Fall: same as spring, but I add Rutabaga, lettuce, carrots, and Fava beans to both my spring and fall. I also like Egyptian spinach which is a summer crop.
I grow radishes instead of beets, but I do grow everything as a regular part of my garden. Honorable mentions: sweet potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, garlic, onions, herbs.
Great content. This has been on my mind for a few years. The challenge for me is when to convert from hobby gardening like I do, to survival gardening and calorie production for hard times. One way I've tried is to have perennial fruits that produce at different times of the year so there will often be something to eat in the garden. For my area, sweet potatoes tend to make sense for summer and store for months and months, though they take time. And root crops in the winter. Cowpeas make a great survival crop here, they will grow everywhere and are edible as greens and the beans. Very prolific, fairly quick, heat tolerant, and dried the peas store forever. Thanks for your consistently excellent content.
Thanks, Scott. You raise a good point. I think most gardeners are and have been hobby gardeners, but I'm getting many more questions from gardeners wanting to move more toward food production. Perennial fruits are one of my choices too and you'll certainly see videos when my bushes and trees begin producing. Thanks for the cowpea tip.
Great point. To me it looks like I can’t do enough, and can’t do it fast enough.. but alas, I know with gardening it’s best to add a little each year, so I made a compromise between those two ideas based on my personal free time (I ended up adding an extra 1000 Sq ft). Good luck to you. Stay safe!
@@cainomac that's a wise approach. Do whatever you can and hopefully do a little more each season. EVERY little bit helps. I don't care if a person has ten acres or a windowsill with some herbs, it's worthwhile. :)
@@cainomac You can always buy additional produce bulk and learn to can it. Start with fruits before going to more difficult canning of veggies and meats. Don't rely on electric refrigeration or freezers as a sole way to save food.
Awesome. One thing though is that if 'survival' is really something on one's horizon, it's best by orders of magnitude to practice growing these crops long before one really needs to. 'Survival skills' are only skills when practiced - otherwise it's just just trivia. Preservation is a key part of success.
I just read about Zucchini flour, I'm planning to give it a try this year, could be a great way to utilize the super prolific Zucchinis in the winter 👍🏻
If you leave some to grow into marrows, the marrows last for a long time without spoiling. I have been taking excess zucchins in bags round to my adult daughter's house as otherwise I tend to have too many. I always have marrows as some are heavily disguised against stems and I don't notice them until they are enormous. :)
@@neverlostforwords can confirm, I have large zukes stay edible like winter squash to as late as Feb. They are....different, but for sure palatable. Not 2 ft large either, most around 14", but thick.
I second the idea of herbs and other plants that provide flavor in a survival garden. Herbs go a long way in making foods taste great and usually not too fussy to grow.
I tried using white dutch clover as a living mulch last year. It was mixed results, but more positive than negative and the negative results were either due to weather (nearly 2 inches of hail in under 1/2 hour at the end of June) or my lack of knowledge. I have added another manageable legume this year and I'll be adding perennial herbs to get some plant diversity. More root exudates means healthy soil biology, and I might as well stack functions and have some of the living mulch be tasty.
Umbellifer herbs (parsley, coriander etc) also produce roots like carrot/parsnip which contain that calorific value. Coriander root is a key (and very hard to find in stores) ingredient in Thai green curry and parsley root is good in soups and stews. Double use.
I created a great deal of pesto from my bumper Basil harvest last year. I used a recipe with walnuts, not expensive pine nuts. I froze them in ice cube trays & I like them tossed into pasta. A nice, satisfying and inexpensive side dish or can be a main dish with some protein and veggies added in.
Happily I can say I grow all the mentioned crops! We started growing most of our plant foods in 2014. That was the year we expanded our garden after moving to the country. God has blessed me with a green thumb, and the joy of providing for our family. It’s hard work, whether IN the garden or in the kitchen preserving the harvest. I push myself every year to learn something new. I now start all my seedlings and sweet potato slips so I don’t have to buy any from the garden center. I’ve even learned to grow celery. My goal this year is to perfect a bbq sauce, enchilada sauce and ketchup recipes so I don’t have to buy them from the store anymore.
I have celery in seed starting mix and they have got about a half inch high and stopped growing, stagnant. I cannot find the balance with watering, I guess. Any suggestions?
I have successfully grown Georgia Jet sweet potatoes in my zone 5b for a few years now (upstate NY). I think they are worth it because they are so nutritious. First, make sure you get the slips or plants from a good source because that matters a lot. Second, pre-warm the soil with clear plastic for at least a few weeks before your planting date. I leave the plastic on and make holes for the plants like you would a mulch. The major downside is that weeds will come up, but the clear plastic does a great job of keeping the soil very warm which is what sweet potatoes want. Mulching in between plants helps. Black plastic might work too but I haven't tried it. Last year I got over 40 pounds of sweet potatoes in a 5ft by 12ft area which was enough for about 20 quarts canned. I can them with a brown sugar syrup....SO good in the middle of winter!
It's Autumn here in Adelaide, South Australia, so I'm starting my winter sowing like brassicas, carrots, beets, salad greens, onions, garlic, peas, root vegetables...etc. I just harvested my lettuce and beet seeds ready to sow again. I'm close to harvesting my first lot of watermelon. My next lot is a bit late and will go right into winter (end of May). I have late tomatoes too. I have peppers coming along nicely. We're eating our peaches and fig. I have potatoes and sweet potatoes too. And, not forgetting oranges and mandarins.
I'm growing a winter garden this year. Carrots kale leeks turnips beets cabbage Swiss chard green onions radishes. I recommend snap peas myself because I don't like sheling them lol I would add butternut squash. They keep for a very long time and those seeds are filled with nutrition and you can roast them like pumpkin seeds. Alot of people forget about the seeds in there.
We’ve been encouraging people to grow their own food for a long time. Macros/calories/nutrition/productivity. It’s great to see gardeners uniting to encourage people to be more self sufficient. Great video.
Po Tay toes. Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew. And beans. And peas. Turnips. And beets The greens of turnips, beets, spinach, kale, all brassica! Are multivitamins
All perfect plants to grow. I grow them all each and every year, but the greens are perfect staple foods beans great for storing and potatoes would have to be on my list. great video Scott
Thank you Gardener Scott. My wife and I have become huge fans of you after recently discovering you. Thank you for taking the time to educate others. You are very encouraging and helpful. Thank you and God Bless
I really need to concentrate more on saving than giving away my harvest. I did can 60 jars of tomatoes and still have good onions, potatoes, and some frozen veggies, but need to expand on different methods preserving and cooking what comes out of my garden. Great video Scott!
You sound like you are doing okay. Its a struggle here. I dont know how a family of 5 could grow crops sufficient to feed them on a 3/4 acre city plot. Its a challenge.
@@kathymc234 I am still learning how to make the best use of the space I have. Going to try some grow bags this year. Mainly because I did some straw bale gardens last year and used inorganic fertilizers to condition them. Come to find out, inorganic fertilizers are detrimental to soil biology, so I could not plant in the soil where the bales were. So I'm going with 25 gallon grow bags. I have a video on TH-cam "Brian Seybert garden tour" it may give you some ideas. I do know one thing, you can certainly interplant all sorts of vegetables and herbs. This will be my 3rd year garden and plan on doing a lot more interplanting and perennial cover crops. Just be mindful when interplanting, don't make the mistakes I did last year by shading plants out. Good luck this year, you can do it!
@@brianseybert2189 Yes, grow bags are great. I have 8 bags that have had blueberries in them, this will be their 5th year, still holding up well. Sound investment! (And 5 years ago they were lots cheaper!)
Great video Gardener Scott! In addition to the spinach/kale/cabbage I would also add swiss chard. I grew rainbow chard for the first time this year and the leaves are huge and delicious! It tastes "salty" to me and I prefer it over some lettuces.
Agree 100%. Chard tastes better than kale, goes okay with Indian or Italian spices and herbs Chard always grows well and bountifully in multiple seedings Broccoli might not head, spinach can be finicky. Chard just keeps on giving in heat or cool with minimal work. I broadcast early and again after garlic or onions. Plus, the ruby and rainbow varieties are beautiful to look at. Love it.
I still have peppers and green beans in my freezer from last years garden. I will definitely be adding containers to my garden this year! My garden isn't large enough to provide for all if my family's nutritional needs. However, I'm determined to grow as much food as I can this year!
Amen Brother Scott I'm glad you see what I see. So many people I fear are gonna be caught off guard. At this point in time it's not a bad idea to get our house in order. You, James Prigioni, Black gumbo, Christian at ice age farmer, Paul Gautschi, Cali Kim and many others have been such a blessing to me personally in the growth and development in sharpening my gardening tools. Thank you sincerely! This year my focus will be long term storage crops. Pintos, shell beans, winter squash, potatoes, onions, Herbs. I can't forget about canning and preservation either. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip but you can can the turnip. A person can put into jars every crop I mentioned and even more I didn't. Dry shell beans can even be dry canned into jars. With all that is happening I know I'm not fully prepared ever. I can continue to press forward and if I'm wrong, well then that's a good thing and I'll have plenty of food to eat that I know is not poisonous and good for me.
Great video! I have a very similar list, which also includes swiss chard, lettuce and leeks. I also grow perennials that provide a welcome harvest as shoots in early spring, such as asparagus, hostas (they're all edible), udo (Aralia cordata) and caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides). And jerusalem artichoke for its healthy inulin. With a greenhouse or a polytunnel it's even possible to harvest precious leaves in the middle of winter by adding an extra insulating layer over the plants. Miner's lettuce or winter purslane (Claytonia perfoliata), curly leaf parsley and spinach can be grown like this. Use hoops and fleece over the beds, and they can survive temperatures as low as 0° F (-20° C) without any heating. It's also important to learn how to save seeds. Without this knowledge, you won't have anything to grow once your seed packets are empty.
Swiss chard is incredibly nutritious! You can dehydrated or freeze dry it and then powder it to add to regular meals for an extra boost. I make my own veggie stock with this method. You can too! Good luck 💖
If they aren't heirloom they won't produce true to same fruit/veggie so it's not going to be the same next perfectly the next time you harvest. Gmo fields etc make sure of that. Hope this helps.
@@seekeroftruth9900 That's an important point. With seed-saving in mind, you'll want to buy open-pollinated seeds that are produced locally (or in a similar climate). I even prefer biodynamic seeds if I can find it, they're the best in my experience.
Yes, sauerkraut is fantastic. I have a good supply of canned sauerkraut. I’ll end up planting Swedes not turnip or beets as I’m the only one in my family that eat the latter. I stopped growing as a hobby more than 10 years ago and have learned as many preserving techniques as possible. So glad I did because during the pandemic and the uncertainties of the invasion in Ukraine, I’ll have an abundance of food preserved or for fresh eating.
The incursion of Russia into Russian speaking Donbas (17 million) will have lasting effects on the EU as their potash, wheat, corn and oil, gas will go to Asia as they are more interested in survival (Indonesia) and ME Egypt (needs bread), Brazil ( needs potash)- then virtue signaling as the West has succumbed to in their pursuit of the Great Reset BS.
Great video and just in time :) Just a few thoughts: You may consider companying planting for healthy plants, for instance planting onions between carrots to keep the carrot fly away. There are perennial onions from which only the foliage is harvested. They grow back like chives and are hardy. They don`t need much space in your beds! Also herbs are important for a survival garden because of their medical properties and to lure pollinators to your garden, but also because they help keep your vegetable healthy as companion plants.
Love all your helpful videos! I was surprised to hear you mention field corn because it’s so rare these days for human consumption. It’s our favorite!! We cut off the kernels then run the blade of the knife down the cob to get the cream. Freeze it in pint or quart freezer bags, no blanching needed. It’s good for over a year in the freezer. When you cook it, just cool over low heat, adding salt, pepper, butter, and water. It takes a lot of water-making a larger quantity of food. So good with fried okra and fresh sliced tomatoes and onions-a Southern eating tradition.😋😋😋😋
That's an excellent overview! You'll get some folks off to a great start with this. A nice thing about the bonus crops you mentioned is that they can be interspersed in the main garden, similar to how you described adding beans here and there. I've found that one or two pepper plants will settle in nicely among a bed of tomatoes, for instance. And we grow onions along one row of tomatoes every year, plus of course basil. Many other herbs work well that way. That variety in diet you spoke of is so important. And having enjoyed them for years, I really do think all those popular garden companion plants help repel pests. We also discovered that when growing beans meant to be used dry, it's wise to taste them young too. Some varieties are listed for both uses, some aren't spectacular when green, but we were pleased to find that fresh green pinto beans are among our favorites. So that was a fun bonus. Three Sisters style beds should almost always be the cornerstone of the plan in my opinion. You can't really go wrong starting from there.
I puréed summer squashes this year and they taste great. You could add them to soups/stews too. I did this because I have a dog with a liver shunt and I don’t want his meals to be boring RX food so I supplement with it. So easy to store in flattened ziplocks in the freezer and it’s good whether for my sickly dog or our family.
I would add sunflowers to this list. Very easy to grow, you can make both oil and flour out of them. And similarly to corn, they can also serve as a trellis to other plants.
This year I am going to find out if they can trellis cucumbers. Not on purpose. But because the vine cakes are going to be near them and will over grow everything.
Sunflowers are good but make sure their roots are at least 12 inches away from all other seeds planted otherwise they neither will do well except for planting other sunflowers next to each other. Sunflowers like marigolds put out something in their roots that NO PLANTS like or can stand, it stunts them. Hope this helps you all. ;)
in early human settlements the "beets" were sown so closely together that we think they were mostly grown for their greens (which was a long standing traditional dish in my home region here in germany: rübstiel)
My girlfriend and I are moving to a house in zone 9a in a couple months. Starting a garden is something we’re really looking forward to. I appreciate all the advice!
You are the most on-topic-TH-camrs I invest my time in watching. Very interesting, and very well done, concise, to the point, and, of course, on topic. Interesting point in sweet potato greens. With pointers to container gardening, as well as consideration of taste at the dinner table, you have surely thought about people's needs and concerns. Of all of TH-cam's gardeners, you are the Master Gardener!
i do not have a green thumb, but have gained confidence from your teachings. i recently stumbled on your videos looking to start a survival garden due to the current political climate. this and fermenting for your own fuel will be so valuable in a few months. thank you
When it gets hot out here in Colorado, I've found New Zealand Spinach grows unbelievably well through July and August. I had one plant cover a 2ft x3ft area through the middle of summer.
Lots of valuable information here. I live in the North Florida Panhandle, Zone 8b, and while much of what your growing does well here, out growing situation is quite different. Our humidity levels a much higher, and our growing season is pretty much year 'round. We also have weed, disease and bug pressure here caused by the high humidity, as many of these problems are alleviated by your much colder weather. When I moved from Virginia to Florida, I pretty much had to learn gardening all over again. I grow pretty much what you do. I preserve everything I possibly can by canning, dehydrating and freezing. I can seasonal vegetables and save most of the freezer space for meat. After a hurricane our power can be out for weeks, so I can meats as they thaw. Peppers grow well here, and they are prime candidates for dehydrating. By dehydrating peppers, onions, celery and cabbage I can save a lot of valuable storage space. I would think this would work well for you, too.
This video is wonderful. Full of great wisdom. We are currently in survival mode in many other ways and now I am ready to order more of all these seeds. God bless and thank you.
Great list! I’m I zone 9B and growing a purple variety of sweet potato slips now. I still have a couple of tasty winter squash stored from last year’s small crop and will do more this year. I really wish I had room for corn, but will plant all I can. With food prices going up significantly, I will be planting more this year. No better time for a vegetable garden than now!!
What a great list! Starting our own survival garden next month once as we are finally moving to a place on the land in Spain (from Germany) - thanks a ton for all your content Scott! 🙏
Good luck and congratulations! There's nothing more exciting than moving and setting up your first garden or other homesteading plans. Try to keep in mind that new/first gardens usually don't perform as well as future years. You learn about how to grow in your available soil and you improve the soil of your garden beds as you practice. Another tip is to dig your beds by hand - when you are too tired to do any more, that should be the size of your first garden as you will be able to maintain that with all the additional work you need to do through the growing season. As you feel more comfortable with gardening, dig more beds but always keep in mind the work you need to do afterward. Other than that? Have fun. If you aren't having fun doing it, try something new - make your beds round, or spiral; try a funky new plant or an old plant but grow it in a new way; add something interest8ing from a seed catalog that you haven't tried before; try one of the differently colored varieties (I'm trying some purple beans and adding zinnias to my beds.). Make sure to mix flowers in your beds/growing plans. They'll attract pollinators and being someplace pretty is good for you, too!
I'm in a different climate from you, low desert. So I love to grow sweet potatoes (year round), tomatoes, and peppers. I also have orange and fig trees that produce plus some younger fruit trees. Also strawberries. I plan to grow zucchini and carrots soon and will plant spinach this autumn. Haven't yet tried peas and beans, but your video inspired me to try them too.
We must be Capricorns! It is crazy how timely you posted this video!! All day I feel like I need to be getting ready for Armageddon! LIKE IT'S 1999🤣 Seriously, I just sent text relaying my thoughts to SIL and happened to see notification of your video with a titled that seemed to have beamed right out of my head. The only difference between 1999 and now is it's happening!! I ordered fruit to start an orchard today, seed potatoes--And I realized kennebecs are determinates🤣🤣 All that hilling for nothing. All I think about with stocking up is all those canned goods in my in-laws basement (from 1999) we had to clear out when they passed on. I'm passing on the canned plums.🤣 Thanks Scott--Great timing!
Very timely topic that hits home here. I am retired and 5 years vegan. I want to expand my garden to be a little more self reliant. You got me thinking that maybe I should up my game just in case….
@@76not84 30 years vegan. Bravo! This year I am a little obsessed with the 3 sisters (which I have never done) and have a variety of beans I plan to grow with them. I do have a 3X3 fava bean box that is just fruiting. What do your typically grow?
my favorite windowsill and balkony veggies are: 1. radish 2. carrots 3. root parsley 4. common chive 5. welch onion 6. leek 7. cocktail-tomatoes 8. pepper wort (aka cress) 9. soy bean sprouts 10. ramson super easy to grow and most of them grow very fast and some of them grow back reliably when their bases are spared.
I just discovered your channel....thank you so very much for this. Getting started on it now and am very excited about this. We see bare shelves in the grocery store now and we've just made it back home after our town and surrounding communities burned to the ground in November of 2018 (the Camp fire). Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this.
Good-day Gardener Scott! 🖐 I grow to have food year round...like when the ice storm hit Central Texas last year. I had kale, sweet potato greens, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and much more in the freezer and dehydrated that kept us eating well. I don't think I heard you mention collards. They are packed with nutrients and can be frozen or made into a green powder to add to foods.🙂 I also freeze broccoli leaves and powder some of them to add in my green powder mix. I'm adding green garlic to my crops this year and secession plantings spring/bunching onions. I'm growing main crop garlic and onions too; however, green garlic and spring onions can be harvested quicker to keep my dishes tasty.🙂
Great list! For me the ability to store threw the winter is key. Spring, summer and autumn i can forage alot of things in the wild. In Sweden no matter who owns the forest you have the right to enjoy it forage berries and so on. So the winter is the main struggle for me. Early in spring there is dandelions for example you can eat the whole plant even the taproot and they are very early in the season, i actually use the yellow blossoms regularly in sallads their def not that bad, the leaves and stalks are quite bitter but still edible so in a survival situation is an awesome weed. Stinging nettle is another great weed that is actually very nutritious, young tender leaves is best as the older bigger leaves is quite high in nitrogen. Just some examples thats readily available to me early in spring. Learn the wild plants in your area that you can eat, most may not become your fav food but in a survival situation can be great. So in my opinion learning the wild edible plants in your area is a good thing and great compliment to your own garden, specially if your not prepared when shit hits the fan.. Expect the best, prepare for the worst! Another thing that might be good to know is how to store things under ground, here in Sweden and i guess many other cold regions of the world thats how they stored many crops during the winter. So learning that could be a grest thing to do also, because if somethong bad happens you perhaps cant expect to have electrocity for your fridge.
I have been cultivating a section of wild plants in my garden for years. I n winter (mild here) we enjoy stinging nettle, sow thistle, wild arugula, wild mustard and a few others along with domestic greens I grow. With spring coming, nettles and mustards are going to seeds. I prolong the season by careful pruning giving plants that got too big and tough to the chickens. Chickweed is starting to proliferate and I see purslane andf some others coming up.
I would make an argument for peppers... one of the tri-color, I think the yellow but go double check, is the highest source of vitamin C found in food. So I would grow it for the vitamin c to stay healthy and help fight off illness.
Also, sunflowers are not only beautiful and attract pollinators to your garden, harvesting them for the seeds can give you a long storage form of healthy fat. In a survival situation, you can’t forget your essential fats. We tend to think about calories, which is important, but there are no essential carbs. There are essential fats. We can actually survive on far less calories than we think, but we need fat to keep our brains working, among other things. In a survival situation, especially if animal products are hard to come by, growing something with some fat content is important.
HA! I'm in New Mexico. I'm waaaaaaay ahead of most on the pepper question. NM Green Chile is a thing, and I already have something like 90 plants up. It may not be as high as the yellow peppers for vitamin c, but as much as I eat, it doesn't matter. It's still higher than citrus. The state flavor here is pain.
my favorite windowsill and balkony fruit includes: 1. strawberry 2. blueberry 3. currant 4. gooseberry 5. mossberry all very easy to grow and when nursed well, always profitable fruit producers.
Great content. Watching this vide, I realise Theneed to diversify more. I' will surely grow beans for their rich nutritional value. I grow tomatoes and kale already. Thanks for your work.
With corn, people need to learn about nixtamalization if you're talking survival garden. Nixtamalization is the process of using a base (as in acidic vs basic kind of base) to soak and/or simmer the corn until the pericarp comes off. I often just use wood ash (potassium hydroxide,) but I've used pickling lime and baking soda too. FYI, if you do this with mature sweet corn, you will have nothing left. Feild/flint/dent/flour corns only. The reason you want to do this is because the niacin in corn cannot be absorbed by your body until it is done, and it makes it easier to digest. If you don't do this and you don't have another source of niacin in your diet, you can get a disease called pellagra, which can be fatal. Once this is done, your corn is now hominy, and if ground into a flour, is masa harina. Edit: Also, corn + beans + squash = complete protein. You need all three if meat/animal products aren't avaliable. I have some tepary beans. You ought to look into those. They're probably the most drought tolerant crop in the world, and if you give them a bit of water, one plant can produce hundreds.
Good choices! I would add radishes. Now that I've learned to cook them in stews and soups with turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, potatoes, and carrots, I see them as a nutritious, delicious, and fast-growing crop. Plus, the greens make them a two-crop vitamin-rich plant. Garlic, herbs, and onions are a must-have to make everything else taste better, as you can put them in any spot available.
Terrific list. I grow all of them. But I do grow lots of potatoes, 16 different types actually. This show is absolutely amazing. Gardener Scott is an encyclopedia. Thank you Sir !
They call it malungi in India and the Philippines where its native. Only place you can grow it is the southern parts of Florida Texas, Louisiana and California. You shouldn't eat it if you are taking high blood pressure medicine or diabetes medicine. Have you ever had it? It's very sour. Just the tiny leaves are edible. You add them to soups if you want them sour. So it's not the miracle plant everyone keeps talking about. It's great for certain dishes in the tropics.
Great list, thanks for this video. Your voice is so calming too. 🙂 I'm almost ready to put in my fall garden, and I have plans to add most of what's included in this list. Summer garden went great for me this year in terms of tomatoes, squash, and garden berries. I just canned up tons of tomatoes, salsa, and marinara. The first round of winter squash just came in, and my flint Indian corn did wonderful! Going to make a beautiful fall arrangement with some of it and grind the rest for flour and cornmeal. I hope to have a great autumn/winter garden here in coastal CA..
Thank you for presenting this. My husband and I were discussing things we may want to have on hand including flour, yeast and sugar. Fresh produce in our own backyard is our goal as well.
13: Sunchokes. I planted some 4 years ago, and I'm still trying to kill the damn things. The roots are edible, and they grow like weeds. The only problem you will have growing them is trying to keep them contained.
I'm still canning tomatoes from last year. I freeze them until ready for processing. I season and stew before I water bath can because stewed tomatoes are versatile.
Thankyou. Excellent talk ! We have a backyard greenhouse and a large garden, always looking for helpful points. We are able to have lemons and oranges in the greenhouse all year, BC. Interior. Will be checking out your other videos.
Excellent video and information. My wife can't eat certain greens you listed, it just messes up her stomach. So, we grow what she can eat: broccoli and collards. Everything else you mentioned is in or going to be in our garden. I really wanted to add four more raised beds before spring, but the cost of building them and filling them w/ a proper soil mix is looking to be a bit pricey!
You really don't need a wooden frame to do raised bed gardening. In fact it's not my preferred way to do it. Simply mounding up your soil gives you all the same benefits along with a little extra growing space on the curves of the beds for things like carrots or garlic.
I have a problem eating muskmelon--feels like I have the flu after a small bite. Had allergy test long time ago and showed mugwort might be an allergen. Melon falls into that category. I'm adding more RBs also. To keep it low cost I am digging out the good garden soil where the bed is going and placing my oak tree trimmings down and putting the soil back on top. Believe it's the hugalcukture method. I don't plan on making the beds very high. We have drought and Sandy and it seems to help last beds that had small twigs and leaves before the soil. The larger trimmings should work better this time.
@@Javaman92 I agree, I don't advise wooden beds either. As Dusty said, use what you've got available and layer up some organic material. More is better, but even a couple inches of twigs and leaves and such will help with drainage, and then put your preferred soil on top. If you leave roots in the mound and dump some more compost and mulch on it a couple times a year, you'll be happy. Lumber is too expensive to build ground beds with now, and they always seem to need replacing after a couple years anyway. I'd spend money on more compost, not boards :)
Loved this episode only wish you would have listed them in the description so we could take a snap shot to save for future refrence. Great content and enjoyed watching!
I ve been growing a big part of my food for some years. I focus on things that grow easily and a lot. Basically potatoes and zucchinis; im in a cold climate and potatoes ALWAYS work here. In the winter time my root cellar is stocked with potatoes and other root veggies and some random fermented/pickled stuff. I forage and grow some greens and i dehydrate those fir winter (specially nettles!). I pickle, ferment and freeze zucchinis and whatever else happened to be a succesful crop in the season. We have very unpredicrable weather conditions, so u never know how things will go and grow 😋 except the potatoes. Those are literally a life saver here. Fortunately i know many yummy ways to cook the spuds 🤣
As always, very interesting and helpful. The only thing to consider is where you plan to do this growing? If the sh_t hits the fan and people who don't have their own supply are hungry they will not hesitate to take what they can from anywhere they can. So you either have to have a good Security System in place and also be able and willing to protect what you grow ..........or you grow where people don't see what you have or have access. For those living in Apartments with flat rooves there could be an option to establish 'Gardens in the Sky'.,,....still not fool proof but much more secure than most.
That was really informative. I only have a balcony but I always grow runner beans in containers with cane wigwams and tomatoes in planters during the summer and into autumn. I make compost with veggie peelings and one year I accidentally 'did a Martian' as many of the tater peelings grew into plants so I now grow potatoes as well, along with some herbs. I've been doing some research into small space growing and have decided to try spring onions as they don't take up too much room and can take the place of ordinary onions in cooking. Great idea to grow carrots in the sides of planters, as I eat a lot of those, so I'll have a go at that this year too. And I might try and make some space for peas! Great info and really enjoyable video. Thank you. :)
My balcony is full, I love my GreenStalk which is a huge space saver growing a variety of herbs, beets, carrots, Bok Choy, red cabbage. Potatoes and have Bush beans and pole beans, Sweet 100 tomatoes which are semi determinant but still grow into trees. I am setting up an inexpensive hydroponic system in my room, so I can grow my favorite lettuces and other food year round. Beans and peas grow well with less sun. I have marigolds as well great to keep bugs away, and can be eaten.
@@karenreaves3650 That sounds great, Karen. I keep marigolds too (what we call calendulas, or South African marigolds) - as well as other flowers - and they work really well, plus they're gorgeous with their bright orange flowers. A book I've just read about growing veggies in small spaces also suggests violas in the front of planters as they don't take up much room, look lovely and their petals also make nice edible additions to sweets and salads. I love flowers so I also have a lot in other planters but I'm going to ask them to budge over a bit this year for some extra veggies. That's a great idea to set up hydroponics indoors. My flat is choc-a-block with indoor plants but I've still got a bit of room in a sunny patch to grow tomatoes this next winter and I might try your idea of growing lettuces too, as salad is always welcome to add to meals. Cheers, Karen. All the best. :)
great video. just advise a few you might not have thought of. Fava beans. you plant them in fall and as soon as it can they will start growing. they will produce early and you can plant other things and it enriches your soil wit nitrogen. the other is yanking out every dandelion you see in the grass or anywhere and plant the root and all side by side in the garden. here again it will produce and grow very early cut all the leaves before the flower comes up, they can get very big. planting seed for some reason does not work. and the other one is parsley. here again just grows like crazy in the spring then it just dies back and reseeds itself. you can even eat it as is or mix finely cut leaves and stalks with ground meat for meatballs. hear again produces early then you ca plant something else.
I'm new to gardening and I planted sweet potato in a large storage bin left them there for the whole summer, and autumn and I harvested them in the dead of winter. I pretty sure that I probably broke alot of rules when I did this but I brought the bin in side because It was to cold and I harvested what I later found out is called " fingerling" sweet potato. Well I ate it and feed it to my family and I can't wait to try it again. I just don't know if there's any thing I should worry about when doing but it was good 👍
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes ( if you can grow your own, I've never been successful growing them), asparagus ( not a huge harvest but lives for several decades), winter squash, those are the bulk of my garden. Beets, radishes and lettuce is a given if you are looking for fast growers. I love kale and turnips and collards and grow well in the deep south.
Chinese yam was a forgotten perennial potato like tuber and grow potatoes on the vines and are perennial. Jursuleum artichoke are good to grow to and grow beautiful big sunflowers that cold hardy. In the tropics taro is good and can grow in cold climates to as annuals and you can buy roots at grocery store same with jursuleum artichoke, also ginger and turmeric. Chinese artichoke is good to and are perennial. Skirret is like Perennial carrots. Tree collards are perennial and sea kale are perennial kales. Long bean make big beans that can feed you a lot. Same with faba beans.
Beans, get a multiple use (cut, fresh, dried) heirloom variety. Good at every stage and I find the seeds propagate well from year to year. I have been propagating from my original seed purchase for at least a decade now.
love this channel and just found it. I would also add that it makes sense to grow what you CAN grow, taking into consideration the space you have and the climate you live in. Don't feel bad for not growing a huge garden if all you have is a handkerchief sized yard. You can grow UP, too, on trellises.
I like the tip of slotting in other crops where you can. I had left over garlic to plant so I carefully slotted it around my strawberries, not 100% sure what will happen there as I'm concerned about the strawberries growing over it (should be fine as I'll be removing runners) but it's a fun experiment.
Garlic & strawberries are great companion plants. To Gardener Scott's point, definitely plant in those empty spaces around your garden to maximize your yield. Just make sure you research companion plants first as certain types of plants don't work well together. I.e. garlic works great with tomatoes & peppers, but don't plant it too close to cucumbers or beans.
@@Jeff_PNW Have you actually seen that tested? So many 'garden wisdoms' have turned out to be complete bunk (need to dig, need to wash everything in winter, can't transplant most crops, can't sow/plant into rich compost, can't compost blighted tomato (true in USA) ) and I'm doubtful of things like that these days. I don't see why garlic would affect beans when in most cases bean flowers come after garlic is harvested.
@@Scott3387 I have experimented with this myself. Garlic & beans will grow just fine together, but the beans will taste like garlic. Definitely don't plant garlic with cucumbers unless you want to make lots of garlic-flavored pickles (I've made that mistake, lol.) Interestingly, garlic planted with tomatoes or peppers doesn't make them taste like garlic but it does make them more flavorful, AND the garlic deters a lot of pests. Like I said, research companion planting. Most of what you'll find about this topic is pretty solid information.
SPRING
1. Beets
2. Turnips
3. Kale
4. Spinach
5. Cabbage
6. Peas
SUMMER
7. Potatoes 🥔
8. Corn 🌽
9. Squash
10. Tomatoes 🍅
11. Beans
12. Carrots 🥕
Thank you! I’m in a place where I can’t be taking notes, thank you for taking the time to do us this favor!!
Thank you Deborah
Fall: same as spring, but I add Rutabaga, lettuce, carrots, and Fava beans to both my spring and fall. I also like Egyptian spinach which is a summer crop.
@@mudpiemudpie785 me too. I replant lots of stuff at the end of summer and get some more before the snow comes
I grow radishes instead of beets, but I do grow everything as a regular part of my garden.
Honorable mentions: sweet potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, garlic, onions, herbs.
Its called a Victory Garden
Or now. “Covid Victory Gardens”
Yes it is
VICTORY IT SHALL BE !
@@aurora571000 Tyranny Garden more like it
@@bryanutility9609 I see your point, but it has a negative feeling to it.
Great content. This has been on my mind for a few years. The challenge for me is when to convert from hobby gardening like I do, to survival gardening and calorie production for hard times. One way I've tried is to have perennial fruits that produce at different times of the year so there will often be something to eat in the garden. For my area, sweet potatoes tend to make sense for summer and store for months and months, though they take time. And root crops in the winter. Cowpeas make a great survival crop here, they will grow everywhere and are edible as greens and the beans. Very prolific, fairly quick, heat tolerant, and dried the peas store forever. Thanks for your consistently excellent content.
Thanks, Scott. You raise a good point. I think most gardeners are and have been hobby gardeners, but I'm getting many more questions from gardeners wanting to move more toward food production. Perennial fruits are one of my choices too and you'll certainly see videos when my bushes and trees begin producing. Thanks for the cowpea tip.
Great point. To me it looks like I can’t do enough, and can’t do it fast enough.. but alas, I know with gardening it’s best to add a little each year, so I made a compromise between those two ideas based on my personal free time (I ended up adding an extra 1000 Sq ft). Good luck to you. Stay safe!
@@cainomac that's a wise approach. Do whatever you can and hopefully do a little more each season.
EVERY little bit helps. I don't care if a person has ten acres or a windowsill with some herbs, it's worthwhile. :)
I would suggest doing g that change very very soon.
@@cainomac You can always buy additional produce bulk and learn to can it. Start with fruits before going to more difficult canning of veggies and meats. Don't rely on electric refrigeration or freezers as a sole way to save food.
Awesome. One thing though is that if 'survival' is really something on one's horizon, it's best by orders of magnitude to practice growing these crops long before one really needs to. 'Survival skills' are only skills when practiced - otherwise it's just just trivia. Preservation is a key part of success.
Yes!! Many ups and Downs but it's really great for learning what works in ones growing zone
Good point! The most important thing to invest in is your own skills.
Absolutely. Learning curves can be filled with some failures and results less than stellar.
@@1charlastar886agree completely!
I just read about Zucchini flour, I'm planning to give it a try this year, could be a great way to utilize the super prolific Zucchinis in the winter 👍🏻
Oh wow! I'm going to look into that!
I read about using zucchini as a milk.
If you leave some to grow into marrows, the marrows last for a long time without spoiling. I have been taking excess zucchins in bags round to my adult daughter's house as otherwise I tend to have too many. I always have marrows as some are heavily disguised against stems and I don't notice them until they are enormous. :)
Never thought of that. Thanks! Have you tried sorghum? It's super easy to grow
@@neverlostforwords can confirm, I have large zukes stay edible like winter squash to as late as Feb. They are....different, but for sure palatable. Not 2 ft large either, most around 14", but thick.
I second the idea of herbs and other plants that provide flavor in a survival garden. Herbs go a long way in making foods taste great and usually not too fussy to grow.
I tried using white dutch clover as a living mulch last year. It was mixed results, but more positive than negative and the negative results were either due to weather (nearly 2 inches of hail in under 1/2 hour at the end of June) or my lack of knowledge. I have added another manageable legume this year and I'll be adding perennial herbs to get some plant diversity. More root exudates means healthy soil biology, and I might as well stack functions and have some of the living mulch be tasty.
Umbellifer herbs (parsley, coriander etc) also produce roots like carrot/parsnip which contain that calorific value. Coriander root is a key (and very hard to find in stores) ingredient in Thai green curry and parsley root is good in soups and stews. Double use.
I created a great deal of pesto from my bumper Basil harvest last year. I used a recipe with walnuts, not expensive pine nuts. I froze them in ice cube trays & I like them tossed into pasta. A nice, satisfying and inexpensive side dish or can be a main dish with some protein and veggies added in.
Happily I can say I grow all the mentioned crops! We started growing most of our plant foods in 2014. That was the year we expanded our garden after moving to the country. God has blessed me with a green thumb, and the joy of providing for our family. It’s hard work, whether IN the garden or in the kitchen preserving the harvest. I push myself every year to learn something new. I now start all my seedlings and sweet potato slips so I don’t have to buy any from the garden center. I’ve even learned to grow celery. My goal this year is to perfect a bbq sauce, enchilada sauce and ketchup recipes so I don’t have to buy them from the store anymore.
I have celery in seed starting mix and they have got about a half inch high and stopped growing, stagnant. I cannot find the balance with watering, I guess. Any suggestions?
I'm interested in hiw to grow celery as well. Every time I've tried I get wimpy results.
I have successfully grown Georgia Jet sweet potatoes in my zone 5b for a few years now (upstate NY). I think they are worth it because they are so nutritious. First, make sure you get the slips or plants from a good source because that matters a lot. Second, pre-warm the soil with clear plastic for at least a few weeks before your planting date. I leave the plastic on and make holes for the plants like you would a mulch. The major downside is that weeds will come up, but the clear plastic does a great job of keeping the soil very warm which is what sweet potatoes want. Mulching in between plants helps. Black plastic might work too but I haven't tried it. Last year I got over 40 pounds of sweet potatoes in a 5ft by 12ft area which was enough for about 20 quarts canned. I can them with a brown sugar syrup....SO good in the middle of winter!
I love your channel. Great concise and timely information. Well thought out and no fear mongering or political talk. Bravo sir.
It's Autumn here in Adelaide, South Australia, so I'm starting my winter sowing like brassicas, carrots, beets, salad greens, onions, garlic, peas, root vegetables...etc. I just harvested my lettuce and beet seeds ready to sow again.
I'm close to harvesting my first lot of watermelon. My next lot is a bit late and will go right into winter (end of May). I have late tomatoes too. I have peppers coming along nicely. We're eating our peaches and fig. I have potatoes and sweet potatoes too. And, not forgetting oranges and mandarins.
I'm growing a winter garden this year. Carrots kale leeks turnips beets cabbage Swiss chard green onions radishes. I recommend snap peas myself because I don't like sheling them lol I would add butternut squash. They keep for a very long time and those seeds are filled with nutrition and you can roast them like pumpkin seeds. Alot of people forget about the seeds in there.
We’ve been encouraging people to grow their own food for a long time. Macros/calories/nutrition/productivity. It’s great to see gardeners uniting to encourage people to be more self sufficient. Great video.
Po Tay toes. Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew. And beans. And peas. Turnips. And beets
The greens of turnips, beets, spinach, kale, all brassica! Are multivitamins
All perfect plants to grow. I grow them all each and every year, but the greens are perfect staple foods beans great for storing and potatoes would have to be on my list. great video Scott
Thank you Gardener Scott. My wife and I have become huge fans of you after recently discovering you. Thank you for taking the time to educate others. You are very encouraging and helpful. Thank you and God Bless
I really need to concentrate more on saving than giving away my harvest. I did can 60 jars of tomatoes and still have good onions, potatoes, and some frozen veggies, but need to expand on different methods preserving and cooking what comes out of my garden.
Great video Scott!
You sound like you are doing okay. Its a struggle here. I dont know how a family of 5 could grow crops sufficient to feed them on a 3/4 acre city plot. Its a challenge.
@@kathymc234 I am still learning how to make the best use of the space I have. Going to try some grow bags this year. Mainly because I did some straw bale gardens last year and used inorganic fertilizers to condition them. Come to find out, inorganic fertilizers are detrimental to soil biology, so I could not plant in the soil where the bales were. So I'm going with 25 gallon grow bags.
I have a video on TH-cam "Brian Seybert garden tour" it may give you some ideas.
I do know one thing, you can certainly interplant all sorts of vegetables and herbs. This will be my 3rd year garden and plan on doing a lot more interplanting and perennial cover crops. Just be mindful when interplanting, don't make the mistakes I did last year by shading plants out.
Good luck this year, you can do it!
@@kathymc234 Growing as much as you can vertically helps a lot as does growing in blocks rather than rows. In my experience anyway.
@@brianseybert2189
Yes, grow bags are great. I have 8 bags that have had blueberries in them, this will be their 5th year, still holding up well. Sound investment! (And 5 years ago they were lots cheaper!)
Agreed, sweet potatoes have worked well here in DFW Texas where summers are very hot. The yield is high if you just water them and they store well.
Great video Gardener Scott! In addition to the spinach/kale/cabbage I would also add swiss chard. I grew rainbow chard for the first time this year and the leaves are huge and delicious! It tastes "salty" to me and I prefer it over some lettuces.
Agree 100%. Chard tastes better than kale, goes okay with Indian or Italian spices and herbs Chard always grows well and bountifully in multiple seedings Broccoli might not head, spinach can be finicky. Chard just keeps on giving in heat or cool with minimal work. I broadcast early and again after garlic or onions. Plus, the ruby and rainbow varieties are beautiful to look at. Love it.
I plant broccoli for the leaves I will be growing a Italian broccoli that is just leaf this year planting it like my lettuce high intensity
I still have peppers and green beans in my freezer from last years garden. I will definitely be adding containers to my garden this year! My garden isn't large enough to provide for all if my family's nutritional needs. However, I'm determined to grow as much food as I can this year!
Agree. Swiss Chard tends to be easy to grow, and it's full of nutrients. Perfect for a survival garden
Just a tip folks, hostas taste like spinach when you use the young leaves. Who knew?
Amen Brother Scott I'm glad you see what I see. So many people I fear are gonna be caught off guard. At this point in time it's not a bad idea to get our house in order. You, James Prigioni, Black gumbo, Christian at ice age farmer, Paul Gautschi, Cali Kim and many others have been such a blessing to me personally in the growth and development in sharpening my gardening tools.
Thank you sincerely!
This year my focus will be long term storage crops. Pintos, shell beans, winter squash, potatoes, onions, Herbs. I can't forget about canning and preservation either. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip but you can can the turnip. A person can put into jars every crop I mentioned and even more I didn't. Dry shell beans can even be dry canned into jars.
With all that is happening I know I'm not fully prepared ever. I can continue to press forward and if I'm wrong, well then that's a good thing and I'll have plenty of food to eat that I know is not poisonous and good for me.
Great video! I have a very similar list, which also includes swiss chard, lettuce and leeks.
I also grow perennials that provide a welcome harvest as shoots in early spring, such as asparagus, hostas (they're all edible), udo (Aralia cordata) and caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides). And jerusalem artichoke for its healthy inulin.
With a greenhouse or a polytunnel it's even possible to harvest precious leaves in the middle of winter by adding an extra insulating layer over the plants. Miner's lettuce or winter purslane (Claytonia perfoliata), curly leaf parsley and spinach can be grown like this. Use hoops and fleece over the beds, and they can survive temperatures as low as 0° F (-20° C) without any heating.
It's also important to learn how to save seeds. Without this knowledge, you won't have anything to grow once your seed packets are empty.
Good info, thank you
Swiss chard is incredibly nutritious! You can dehydrated or freeze dry it and then powder it to add to regular meals for an extra boost. I make my own veggie stock with this method. You can too! Good luck 💖
We're thinking of adding an inflatable hot tub to the greenhouse to grow year round.
If they aren't heirloom they won't produce true to same fruit/veggie so it's not going to be the same next perfectly the next time you harvest. Gmo fields etc make sure of that. Hope this helps.
@@seekeroftruth9900 That's an important point. With seed-saving in mind, you'll want to buy open-pollinated seeds that are produced locally (or in a similar climate). I even prefer biodynamic seeds if I can find it, they're the best in my experience.
Yes, sauerkraut is fantastic. I have a good supply of canned sauerkraut. I’ll end up planting Swedes not turnip or beets as I’m the only one in my family that eat the latter. I stopped growing as a hobby more than 10 years ago and have learned as many preserving techniques as possible. So glad I did because during the pandemic and the uncertainties of the invasion in Ukraine, I’ll have an abundance of food preserved or for fresh eating.
The incursion of Russia into Russian speaking Donbas (17 million) will have lasting effects on the EU as their potash, wheat, corn and oil, gas will go to Asia as they are more interested in survival (Indonesia) and ME Egypt (needs bread), Brazil ( needs potash)- then virtue signaling as the West has succumbed to in their pursuit of the Great Reset BS.
Great video and just in time :) Just a few thoughts: You may consider companying planting for healthy plants, for instance planting onions between carrots to keep the carrot fly away. There are perennial onions from which only the foliage is harvested. They grow back like chives and are hardy. They don`t need much space in your beds! Also herbs are important for a survival garden because of their medical properties and to lure pollinators to your garden, but also because they help keep your vegetable healthy as companion plants.
Love all your helpful videos! I was surprised to hear you mention field corn because it’s so rare these days for human consumption. It’s our favorite!! We cut off the kernels then run the blade of the knife down the cob to get the cream. Freeze it in pint or quart freezer bags, no blanching needed. It’s good for over a year in the freezer. When you cook it, just cool over low heat, adding salt, pepper, butter, and water. It takes a lot of water-making a larger quantity of food. So good with fried okra and fresh sliced tomatoes and onions-a Southern eating tradition.😋😋😋😋
That's an excellent overview! You'll get some folks off to a great start with this.
A nice thing about the bonus crops you mentioned is that they can be interspersed in the main garden, similar to how you described adding beans here and there. I've found that one or two pepper plants will settle in nicely among a bed of tomatoes, for instance. And we grow onions along one row of tomatoes every year, plus of course basil.
Many other herbs work well that way. That variety in diet you spoke of is so important. And having enjoyed them for years, I really do think all those popular garden companion plants help repel pests.
We also discovered that when growing beans meant to be used dry, it's wise to taste them young too. Some varieties are listed for both uses, some aren't spectacular when green, but we were pleased to find that fresh green pinto beans are among our favorites. So that was a fun bonus.
Three Sisters style beds should almost always be the cornerstone of the plan in my opinion. You can't really go wrong starting from there.
Thanks for sharing this. We are living in uncertain times, so having your own garden will be a bonus. Cheers, Scott! ✌️
I puréed summer squashes this year and they taste great. You could add them to soups/stews too. I did this because I have a dog with a liver shunt and I don’t want his meals to be boring RX food so I supplement with it. So easy to store in flattened ziplocks in the freezer and it’s good whether for my sickly dog or our family.
Your dog is fortunate to have you as his compassionate owner.
I would add sunflowers to this list. Very easy to grow, you can make both oil and flour out of them. And similarly to corn, they can also serve as a trellis to other plants.
This year I am going to find out if they can trellis cucumbers. Not on purpose. But because the vine cakes are going to be near them and will over grow everything.
And you can eat their seeds.
Yes, and you can sprout the seeds for a fresh salad in the winter.
@@DahVoozel our cucumbers vined right up my sunflowers last year. I couldn't reach some of them. 😂 I got the ladder out to harvest cucumbers.
Sunflowers are good but make sure their roots are at least 12 inches away from all other seeds planted otherwise they neither will do well except for planting other sunflowers next to each other. Sunflowers like marigolds put out something in their roots that NO PLANTS like or can stand, it stunts them. Hope this helps you all. ;)
in early human settlements the "beets" were sown so closely together that we think they were mostly grown for their greens (which was a long standing traditional dish in my home region here in germany: rübstiel)
My girlfriend and I are moving to a house in zone 9a in a couple months. Starting a garden is something we’re really looking forward to. I appreciate all the advice!
You are the most on-topic-TH-camrs I invest my time in watching. Very interesting, and very well done, concise, to the point, and, of course, on topic. Interesting point in sweet potato greens. With pointers to container gardening, as well as consideration of taste at the dinner table, you have surely thought about people's needs and concerns. Of all of TH-cam's gardeners, you are the Master Gardener!
Sweet Potato Greens also great for Chickens
When considering Beans, one of the most common green beans is also known by another name when allowed to dry, Great Northern Beans
i do not have a green thumb, but have gained confidence from your teachings. i recently stumbled on your videos looking to start a survival garden due to the current political climate. this and fermenting for your own fuel will be so valuable in a few months. thank you
When growing beets and turnips make sure you cook the greens, they are delicious!
When it gets hot out here in Colorado, I've found New Zealand Spinach grows unbelievably well through July and August. I had one plant cover a 2ft x3ft area through the middle of summer.
Thank you for this video I'm only starting to garden this year and need all the help I can get
Thanks. Very informative video! Don’t forget to have some flowers for the bees/ pollination.
Lots of valuable information here. I live in the North Florida Panhandle, Zone 8b, and while much of what your growing does well here, out growing situation is quite different. Our humidity levels a much higher, and our growing season is pretty much year 'round. We also have weed, disease and bug pressure here caused by the high humidity, as many of these problems are alleviated by your much colder weather. When I moved from Virginia to Florida, I pretty much had to learn gardening all over again.
I grow pretty much what you do. I preserve everything I possibly can by canning, dehydrating and freezing. I can seasonal vegetables and save most of the freezer space for meat. After a hurricane our power can be out for weeks, so I can meats as they thaw.
Peppers grow well here, and they are prime candidates for dehydrating. By dehydrating peppers, onions, celery and cabbage I can save a lot of valuable storage space. I would think this would work well for you, too.
Fermenting is also a good way to do many vegetables
This video is wonderful. Full of great wisdom. We are currently in survival mode in many other ways and now I am ready to order more of all these seeds. God bless and thank you.
+1 on sweet potato leaves. Very prolific and tasty cooked or raw
Great list! I’m I zone 9B and growing a purple variety of sweet potato slips now. I still have a couple of tasty winter squash stored from last year’s small crop and will do more this year. I really wish I had room for corn, but will plant all I can. With food prices going up significantly, I will be planting more this year. No better time for a vegetable garden than now!!
I did purple sweet potatoes last year and they came out ok. I’m not doing them again. I’ll do regular sweet potatoes.
Great video and packed with great suggestions for the world we're living in now. Thanks!
What a great list! Starting our own survival garden next month once as we are finally moving to a place on the land in Spain (from Germany) - thanks a ton for all your content Scott! 🙏
Good luck and congratulations! There's nothing more exciting than moving and setting up your first garden or other homesteading plans.
Try to keep in mind that new/first gardens usually don't perform as well as future years. You learn about how to grow in your available soil and you improve the soil of your garden beds as you practice.
Another tip is to dig your beds by hand - when you are too tired to do any more, that should be the size of your first garden as you will be able to maintain that with all the additional work you need to do through the growing season. As you feel more comfortable with gardening, dig more beds but always keep in mind the work you need to do afterward.
Other than that? Have fun. If you aren't having fun doing it, try something new - make your beds round, or spiral; try a funky new plant or an old plant but grow it in a new way; add something interest8ing from a seed catalog that you haven't tried before; try one of the differently colored varieties (I'm trying some purple beans and adding zinnias to my beds.).
Make sure to mix flowers in your beds/growing plans. They'll attract pollinators and being someplace pretty is good for you, too!
Vườn nhà bạn rất rộng lớn,trồng cây và trồng rau rất tuyệt.và có thể trồng cây măng tây rất tuyệt vời.
I'm in a different climate from you, low desert. So I love to grow sweet potatoes (year round), tomatoes, and peppers. I also have orange and fig trees that produce plus some younger fruit trees. Also strawberries.
I plan to grow zucchini and carrots soon and will plant spinach this autumn.
Haven't yet tried peas and beans, but your video inspired me to try them too.
We must be Capricorns! It is crazy how timely you posted this video!! All day I feel like I need to be getting ready for Armageddon! LIKE IT'S 1999🤣 Seriously, I just sent text relaying my thoughts to SIL and happened to see notification of your video with a titled that seemed to have beamed right out of my head. The only difference between 1999 and now is it's happening!! I ordered fruit to start an orchard today, seed potatoes--And I realized kennebecs are determinates🤣🤣 All that hilling for nothing.
All I think about with stocking up is all those canned goods in my in-laws basement (from 1999) we had to clear out when they passed on. I'm passing on the canned plums.🤣 Thanks Scott--Great timing!
Butternut squash is delicious and nutritional. Sure stores well.
Glad to find you, great video. Nice to see someone a bit farther north, so many gardening channels are fairly far south and I'm up in zone 2a.
Thanks. You definitely have some challenges in zone 2. I hope my videos can help.
love turnips n beets..good video..I like eating the peas in their pods too! cheers from Australia!😁
This is how I have organized crops and Diet, just some examples..
Meat, Tato, Spices
Grains, Beans
Curbits, Nightshades, Cole, Taps
Vegetal
Meat - Beast, Fowl, Fish
Tato - Breadfruit, Plaintain, Yam, Taro, Cassava, Sweet Potato, Potato, Dazo, Wapato, Anchote, Ulluco, Oca, Mashua, Crosne, Yacon, Sunchoke, Dahlia
Spices - Bloodroot (Australia spice), Allium, Piper, Zinger, Mustard/Wasabi/Horseradish, Chili, Tasmanian, Szechuan, Peppermint,
Grains - Maize, Wheat, Rice, Quinoa,
Beans - Common, Mung, Lupin, Lentil, Fava, Soy, Pea, Chickpea, Pigeon Pea, Velvet, Horsegram
Curbits - Butternut, Pattypan, Cucumber, Chayote, Caigua,
Nightshade - Eggplant, Tomato, Physalis, Tamarillo
Taps - [Salsify, Burdock, Chicory,] [Carrot, Parsnip, Parsley, Chervil, ]
Vegetal - Bean Pod, Okra Pod, Rat's Tail Radish Pod, Asparagus, Fiddlehead
Very timely topic that hits home here. I am retired and 5 years vegan. I want to expand my garden to be a little more self reliant. You got me thinking that maybe I should up my game just in case….
I'm vegan too (30 years). What are your plans for growing protein sources?
@@76not84 30 years vegan. Bravo! This year I am a little obsessed with the 3 sisters (which I have never done) and have a variety of beans I plan to grow with them. I do have a 3X3 fava bean box that is just fruiting. What do your typically grow?
my favorite windowsill and balkony veggies are:
1. radish
2. carrots
3. root parsley
4. common chive
5. welch onion
6. leek
7. cocktail-tomatoes
8. pepper wort (aka cress)
9. soy bean sprouts
10. ramson
super easy to grow and most of them grow very fast and some of them grow back reliably when their bases are spared.
I just discovered your channel....thank you so very much for this. Getting started on it now and am very excited about this. We see bare shelves in the grocery store now and we've just made it back home after our town and surrounding communities burned to the ground in November of 2018 (the Camp fire). Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this.
Sorry to hear you were affected by the Camp fire. I hope you have a great gardening year.
Good-day Gardener Scott! 🖐 I grow to have food year round...like when the ice storm hit Central Texas last year. I had kale, sweet potato greens, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and much more in the freezer and dehydrated that kept us eating well.
I don't think I heard you mention collards. They are packed with nutrients and can be frozen or made into a green powder to add to foods.🙂
I also freeze broccoli leaves and powder some of them to add in my green powder mix.
I'm adding green garlic to my crops this year and secession plantings spring/bunching onions. I'm growing main crop garlic and onions too; however, green garlic and spring onions can be harvested quicker to keep my dishes tasty.🙂
Collards are a good choice. I considered grouping them in with kale and spinach. Green garlic is a good way to grow it.
Also in central texas...still haven't found a good storage for food...no basement, on a hill with rocks....working on it :)
You just gained a subscriber. We're a military family of 7 and struggling so Thank you so much!!!
Thanks! Welcome to the channel.
@@GardenerScott thank you ☺️
Great list! For me the ability to store threw the winter is key. Spring, summer and autumn i can forage alot of things in the wild. In Sweden no matter who owns the forest you have the right to enjoy it forage berries and so on. So the winter is the main struggle for me. Early in spring there is dandelions for example you can eat the whole plant even the taproot and they are very early in the season, i actually use the yellow blossoms regularly in sallads their def not that bad, the leaves and stalks are quite bitter but still edible so in a survival situation is an awesome weed. Stinging nettle is another great weed that is actually very nutritious, young tender leaves is best as the older bigger leaves is quite high in nitrogen. Just some examples thats readily available to me early in spring. Learn the wild plants in your area that you can eat, most may not become your fav food but in a survival situation can be great.
So in my opinion learning the wild edible plants in your area is a good thing and great compliment to your own garden, specially if your not prepared when shit hits the fan.. Expect the best, prepare for the worst!
Another thing that might be good to know is how to store things under ground, here in Sweden and i guess many other cold regions of the world thats how they stored many crops during the winter. So learning that could be a grest thing to do also, because if somethong bad happens you perhaps cant expect to have electrocity for your fridge.
I have been cultivating a section of wild plants in my garden for years. I n winter (mild here) we enjoy stinging nettle, sow thistle, wild arugula, wild mustard and a few others along with domestic greens I grow. With spring coming, nettles and mustards are going to seeds. I prolong the season by careful pruning giving plants that got too big and tough to the chickens. Chickweed is starting to proliferate and I see purslane andf some others coming up.
my favorite wild plants to harvest from here in germany:
1. strawberry
2. blueberry
3. blackberry
4. raspberry
5. cloudberry
6. elderberry
7. burning nettle
8. ramson
9. sorrel
10. red clover
11. mossberry
12. wild carrot
Dandelions n stinging nettle, both of which I have tons of: r what I feed goats with not humans.
Fantastic information for all to possess. Thank you for a timely video. Off setting grocery cost is very helpful.
This is a Must see video right now!
Well done Sir, and thank you!
I would make an argument for peppers... one of the tri-color, I think the yellow but go double check, is the highest source of vitamin C found in food. So I would grow it for the vitamin c to stay healthy and help fight off illness.
Also, sunflowers are not only beautiful and attract pollinators to your garden, harvesting them for the seeds can give you a long storage form of healthy fat. In a survival situation, you can’t forget your essential fats. We tend to think about calories, which is important, but there are no essential carbs. There are essential fats. We can actually survive on far less calories than we think, but we need fat to keep our brains working, among other things. In a survival situation, especially if animal products are hard to come by, growing something with some fat content is important.
HA! I'm in New Mexico. I'm waaaaaaay ahead of most on the pepper question. NM Green Chile is a thing, and I already have something like 90 plants up. It may not be as high as the yellow peppers for vitamin c, but as much as I eat, it doesn't matter. It's still higher than citrus. The state flavor here is pain.
I think lemons would find your comment extremely offensive.
@@Farmynator Lemons would die in my climate without special care.
@@elvaquero5554 I’m a pepper freak myself and have an insane pepper plant collection that I overwinter every year.
Sounds like the perfect garden plan to me! Thank you for this informative video!
my favorite windowsill and balkony fruit includes:
1. strawberry
2. blueberry
3. currant
4. gooseberry
5. mossberry
all very easy to grow and when nursed well, always profitable fruit producers.
thanks for sharing! I have all of these on my list to grow this year
Great content. Watching this vide, I realise Theneed to diversify more. I' will surely grow beans for their rich nutritional value. I grow tomatoes and kale already. Thanks for your work.
With corn, people need to learn about nixtamalization if you're talking survival garden. Nixtamalization is the process of using a base (as in acidic vs basic kind of base) to soak and/or simmer the corn until the pericarp comes off. I often just use wood ash (potassium hydroxide,) but I've used pickling lime and baking soda too. FYI, if you do this with mature sweet corn, you will have nothing left. Feild/flint/dent/flour corns only.
The reason you want to do this is because the niacin in corn cannot be absorbed by your body until it is done, and it makes it easier to digest. If you don't do this and you don't have another source of niacin in your diet, you can get a disease called pellagra, which can be fatal. Once this is done, your corn is now hominy, and if ground into a flour, is masa harina.
Edit: Also, corn + beans + squash = complete protein. You need all three if meat/animal products aren't avaliable. I have some tepary beans. You ought to look into those. They're probably the most drought tolerant crop in the world, and if you give them a bit of water, one plant can produce hundreds.
Hi G Scott, I grow onions . The bunching onions all year round in my area. Great content. Blessings🙏🏻
Come down south aways. Grow year-round and much food can flourish in part shade here in Georgia.
Good choices! I would add radishes. Now that I've learned to cook them in stews and soups with turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, potatoes, and carrots, I see them as a nutritious, delicious, and fast-growing crop. Plus, the greens make them a two-crop vitamin-rich plant. Garlic, herbs, and onions are a must-have to make everything else taste better, as you can put them in any spot available.
Terrific list. I grow all of them. But I do grow lots of potatoes, 16 different types actually. This show is absolutely amazing. Gardener Scott is an encyclopedia. Thank you Sir !
The moringa tree awesome for nutrition and can withstand dry environment. Dosn't have evasive roots and most of plant can be consumed. 😎
They call it malungi in India and the Philippines where its native. Only place you can grow it is the southern parts of Florida Texas, Louisiana and California. You shouldn't eat it if you are taking high blood pressure medicine or diabetes medicine. Have you ever had it? It's very sour. Just the tiny leaves are edible. You add them to soups if you want them sour. So it's not the miracle plant everyone keeps talking about. It's great for certain dishes in the tropics.
I just made beet greens for the first time, fried in bacon fat ... VERY GOOD.
Great list, thanks for this video. Your voice is so calming too. 🙂 I'm almost ready to put in my fall garden, and I have plans to add most of what's included in this list.
Summer garden went great for me this year in terms of tomatoes, squash, and garden berries. I just canned up tons of tomatoes, salsa, and marinara. The first round of winter squash just came in, and my flint Indian corn did wonderful! Going to make a beautiful fall arrangement with some of it and grind the rest for flour and cornmeal.
I hope to have a great autumn/winter garden here in coastal CA..
Thank you for presenting this. My husband and I were discussing things we may want to have on hand including flour, yeast and sugar. Fresh produce in our own backyard is our goal as well.
13: Sunchokes. I planted some 4 years ago, and I'm still trying to kill the damn things. The roots are edible, and they grow like weeds. The only problem you will have growing them is trying to keep them contained.
I'm still canning tomatoes from last year. I freeze them until ready for processing. I season and stew before I water bath can because stewed tomatoes are versatile.
Bravo! We all need mentors!!!
Thankyou. Excellent talk ! We have a backyard greenhouse and a large garden, always looking for helpful points. We are able to have lemons and oranges in the greenhouse all year, BC. Interior. Will be checking out your other videos.
Excellent video and information. My wife can't eat certain greens you listed, it just messes up her stomach. So, we grow what she can eat: broccoli and collards. Everything else you mentioned is in or going to be in our garden. I really wanted to add four more raised beds before spring, but the cost of building them and filling them w/ a proper soil mix is looking to be a bit pricey!
You really don't need a wooden frame to do raised bed gardening. In fact it's not my preferred way to do it. Simply mounding up your soil gives you all the same benefits along with a little extra growing space on the curves of the beds for things like carrots or garlic.
I have a problem eating muskmelon--feels like I have the flu after a small bite. Had allergy test long time ago and showed mugwort might be an allergen. Melon falls into that category.
I'm adding more RBs also. To keep it low cost I am digging out the good garden soil where the bed is going and placing my oak tree trimmings down and putting the soil back on top. Believe it's the hugalcukture method. I don't plan on making the beds very high. We have drought and Sandy and it seems to help last beds that had small twigs and leaves before the soil. The larger trimmings should work better this time.
@@Javaman92 That's a great idea also and one I may use. Sort of a no dig or lasagne method.
@@Javaman92 I agree, I don't advise wooden beds either. As Dusty said, use what you've got available and layer up some organic material. More is better, but even a couple inches of twigs and leaves and such will help with drainage, and then put your preferred soil on top. If you leave roots in the mound and dump some more compost and mulch on it a couple times a year, you'll be happy.
Lumber is too expensive to build ground beds with now, and they always seem to need replacing after a couple years anyway. I'd spend money on more compost, not boards :)
Loved this episode only wish you would have listed them in the description so we could take a snap shot to save for future refrence. Great content and enjoyed watching!
Thanks so much for this list and for including your rationale. Very helpful!
Thanks for sharing Scott - I'm beginning my gardening journey this spring! Your videos are so clear and I love your attitude.
I ve been growing a big part of my food for some years. I focus on things that grow easily and a lot. Basically potatoes and zucchinis; im in a cold climate and potatoes ALWAYS work here. In the winter time my root cellar is stocked with potatoes and other root veggies and some random fermented/pickled stuff. I forage and grow some greens and i dehydrate those fir winter (specially nettles!). I pickle, ferment and freeze zucchinis and whatever else happened to be a succesful crop in the season. We have very unpredicrable weather conditions, so u never know how things will go and grow 😋 except the potatoes. Those are literally a life saver here. Fortunately i know many yummy ways to cook the spuds 🤣
I btw even feed cooked potatoes to my chickens as part of their diet plan. Works very well 😊
Fabulous video!! Very detailed and packed full of essential info without being too overwhelming :) I'll be sharing it with many, thank you!!
Thank You , G Scott.
Thank you. That helped me to decide what to plant.
As always, very interesting and helpful.
The only thing to consider is where you plan to do this growing?
If the sh_t hits the fan and people who don't have their own supply are hungry they will not hesitate to take what they can from anywhere they can.
So you either have to have a good Security System in place and also be able and willing to protect what you grow ..........or you grow where people don't see what you have or have access.
For those living in Apartments with flat rooves there could be an option to establish 'Gardens in the Sky'.,,....still not fool proof but much more secure than most.
That was really informative. I only have a balcony but I always grow runner beans in containers with cane wigwams and tomatoes in planters during the summer and into autumn. I make compost with veggie peelings and one year I accidentally 'did a Martian' as many of the tater peelings grew into plants so I now grow potatoes as well, along with some herbs. I've been doing some research into small space growing and have decided to try spring onions as they don't take up too much room and can take the place of ordinary onions in cooking. Great idea to grow carrots in the sides of planters, as I eat a lot of those, so I'll have a go at that this year too. And I might try and make some space for peas! Great info and really enjoyable video. Thank you. :)
My balcony is full, I love my GreenStalk which is a huge space saver growing a variety of herbs, beets, carrots, Bok Choy, red cabbage. Potatoes and have Bush beans and pole beans, Sweet 100 tomatoes which are semi determinant but still grow into trees. I am setting up an inexpensive hydroponic system in my room, so I can grow my favorite lettuces and other food year round. Beans and peas grow well with less sun. I have marigolds as well great to keep bugs away, and can be eaten.
@@karenreaves3650 That sounds great, Karen. I keep marigolds too (what we call calendulas, or South African marigolds) - as well as other flowers - and they work really well, plus they're gorgeous with their bright orange flowers. A book I've just read about growing veggies in small spaces also suggests violas in the front of planters as they don't take up much room, look lovely and their petals also make nice edible additions to sweets and salads. I love flowers so I also have a lot in other planters but I'm going to ask them to budge over a bit this year for some extra veggies. That's a great idea to set up hydroponics indoors. My flat is choc-a-block with indoor plants but I've still got a bit of room in a sunny patch to grow tomatoes this next winter and I might try your idea of growing lettuces too, as salad is always welcome to add to meals. Cheers, Karen. All the best. :)
Hi Scott, great video on which plants can be grown for survival, lots on information too. Thanks for sharing and take care 🙂
Have to say I'm always skeptical when I see videos titled like this, but your's was very good. Excellent advice.
great video. just advise a few you might not have thought of. Fava beans. you plant them in fall and as soon as it can they will start growing. they will produce early and you can plant other things and it enriches your soil wit nitrogen. the other is yanking out every dandelion you see in the grass or anywhere and plant the root and all side by side in the garden. here again it will produce and grow very early cut all the leaves before the flower comes up, they can get very big. planting seed for some reason does not work. and the other one is parsley. here again just grows like crazy in the spring then it just dies back and reseeds itself. you can even eat it as is or mix finely cut leaves and stalks with ground meat for meatballs. hear again produces early then you ca plant something else.
Thanks Gardener Scott I get a lot of help out of yours videos. God bless your family
One of the most informative vids you’ve done! Thank you sir! Amazing channel! One of 5 I recommend to new gardeners.
16:45 I just knew a bird smoked the window but it was snow falling lol awesome video love it
I'm new to gardening and I planted sweet potato in a large storage bin left them there for the whole summer, and autumn and I harvested them in the dead of winter. I pretty sure that I probably broke alot of rules when I did this but I brought the bin in side because It was to cold and I harvested what I later found out is called " fingerling" sweet potato. Well I ate it and feed it to my family and I can't wait to try it again. I just don't know if there's any thing I should worry about when doing but it was good 👍
I grow sweet potatoes in zone 6. They store amazingly, and we are still eating last summer's
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes ( if you can grow your own, I've never been successful growing them), asparagus ( not a huge harvest but lives for several decades), winter squash, those are the bulk of my garden. Beets, radishes and lettuce is a given if you are looking for fast growers. I love kale and turnips and collards and grow well in the deep south.
Storage is half the equation. A storage failure can erase a years worth of growing. Also when seed saving, avoid hybrids.
Chinese yam was a forgotten perennial potato like tuber and grow potatoes on the vines and are perennial. Jursuleum artichoke are good to grow to and grow beautiful big sunflowers that cold hardy. In the tropics taro is good and can grow in cold climates to as annuals and you can buy roots at grocery store same with jursuleum artichoke, also ginger and turmeric. Chinese artichoke is good to and are perennial. Skirret is like Perennial carrots. Tree collards are perennial and sea kale are perennial kales. Long bean make big beans that can feed you a lot. Same with faba beans.
Beans, get a multiple use (cut, fresh, dried) heirloom variety. Good at every stage and I find the seeds propagate well from year to year. I have been propagating from my original seed purchase for at least a decade now.
WOW! So cool to find out you are in Colorado.
love this channel and just found it. I would also add that it makes sense to grow what you CAN grow, taking into consideration the space you have and the climate you live in. Don't feel bad for not growing a huge garden if all you have is a handkerchief sized yard. You can grow UP, too, on trellises.
I like the tip of slotting in other crops where you can. I had left over garlic to plant so I carefully slotted it around my strawberries, not 100% sure what will happen there as I'm concerned about the strawberries growing over it (should be fine as I'll be removing runners) but it's a fun experiment.
I mixed strawberry and garlic two years ago. It worked very well!
Garlic & strawberries are great companion plants. To Gardener Scott's point, definitely plant in those empty spaces around your garden to maximize your yield.
Just make sure you research companion plants first as certain types of plants don't work well together. I.e. garlic works great with tomatoes & peppers, but don't plant it too close to cucumbers or beans.
@@Jeff_PNW Have you actually seen that tested? So many 'garden wisdoms' have turned out to be complete bunk (need to dig, need to wash everything in winter, can't transplant most crops, can't sow/plant into rich compost, can't compost blighted tomato (true in USA) ) and I'm doubtful of things like that these days.
I don't see why garlic would affect beans when in most cases bean flowers come after garlic is harvested.
@@Scott3387 I have experimented with this myself. Garlic & beans will grow just fine together, but the beans will taste like garlic. Definitely don't plant garlic with cucumbers unless you want to make lots of garlic-flavored pickles (I've made that mistake, lol.) Interestingly, garlic planted with tomatoes or peppers doesn't make them taste like garlic but it does make them more flavorful, AND the garlic deters a lot of pests. Like I said, research companion planting. Most of what you'll find about this topic is pretty solid information.