Don't Make These 4 Survival Gardening Mistakes! Keep It Simple and GROW FOOD!

When you need food, don't rely on gadgets and complicated systems. Grow with time-tested traditional methods and dead-simple tools.

#preparedness #survivalgardening #foodsupply

[davidthegood]

Don't get caught in complicated systems and don't overthink. You can grow a good garden and feed yourself. Here are the mistakes to avoid!

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[conniedavidson]

I wanted a garden but could not do all the physical labor to make, plant, and weed inground gardens. So I am a container gardening. I do this alone at 73 yrs and it does help with the groceries. I know it will never feed us completely, but do what I can. One kale plant can feed us all summer. 3 spinach plants I can put some in the freezer, etc.

[grouchyoldprepper]

Tremendous respect for anyone who admits salad greens do not make a person feel "full"....

[j.l.emerson]

My dad was a big ole corn fed North Texas farm boy. His family practiced dry land farming because irrigation wasn't possible for the average farmer back during the Great Depression. He said that the farming method they used was called the Three Ps... Plow, Plant, Pray... They used mules to pull the plow. They grew sugar cane and peanuts as cash crops. They grew potatoes and corn as calorie crops. They raised hogs for meat. The mom and sisters raised the kitchen garden. The dad and the boys raised the farm crops. A pretty fair division of family labor. The sugar cane was pressed by itenerant cane processers on the halves. The farmer raised and harvested the crop, the processers pressed the juice from the canes. The squeezed canes were then chopped up into sweet fodder for the livestock. They had a milk cow and chickens in addition to the hogs, mules and horses. Nothing went to waste. They weren't rich but they never had to line up at a soup kitchen like so many people had to do during the Great Depression.

[CIB]

It's impressive how much you've got out of that terrible looking soil. I guess that's the benefit of understanding fundamentals vs complicated systems.

[homesteadgamer]

All the compost "do's and don'ts" Literally I just throw everything in the same spot and let it do its thing. Meat scraps, food that's gone bad in the back of the fridge, moldy Halloween pumpkins, tea dregs, EVERYTHING!! I've had pumpkin vines and bell peppers and broccoli and avocados and tomatoes and squash and watermelon grow on their own in abundance right from the loose whatever-compost pile!! There are NO rules for compost! It's literally nature doing its thing how its supposed to do it. Just beautiful.

[tozlink]

I resisted raised beds at first, but it's what I'm going with for now, for a few reasons:

1. My soil is incredibly thin and hard. It takes a heavy-duty tractor to do anything with it.
2. My garden space seems to attract children, dogs, meth heads, and heavy machinery, all of which want to trample my in-ground beds. Even a short six-inch barrier prevents that.
3. It seems to be the best use of my compost. I tried a tilled row garden my first year and dumped an entire bin of compost on it. You can't even tell I added anything and the soil is as hard as ever.
4. It's very hard keeping grass from taking over in-ground beds without a border.

Having done back-breaking work to prepare lousy in-ground beds, the raised beds aren't really that bad of an investment. They do force me to plant intensively, but I have found that the right spacing helps shade the soil and locks in moisture. I also keep the beds mulched with nearby grass and leaves, which also helps a lot. Plus, the compost holds in moisture. I find that I don't have to water these beds very much.

This isn't to say David is wrong! You have to experiment and figure out what works for you. I'm trying some Ruth Stout-style hay beds to see if I can build soil that doesn't require frames and outside inputs. I'm also trying some Fukuoka lazy beds where I just cut down the grass and toss seed over it. Our gardens should be laboratories.

[cgc]

I homeschool and most of his schooling is learning about growing foods, learning what to forage, how to cook from scratch on a fire, herbal remedies, and animals 😊 for history were reading a wonderful book I paid like $2-3 for at thriftbooks called, Children of the West.
Great video!!! Thanks to Daisy for the seeds ✅

[geneewert]

Amen amen amen. We totally agree. I’ve composted for 26 years. Always had to laugh at all those that make God’s process difficult. I’ve never worried about any hard/fast rules & formulas but always had great success. Thanks as always for a great video.

[TheModernYeoman]

"Apocalypse French Fries" sounds like a great song title. Incredible and informative video; thanks for putting this out. Super pumped about getting calories in the ground. We harvested darn near 100 pounds of sweet potatoes the other day and it was a large sight more satisfying than harvesting arugula.

[AM-dcyz]

Oh my gosh I nearly spit my drink out "Don't take my potatoes coppers!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[vonries]

I think you are missing one point, although your overall message is much more important (because your right). You finally have a lot of land at your disposal. Therefore wide rows make sense for you, to save water. However someone limited by space has a much different set of problems. My point is you must know your limiting factor first.

Besides someone limited by space can plant super closely to save water. Relying on shade to conserve the water by having no open soil showing. More food in a smaller space. With everything shaded by the fruit trees.

[jackpinesavage]

Thirty years ago, I purchased two standard Jonathan apple saplings from a catalog. When an early frost doesn't get the blossoms, I get a nice crop of apples from those two trees. For many years, I've grown tomatoes, not for a huge supply, canned in jars. I grow them simply because they taste better on a B.L.T. sandwich than any tomato from the grocery store. Two years ago, I grew potatoes. I wanted to know how to grow them. I harvested ten pounds of potatoes that Fall. The growing season is short here in Northern Michigan.

[cholcombe]

2 years ago I planted chestnut trees as my calorie crop. I read in "Trees of Power" that they're quite reliable. While I'm waiting on those I plant potatoes and well.. maybe I'll keep planting potatoes after the chestnuts are cranking just because I also could eat french fries through the apocolypse haha.

[homesteadgamer]

"Old fashioned" lasted so long (even now days with commercial gardening) because it was effective.

[malcolmt]

I love a good back to basics video. One additional thing, is that back in the day, our grandparents didn't have as much trouble with pests, since they shot and ate every groundhog, deer, and rabbit that they could. But these days we're completely over run by hungry critters, so in my opinion, a new gardener's number one priority should be a fence.

[jude]

From Australia Thank you David for your down to earth practical info .You guys are truly a gift to the world in these perilous times. It's like you were born for this!
You and your gorgeous wife with your musical and comical talent entwined into potential life saving information
Just brilliance
Warm regards
Judy

[fishinghole]

This was really good information. There's a faint smell of change in the air, and I think we need to pay attention to what you're saying.

[gillsmoke]

"How many parts can break on this" David
Me, flashes back to the chopped fingers incident reenactment by Rachel

[anthonywilson]

Thanks for the heads up and kudos for managing to purchase some land for yourself and the family.
I have a small paved area, where I cannot access the ground. I decided to use what I had, which was pretty limited. It doesn't matter because I turned a bunch of polystyrene brocoli box's into wicking containers supported by a potable tubed car shelter, without the cover, over the top. I now have a good selection of greens, herbs and vine veggies, which I grow vertically with the help of bailing twine. The 25 m square space has been utilised and supplied me with half our fresh veggie needs. It would be great to have my own place with a bit of ground and fortunately I have a plan in place to be able to this in a few years but until then I have used 2 or 3 moderately complicated growing systems which I have fashioned to work well for me. A bit of sweat and creative flair and the world is your oyster, I mean garden. Good luck