Preppers: You May be Wondering If Survival Gardening Is Going to Be worth It
First, ask yourself what you have to compare it to other than what you are doing now as far as gardening. You may believe that from an economic standpoint and how much labor you invest in gardening it may not be worth it, but that is now, you do not likely need a garden to survive.
Gardening is hard work, raising your own food is not the same as running to the local grocery store as some have found out. Today if the tomato plant wilts and the blossoms fall off you run to the store for your tomatoes. The corn did not come in, oh well better luck next year, in a survival scenario there may not be a next year if the crop fails.
Gardening requires you put in the time, effort and have the skill. In today’s world, you have work, social obligations and social networks to keep up with and then maybe you have time to putter in the garden. Gardening for most people today is a hobby. In a survival situation, gardening is surviving.
People try to put a dollar amount on gardening, if “I raise so many potatoes how much money will I save at the store” for example. This may be the wrong way to approach it, it is not about dollars saved today but about how much you are investing in you and your family’s future survival. Building a skill set today, gathering knowledge now, is why you should be gardening today, because once things go boom is not the time to be rummaging around for trowels and seeds.
Is Gardening Practical or Even Safe In A SHTF Scenario
Should you wait to find out or should you develop the skills now. Isn’t it better to have the skills and not need them versus finding out you need them and you do not have a clue as to where to begin.
The cons some preach about on the Internet include “becoming a target because you have a garden hidden away”. This is an actual quote from a blog. First off, if the garden is hidden then how is it you are a target because of it, this is why you have to carefully review information on the Internet. Obviously, people are only stating what they think will happen, because no one has lived through a doomsday scenario, so firsthand knowledge is non-existent.
Your neighbors will hound you because you have a garden is another quote. Your neighbors may be dead, and in a SHTF situation, people will not be living harmoniously next to each other. Most people will assume the grass is greener on the other side and head off somewhere and never return. If you live in suburbia, the only ones likely to stay are those prepared to stay. The so-called sheeple will wander off looking for a handout from the government.
Some Perspective
A survival expert was asked. “What happens if you are stranded for 10 days and only have three days worth of food”. The answer was “well I get to eat for three days at least”. Some people are focused on the 100 percent instead of asking themselves is it better to eat for three days or not eat at all for seven days, if you do not know the answer to this give up now. If you can only raise one tomato that is one tomato more than you had yesterday, that is survival.
You have to get it straight that you will not live as well in a survival situation as you do right now. You may spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars trying to ensure your quality of living does not suffer when the lights go out. It may be a fool’s errand, because survival is hard work and is measured in minute’s, hours and by the day, and not having that tomato plant, or those pumpkin seeds may mean the difference between surviving and not.
The answer of course is yes survival gardening is worth it, you have to try and then try again and always have something else working. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Once the garden is in, set traps, go hunting and start looking for wild edibles, and do all of this before your stockpile gets any lower.
Roving Bands Will Strip Your Garden
They may and then they may not but are you really going to say to yourself “well if I put in a garden someone will just come along and steal it all, so I had better not”. You will likely have more produce eaten by insects, deer, and rabbits and the neighbors wandering goat, they left behind then by roving bands of thugs ( tie up the goat by the way, you will need it).
People will search for gardens because that is what some survival experts preach. However, respectable survival experts talk about finding abandoned gardens, where the homeowner fled the area and it is obvious the home is abandoned, that is just common sense.
The pros far outweigh the cons when it comes to gardening no matter where you live. Having a garden means you have a chance, not having a garden dramatically reduces your chances, so what will you choose.
The point of all this of course is that no one really knows, and because you do not know the prudent thing to do is to be prepared to have a survival garden. You have the time now to develop the skills, gather the knowledge, tools and materials. Once disaster does strike, you cannot run down to the local home and garden to load up on seedlings and do-it-yourself books.