Survival Gardening 10, self reliance emergency preparedness

Video # 10 in our Survival Gardening series go over soils and soil improvement techniques. Video #11 will follow shortly.

Unless you are keeping a herd of large animals like cows, it's going to be very hard to keep grow food long term using just what's "on" the farm or homestead. For a handful of raised beds, half dozen rabbits and similar number of chickens MAY provide enough fertilizer to keep your soil in good shape. But for a serious amount of ground, i.e, enough to truly keep a family of 4 of so in food, it's going to be next to impossible to produce ALL your fertilizer and soil amendments ON THE FARM or homestead. While I do NOT claim to be an "organic gardener", most of these soil improvement techniques are similar to those used in organic gardening. As a rule, we do NOT use pesticides on our VEGETABLES. We have been forced to use them on our fruit trees before to SAVE TREES. So understand that just because we don't do everything "organic" doesn't mean we slather DDT on the ground everywhere.....

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tags- gardening, soil improvement, manure, fertilizer, hard times, economic collapse, economic crisis, peak oil, end of oil, survivalist, homesteading, homestead, survival, 2012, bird flu, preparedness emergency, Patriots, Alex Jones, 911, Dow, market, food shortages, food storage, anything else that will bring folks in.

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[Eaglecreekbrewer]

Great series. One thing you never touched on as far as soil maintenance is crop rotation. By growing certain crops and rotating them around you can help not deplete one area and better prepare that area for a different plant the next season. It's far from a cure all and the need to add other things to it, but every little bit helps.

[SurvivalReport]

@Eaglecreekbrewer Should be in around 13-15 IIRC. Thanks for watching.

[Eaglecreekbrewer]

Yeah, I spoke to soon, I see you covered it in the next video. I enjoyed it, great information. It's nice to see someone separating reality from the delusion most people have. I found you through your beekeeping vids as it became apparent they would be a great addition to both my orchard, garden and sustainable food supplies. Great channel and I will explore it further as time allows.

[SurvivalReport]

@Eaglecreekbrewer No problem, thanks for watching and glad you have enjoyed and benefited from them.

[jakearick]

if you prepare properly you absolutely can grow 100% organically enough food for five on a 150 by 50 sq ft area. Ive watched a few of your vids and i agree with everything but your views on being able to garden organically and sustainably. You should definitely check out permaculture design by Geoff Lawton. It is a whole knew take on growing food. You already do practice some basic permaculture principles. Anyway like the garden vids

[SurvivalReport]

@jakearick A 150 x 50 area is much larger than most suburbanites have, many house lots are not that large in the suburbs. Keep in mind also that when I talk about growing enough food for your family it means enough to eat fresh AND put back to keep you till next year- NOT JUST some to eat fresh during the season. Thanks for watching.

[PostPetroleumPrepper]

I guess im pretty good then thanks for the compliment. Study aquaponics if you want a small self sufficient ecosystem

[xyzzy29]

Even if you have large animals, you're going to have to feed those large animals. Feeding a cow year round is going to take a good sized hay field and pasture, which will need fertilizer to yield well. And you'll need feed for the cold weather months. Hard to do without outside inputs or an acreage that is already set up to feed animals.

[PQRLOVE]

I live on the richest soil in the world, the IL prairie.  I grow my vegies in 5 gal containers. Much easier. I spread a straw mulch down on the traditional garden space and then set the pots in the same area. Much less weed problem. Much cheaper in that the expensive worm castings don't get lost in the dirt. Rich soil means big weeds. This system solves the problem. I use about 150 containers. Better than raised bed since you won't lose the soil supplements you add. There are two of us

[TheEdward8888]

use rockdust

[ivankinsman]

You can easily get some cow manure from a local farmer or, alternatively if you have the land and the time, get a cow yourself. Alternatively, you can put in nitrogen rich plants (people use a plant called lubin in Poland) and then dig these in. We have very poor soil in our area - grade 6 (grade 1 is the best) and admittedly we do need to manure it every year and add addtional compost when required.

[DrReaper]

Buy some worms and make some great soil.

[gigantopithecus01]

He's right about the compost. If you're very lucky, you'll get 1 cu.ft. of decent compost for every 10 cu. ft. of material you start with. And it takes time, time, time. I have two small heaps for my little garden. It's not enough. I also grow beans for covercrop/green manure, and other little tricks. It's not enough.

[WoodlandRavah]

I live in colorado and the soil here is crap! Pine needles, 50% rock and pebble, 0 organi matterc... This is gona be a challenge... I need calcium, ash, mulch, and humus...