What to Garden In Hard Times? – Part I

What to Garden?: We’ve been looking for some strong ideas on WHAT to garden in hard times for quite a while now here at PrudentHome. Not just food that’s pleasing to the palate or helpful to the family economy; those things are important and they come pretty naturally given the present circumstances  in our country. But what do you garden/grow to keep you and your family healthy and well fed (i.e., calories, vitamins and minerals) in a small space if things should get substantially worse? We believe we’ve found a good, small guide to give us all some answers to this question.

We’ll go right to our guide book in just a moment but first it might be useful to look at some context Charles Hugh Smith provided for us yesterday at his Of Two Minds website (oftwominds.com) in his post “Grain, Drought and Systemic Risk”. Here’s some context from that article:

• “Nobody realizes that only 1% of the US population are real farmers. 70% + of our food supply is grown by them in a relatively small area of the Midwest between Southern Minnesota to Texas and Eastern Nebraska to Ohio. So most of our food, the only thing we need every day to survive, is grown by 1% of the population in the middle of the country whereas most of the population lives within 20 miles of the coasts.”
• “There used to be a lot if grain stored up courtesy of the government, but that was all gotten rid of in the 80’s so that the money used for it could be spent on social programs. So now we have no contingency plan for this occurrence. Currently we are long overdue for a drought in that part of the US. If we get one there you can make your own conclusions as to what will happen.”
• ” … the global supply chains for the two necessities of industrialized civilization –oil and grain– are precariously balanced on a few large suppliers, a situation commonly termed as ‘systemic risk, ” meaning it is not temporary but an integral feature of the supply chain.”

Now for a look at “The Holistic Garden For Small Spaces” by  Clinton R. Craft. Let’s begin with Mr. Kraft’s Introduction:

• “Try to look into the future and you may see such problems as dwindling world petroleum resources, rampant human population growth (the world has hit 7 billion souls within the last week/PH), decreasing arable land, increasing reliance on food sources from distant locations, the greenhouse effect, the ozone hole, and unpredictable climate change. …  But there is something we can all do whether we live on a farm, in the suburbs, or even an apartment — we can all plant seeds.”
• ” … I decided to conduct a personal research project devoted to finding  THE MOST NUTRITIOUS PLANTS THAT CAN BE GROWN IN A LIMITED AREA (caps/PH) in temperate climates. I started collecting anecdotes and researching the available literature. I soon discovered that one group of plants was held in high esteem by a number of references. This group of plants I refer to as “The Super Seven of Nutritious Plants.” Plants that were recommended by at least one researcher or knowledgeable informant became “The Honorable Mention Of Nutritious Plants.” All these plants have a wide range of nutrients and yield their bounty in a limited area over a relatively short period of time.”
• “I soon realized while researching these plants that many of the varieties of vegetables that are ideal for home gardens are rapidly disappearing in favor of ‘modern hybrids” … open pollinated varieties of vegetables can be found that will equal or excel the gardening performance of any hybrid variety. The secret is to keep trying different open pollinated varieties until a variety is found that does well in your micro-climate.”

Next time, at mid-week, we’ll continue by discussing, ‘The Super Seven Of Nutritious Plants.”

Until our current week’s end then: keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers changing fast.