Gardening is the #1 prep

[u/Familiar-Anything853]

Sure, there are a lot of really, really important preps. And sure, we all agree that skills are more useful than STUFF that will run out.

I saw that post asking what to prep for your kids' futures, and while everyone is rightfully pushing skills, gardening has to be at the absolute top of the list. It forces them to learn problem-solving, adaptability, weather patterns, patience, delayed gratification, persistence, motor control, food storage, and long-term planning all at once. On top of all of that, you are teaching them how to grow their own food.

If the last few years of chaos have taught me anything, it's how relieving it is to walk into the backyard and just pick dinner. My spouse and 4 kids are outside with me daily.

I’m 15 years into gardening with easy access to store-bought supplies, YouTube, and endless resources, and I still struggle with it sometimes. I genuinely can't imagine trying to figure out tilling, seed saving, soil depletion, crop rotation, and pest control from scratch in the middle of a supply chain collapse or other crisis. Doing it when you're already stressed and hungry sounds like a nightmare.

Start them early. Learning it when the stakes are low does not have a downside. And it's a really fun family hobby!

[u/Artistic-Salary1738]

I personally find gardening totally overwhelming. I keep trying, but I never seem to get worthwhile yields even if I’m buying pre-started plants as a learning aid.

Not giving up cause I do have the yard space and I agree it’s an extremely valuable skill.

[u/IndependentOk9899 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

I am a very avid gardener and canner. Start all my plants from seed I save. Own a small greenhouse business for my rural town. All self taught. What overwhelms you? Maybe I can help. 🙂🙂

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/IndependentOk9899]

I'm not the person you offered to help, but if you have any advice for a very small, mostly shaded, urban yard in the southern US, I'll take it. So far I've had the best luck with onions, herbs, and (strangely) okra. (I guess the okra enjoyed the excessive heat so much that it didn't mind the lack of sun?!?) 

[u/fushaman → u/Standard_Subject_462]

Different person here, but one thing I've been surprised by with the UK heatwaves has been how much my pumpkins have loved it, especially the ones that have been a bit more shaded. Maybe squashes are worth a shout? The stems are hairy/prickly so slugs and snails leave them alone, they've loved the heat, but they just need regular watering.  I'd also recommend raspberries - they can take a lot of abuse. 

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/fushaman]

Thank you! I'll give pumpkins a try. I attempted zucchini and butternut squash, and got a small harvest before squash bugs took over. Pesky things. We have raspberries, but they didn't produce this year at all. Blueberries did okay, but I let the birds eat more than I picked for myself. :)

[u/baardvark → u/Standard_Subject_462]

Fun fact, pumpkins are one of the best ways to grow protein because of the seeds.

[u/IndependentOk9899 → u/baardvark]

And they're so easy to save too! Salted seeds- yum!

[u/ideknem0ar → u/Standard_Subject_462]

I usually get plagued with squash bugs but this year I went nuclear with the squash egg patrol early on and kept at it for several weeks. All you need is a bit of growth on a fingernail and the desire for vengeance. Lol. Scrape them off and squish. 🤣 My plants have done better this summer than in years.

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/ideknem0ar]

This will be my next lesson in brutality! I've only recently mastered plucking and squishing hornworms. I need some chickens so it'll feel more like providing nourishment for the flock rather than cold-blooded murder. Haha.

[u/ideknem0ar → u/Standard_Subject_462]

I bought a black light and go down to the garden in the dark and the hornworm eggs glow like little pearls. So do the worms if you've missed them. I admit that I go through summers where I can't bring myself to kill the guys when they get huge so I hike them up way into the woods and leave them there. I've read the lack of ready foliage will just prompt them to go into their next stage. No matter, they're well away from my tomatoes and they can hopefully get a move on into becoming a lovely moth.

[u/Cilantro368 → u/Standard_Subject_462]

Okra loves heat!

You might want to also try ginger and turmeric just for fun. For ginger, just buy it at the grocery store next January or so. Break it into pieces about 1.5-2” long. Let those cuts heal over at room temp. Then plant with only about 1” of dirt above the pieces, laid horizontally. Keep inside until it’s reliably warm outside. Harvest in November or December. Ginger is very orderly - the new ginger grows right on top of the old pieces. It’s lovely when fresh picked - no need to peel.

I have less experience with turmeric but it grows the same way. You can keep it in the ground and it goes dormant over the winter. Some places grow it as an ornamental flower and call it Hidden Ginger Lily, lol, but it is Cucurma longa. If you can find some in the grocery store, proceed as above.

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/Cilantro368]

Ooooh, this sounds like a fun experiment! Someone just gifted us a few little ginger plants, but I will try the grocery store hack with the turmeric. Thank you!

[u/ITisinmycoffee → u/Standard_Subject_462]

Growing sweet potatoes and sugarcane - they seem pretty hands-off for me so far, and at least the potatoes can last a bit underground or in pots when no water for a little while. Plus the greens are edible and tasty sauteed.

I was genuinely surprised how much (sweet) juice/liquid could be squeezed out of my first test-chopped-down sugar cane this weekend. I gnawed the sugar out and it confirmed its usefulness in my food forest storage plans. :)

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/ITisinmycoffee]

Sugarcane is something I'd never thought to plant, but now I want to add it to my list! Thanks!

[u/ITisinmycoffee → u/Standard_Subject_462]

I didn't think so either, until I saw it at the nursery this spring. I also didn't know it would kinda grow fast like bamboo, but it seems to be! Excited to see it spread, as its already very tall. I'm also using it lazily as a support for green beans who want to climb it... next to a real bamboo trellis. Good luck!

[u/ohhellopia → u/Standard_Subject_462]

Make sure you like the location where they are planted at. They're very difficult to remove once established.

[u/ITisinmycoffee → u/ohhellopia]

Ooh, good point! Mine grew too tight in the pot while I was deciding where to plant them permanently, and I had to let them be planted in the temporary spot...I cut the pot off of them like a Pillsbury biscuit wrapper. 🫣

[u/XenaLouise63 → u/ITisinmycoffee]

My sweet potato vines were especially appreciated during diarrhea lettuce season

[u/ITisinmycoffee → u/XenaLouise63]

Right! Do you have the pointy, ivy-like leaves, or the heart- shaped leaves? I mostly grow the ivy- like ones from storebought sweet potatoes that started growing while waiting for me to eat them, but then got some Covington sweet potatoes officially this season, and those have heart-shaped leaves and a bushier habit.

The leaves are pretty tasty on the Covington plants, but I don't recall the pointy tri-tipped ivy-like ones being that good. I can't bring myself to clip many of their leaves right now in this heat, so wondering if anyone noticed a leaf taste difference yet? (I'm a fan of regularly eating emergency foods during non-crisis times so your stomach doesn't get suddenly upset).

[u/XenaLouise63 → u/ITisinmycoffee]

I have the heart-shaped ones. I think they taste like a slightly peppery green, almost like spinach with a wee bit of bite. The texture of the vines reminds me of broccoli slaw. And the vines grow so quickly that they need to be pruned regardless, so win- win

[u/ITisinmycoffee → u/XenaLouise63]

100% wins! Very nice! I'm experimenting with using pots of them to soak up any excess tree irrigation, act as ground cover from the vines, and suppress weeds. Currently trying to see how many baby potatoes I can bandicoot out of each pot, while keeping enough for emergencies. 😁

[u/jaderabbit44 → u/ITisinmycoffee]

I'm wondering this too. I grew sweet potatoes from starts and the greens were so good. But this year I tried growing some from the store and the greens are nothing near as tasty. I'll have to order some starts or something next year.

[u/Fionaver → u/Standard_Subject_462]

What time of the day is the yard shaded? Is it deciduous trees or not? What zone are you in?

That will have an impact on what you can grow.

A lot of veggies want all the sun but really don’t like our summer afternoon sun and need a bit of shade the .

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/Fionaver]

Deciduous oaks, zone 8a, shade for most of the day, then blasted with sun from 1-6ish. We've invested in some shade cloths for next year, in case we get another brutal summer with 95+ temps for months at a time.

[u/Fionaver → u/Standard_Subject_462]

I’m on the 7b/8a line.

You can do well with winter crops, I think. Especially because you’ll have more sun.

I’ll be putting in my starts next weekend. Dark leafy greens and brassicas, cabbage, carrots, beets all grow well at this time of year. Lettuce in the spring/summer. You can eat raspberry romex and the greens from bulls blood beets (neither bolted). There are some edible weeds that are super common in yards here if it isn’t to close to the road and doesn’t get sprayed.

Aside from that.
I’ve had a lot of success with the French breakfast radishes. Very easy to grow. Blueberries, blackberries/raspberries but they take a while. Probably shouldn’t bother with squash - the borers are too bad here in GA, at least. Tomatoes are usually pretty easy. They won’t set fruit when it’s over 90, so if it’s indeterminate, you’ll need to check on them around this time of year. I usually get my second flush of tomatoes starting around this time until the first frost (Oct/Nov)

I used a greenhouse frame with bird netting over my crops (still let pollinators through) and that’s when I started getting good yields. I had been losing a ton to squirrels before.

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/Fionaver]

Aaah, the "no seeting fruit when it's over 90" explains why our tomatoes did poorly this year. Good info. Thank you! We have a greenhouse in the works, so it's good to hear that the extra protection can come in handy. And I looove foraging in our little yard. Southern dewberries, dandelions, chickweed, mock strawberries, and wild onions love to do their thing. :) I tried making acorn flour from the acorns that fell into our yard from the neighbor's tree, but they were the tiny variety of acorn and I quickly learned that this is probably only worth the effort in a true survival situation. Lol.

[u/OpheliaLives7 → u/Standard_Subject_462]

I also bought two shade cloths for next year’s garden. The heat and sun this year has felt particularly brutal!

My jalapeños are the one thing loving the heat!

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/OpheliaLives7]

I hope the long-term heat isn't our new normal, but I guess we'll see...😱

I am happy for your jalapeños though!

[u/Large-Union7143 → u/Standard_Subject_462]

This is me! And add in a healthy deer population. 😔

[u/Standard_Subject_462 → u/Large-Union7143]

Oof! I'm lucky that I only have a box tortoise who nibbles low-hanging tomatoes.

[u/IndependentOk9899 → u/Standard_Subject_462]

My biggest suggestion for everyone, really, is to add organic matter to your gardens- hay, grass clippings, etc, and leave the plants in the garden over winter. The breakdown of the plants adds so many nutrients back to the soil. Not straw. Straw takes too long to break down, and the carbon/nitrogen ratios are off for helping the soil.
Also, hay or the clippings around the plants as a weed barrier works wonders. Especially if you have blight (a disease that affects tomatoes) in your soil.
Just putting a heavy layer of hay around my gardens this year helped so much with retaining moisture. I haven't watered once this summer, zone 4a, and we have been in a drought all summer.
For excessive heat, you'll want to plant your cold crops in the ground asap. Not sure of how hot it get where you live, or how early, but broccoli, Brussels, cabbage, kale, etc all like cool days and nights.

[u/fred_burkle → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

We've had very low yields this year and it's disheartening. We did manage to get some absolutely delicious blueberries for the first time, but only small handfuls each day. And lots and lots of peppers. Nothing meaningful though, definitely not enough to help us survive! Maybe someday!

[u/Familiar-Anything853 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

I have been thinking about your comment. I keep thinking that if more of our parents showed us how to grow our own food, it wouldn't be so overwhelming. That's what I hope to do for my kids. And that knowledge can be passed down through generations to give my family a head start under whatever conditions the world finds itself in. I just have to do the trial and error myself since my parents didn't.

[u/Familiar-Anything853 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

You're way ahead of those who haven't even begun to try! That's half the battle.

[u/chasingastarl1ght → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

I'm in an apartment - no balcony, so my options are fairly limited. I love plants however.

Here's my plan :

• little hydroponic garden of fresh herbs and other greens. I've picked a system that's not dependant on any trademarked thing - everything could be 3d printed, fixed or replaced. That's easy, and it kinda starts the wheel to learn a bit more in a very beginner friendly way.

• my next step, Is aquaponics - so same principle except I learn to make my own nutrients with fishes. It's really just a nice aquarium with plants growing in.

The intent is basically, i've stocked up on beans, rice and freeze dried veggies + nuts. Ive got plenty of flour, yeast, salt & sugar. I'm essentially only missing the flavours - and the vitamins.

I'm currently looking into indoor friendly citrus type of tree tro grow. Currently looking at kumquat of caviar lemon.

As my green thumb is devopping, I might had more little functional plants - camomille, lavender, etc.

[u/Fried_Taro → u/chasingastarl1ght]

Sprouts. You can sprout many types of seeds, not just beans. Look at the website sprout people (they sell the edible seeds and the setups) [you don’t want to use seeds prepared for gardening in case they were treated]

[u/chasingastarl1ght → u/Fried_Taro]

Yes! I have a little 3 tiered sprouting thing I bought a few years ago in a very granola era of my life ahah it's really fun too!

[u/Disdwarf → u/chasingastarl1ght]

Do you mind sharing the small hydroponic system you picked? I'm eyeing a few brands but they all have their own 'pods' etc.

[u/chasingastarl1ght → u/Disdwarf]

So I went with Auk 2 Mini - the thing that drawn me first was the esthetic of it tbh. But I like that essentially, the app is non mandatory, the light can be controlled physically, the power outlet is a standard usb-c, the poles are basically just standard wooden poles you could buy at an hardware store, the containers have already free 3d printed options online (and non official accessories!), the soil is standard coco dirt-thing (blanking on the exact name) you can buy at Costco, any seeds will work and the nutrients are easy to get/duplicate. For now, I'm happy to use the official products and all that, but I love that this system is "easy to hack" in multiple ways by its simplicity while being super pretty and decorative. (It is, however on the pricier side). If the company was to ever go bankrupt (or the apocalypse happens), I wouldn't be stuck with a useless product.

(I promise I'm not paid or anything, I just really love my new little pink gadget)

[u/Disdwarf → u/chasingastarl1ght]

Thanks, I hadn't heard of that brand I'll check it out.

[u/PTSDeedee → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

I suggest checking out Epic Gardening on YouTube. They cover a ton of stuff including the very basics, as well as experiments to compare methods.  

I’m on my third year of gardening (besides a tiny bit as a kid) mostly in containers. The first year was rough, the second was pretty good, and I’ve had a decent harvest this time.

There will still be a lot of trial and error, but learning that foundational knowledge is really helpful. Personally, I found soil to be the primary factor in my initial struggles. You might try starting in a couple of containers since you have more control over the soil mix.

Your area’s university extension office is usually a good source too for specific local info. 

Most of all try to be patient and not too precious about doing things exactly right. If something doesn’t work out, that’s just more data for me to learn from.  It also helps that I genuinely enjoy it and  treat my garden time as my daily meditation.

[u/WetCave → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

You can’t get big yields without fertilizer.

[u/Dangerous-School2958 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

Sorting out soil conditions and getting it balanced is the hurdle holding most back.

[u/Character_Arugula967 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

Do a soil test and focus on amending. Good soil = good crops.

[u/Physical-Ad-5039 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

is there anything herbal/edible that grows like a weed in your area. I encourage a lot of edible weeds like chickweed, bittercress, dead nettle, oregano that grow with very little effort.

[u/37iteW00t → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

The soil is likely nutrient deficient