Comments on: Survival Food Series: 25 Survival Seeds You Need For Your Garden

By: Keeo

Keeo — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:35:30 +0000

I’ve never been able to get anything to grow in our sterile, sandy soil in NW FL, so after many frustrating attempts at urban farming, I decided to go the container route. Of course I had to invest in containers (on-sale plastic storage bins at Wally World, into which my husband drilled drainage holes), potting soil (some terrific Miracle Gro deals at Lowe’s), and a bit of mulch along with seeds and seedlings. So far I have a thriving “patio farm” with tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini, blueberries, and even a tiny Meyer lemon tree with 3 baby lemons growing happily! After the warm weather veggies are harvested it’ll be too hot for anything to grow until November, so the spent plants will go into the compost bin and the potting soil will wait out the summer until it’s cool enough to start the cool weather crops. When winter – hopefully – comes, the potting soil will go into large garbage cans to be mixed with compost and recycled for the coming spring. No soil diseases, no weeds, no problems! All I have to do is water well every day (sometimes twice if the weather is hot and dry)….what could be easier?! Thanks to Tess and others for your fantastic ideas.

By: Irene @ SmilingGardener

Irene @ SmilingGardener — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:17:26 +0000

I definitely need those for my garden. I mean who doesn’t like to have your own grocery store at your backyard since you can grow almost everything you need when you go on shopping.

By: Tess Pennington

Tess Pennington — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:00:21 +0000

Hi Dave,

I’m in zone 9. If my recommendations do not grow well in the area that you live in, do some research on which fruits and vegetables grow best in your area. In addition, find native vegetables and fruits that are acclimated to the weather there. Thanks!

Tess

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:32:33 +0000

Tess, a question, what Zone are you in? Some of your recommendations are really hard to grow here in the Rocky Mountains.

By: Wise Owl

Wise Owl — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:24:47 +0000

One of the best methods for gardening is The Square Foot Method. I have been doing this for a few years now and it works great. It reduces the amount of weeds which is major. You can buy the book, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew on most book buying sites. This is the best way for someone just starting to get into gardening to learn. Its easy, very affordable and produces great yield. Happy Growing Everyone!!!

By: kat

kat — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:34:17 +0000

Nick in New Zealand..I think that teaching kids early how to grow, harvest, prepare their own vegetables is a fantastic idea. Imagine that? Teaching kids useful skills that can be applied throughout their entire lives!! All I learned to do was diagram sentences.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:38:53 +0000

I think more people need to start growing their own crops. It’s not that hard once you know what you are doing. Here in New Zealand where I live many schools now teach children from a very early age how to grow your own vegetables. The kids just love it.

By: Tess

Tess — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:53:19 +0000

Hey Van,

Thanks for checking out this article. It is important to research the nutritional content of the seeds you want. Additionally, since you are already buying seeds, you may also want to check out buying currants, black grapes, muscadine grapes, lentils, tay berries, rasberries, and some herbs for medicinal uses.

I am coming up with my “master list” right now as far as seeds go and I am trying to take into account that eating the same types of food will cause food fatigue, so I am trying to buy seeds that offer the greatest diversity as well as nutrition.

I hope this helps. Best of luck to you.

Tess Pennington
Ready Nutrition

By: Van

Van — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:39:55 +0000

Except for 2 that I already have, I just ordered seeds from my fave online seed shop for each of these. Nice list. Gonna practice some more growing skills this winter in the new indoor greenhouse I just bought off of Amazon.