Submitted by: Ken
It’s mid-February, and many of us are thinking about or are already doing something about this years spring garden. Now is a good time to begin gathering the supplies that you will need to get started indoors. Why not challenge yourself this year and germinate your own seeds indoors? I know that it is entirely easy to just wait and buy the young vegetable plants in the store, but, learning the ins and outs of starting your own seedlings indoors will be a valuable and possibly life-saving skill should the SHTF.
It’s not as easy as you might think. Seeds and young seedlings need particular tender-loving-care, and without it they will surely fail.
The seeds need healthy, disease-free soil to germinate. Here is an article how to pasteurize your own soil, perfect for starting seeds.
The seeds/soil need moisture to germinate. Not too much, not too little. Here is an article suggesting to use covered trays to germinate your seeds.
The seeds/soil need to be kept warm enough to germinate. You can place the seed trays near a warm source of heat keeping them between 70-80 degrees, or you can purchase a heat mat to keep your seeds warm.
Once the seeds germinate and begin to grow into little seedlings, it is very important that they get lots of sunlight. A lack of light will cause their stems to become thin and wiry, which will eventually lead to sudden-death when the seedlings fall over from their own weight and fold their stems near the thin base. Here is an article suggesting to use a grow light for your seedlings.
It is not uncommon to start seeds indoors, 2-months early, while transplanting them once from their seedling trays when they are ready, to a larger set of seedling pots until they are entirely ready to be trained to go outdoors.
Another great idea is to use heirloom seeds rather than hybrid seeds. Here is an article that explains about heirloom seeds. Growing heirloom variety plants may have some disadvantages such as being more prone to their natural diseases, but you should learn how to deal with that because the rewards for heirloom variety plants are the resulting seeds that can be used over and over indefinitely whereas hybrids cannot. In a SHTF scenario, the hybrid seeds will vanish, leaving only the heirloom varieties for ongoing production. Plus, they taste just like your grandparents vegetables!
Growing your own vegetable plants from scratch is a lot of fun, and is very rewarding (at least it is for me). For you city-dwellers, all hope is not lost. Consider growing a small container garden, as exemplified in this article including a video from yours-truly as well as a guest appearance by my little dog, Sampson, at around 7 minutes in as well as him showing off at the very end.
So, what are you waiting for? Lets get going with your indoor planning for your outdoor vegetable garden this year!
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Container Garden Onions, Sand Soil Mix
March 31, 2011, Submitted by: Ken
We somewhat regularly grow a quantity of onions in our garden each year, along with everything else, but this year we’re going to try something a little different as an experiment. That is, growing some of them in a container (bucket). Many homes do not have the space for a full-on garden, so container gardening is often a great alternative, and actually has its benefits!
A container can be moved around or placed anywhere. In other words, you can find the sunny location and put it there.
A container will keep underground critters from getting to the roots of your plants (gophers, etc…).
The soil mixture can be specifically tailored to each container and variety of vegetable that you are growing.
The soil to grow onions (bulbs) needs to be porous and sandy. Thick clay soils, packed with lots of organic matter, are too dense for good growth, but adding some sand to clay soil will greatly assist in onion growth (should be good for carrots and other vegetables too).
Onions are very high in moisture content and that moisture is taken directly from the soil. The goal is to have moist soil but not wet soil. To test the moisture content, take a handful of the soil and clench it in your fist. If water squeezes out between your fingers, the soil is too wet for onions to do well. Having an amount of sand mixed in with the soil will help to avoid soggy wet soil because of the increased drainage properties that the sand provides.
In today’s short video, I am simply mixing a quantity of sand with the soil, to provide a nice loamy and well draining loose soil mixture which is best for growing onions.
It’s as simple as this:
Gardening, of any sort, is one of the underlying basic essentials of survival preparedness skills that lead to further self-sufficiency and self-reliance, less dependency on other systems, and definitely adds a level of peace-of-mind that is hard to explain. We challenge you to give it a try 
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Potato Container Garden Harvest
July 17, 2010, Submitted by: Ken
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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Strawberry Survival Food?
May 18, 2010, Submitted by: Ken
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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