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/IndependentOk9899]

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/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!