A Survival Tips and Techniques Blog | UrbanWoodsman.com

Update on my bunnies and the container garden on the deck. Rabbits are doing great and growing fast. Container garden is not doing very good though.

I beautiful fall day enjoying my yard and putting my garden to sleep for winter.

Whilst we are right in the middle of winter, thoughts of developing the garden are almost certainly not top of your to-do list, but in all honesty, this is exactly when you should be thinking and planning ahead. We are all guilty of waiting for some decent, hot weather to evaluate our gardens and then it’s all hands to the pump.

If you want to achieve your perfect garden, the ideal approach is not to rush it. Plan well ahead and think about the key criteria for your outside living area. Here’s a basic check list of points to consider to get the thought process started:

- Safety and security: is the garden safe and secure? Do the boundary lines / fencing need attention? Have there been recent additions to the family which mean the outdoor pond is now a potential hazard? What about the tress – are there any dubious looking trees which are best removed? Can more be done to discourage unwanted intruders from your outdoor space?

- Sanctuary: does the garden offer sufficient privacy from the outside world? Can you do anything to enhance your outdoor room’s “secluded haven” credentials? Could you introduce additional shelter features?

- Entertainment zone: how easy is to entertain friends and family in the garden? Is there a natural space to entertain? How accessible is it to the kitchen? Is it big enough to accommodate your average regular number of guests? Is it sited in the right place ie warm but with some natural shelter?

- Lighting: could you improve upon the existing lighting scheme for your garden? Are there particular features that could benefit from additional accent lighting? Do you have security lighting? Are you using the most cost efficient form of lighting?

- Future perfect: is your garden environmentally friendly? Could more be done to encourage visiting wildlife? Have the materials featured been sourced responsibly? Is it possible to introduce recycling initiatives into your new garden design?

- Maintenance matters: do you need to spend less time maintaining your outdoor room? Are you looking to introduce improved low maintenance features into the garden eg additional hard landscaping, raised beds, mowing strips, an automatic irrigation system, planting of more resilient trees and shrubs?

Once you’ve identified exactly what changes you need to make to achieve your ideal outdoor space, it’s time to convert those thoughts into reality. Aside from the arrival of the new year and all our usual good intentions that inevitably come with it, winter really is the perfect time to begin the transformation of your home’s outdoor space for many reasons. Firstly most plants are dormant at this time of year so if the proposed garden make-over project involves a lot of cutting back of existing stock, it is more likely that the trees / plants will be able to survive this intervention and any other disruption caused by machinery etc. Also rather than having to plant out new trees and hedges from pots, in winter it is possible – and preferable – to use bare rooted stock. In addition to establishing early successful growth your pocket will benefit too, as bare rooted stock is traditionally cheaper to buy than pot grown trees and hedges.

Whatever the scale of project, you need to prepare yourself for some degree of disruption if work is to be carried out on the garden. If you can organise for the hard labour to be conducted during the winter months, you will minimise the interference to you and your family, as it is unlikely that you’ll be spending as much time outside at this time of year.

Grandma and Grandpa took the girls today, so I was free to work in the garden and WEED pretty much all day. It felt so good to catch up, especially since we’ve had a run of rain and everything is really taking off (especially the crabgrass!). Still have quite a bit to do, but I’m getting there. This is also a video response to Okieprepper’s garden update video, since he asked for garden video responses.

Garden Update on the backyard homestead. Good growth and lots of harvesting. Should really start to pick up in the next week or two.

Update on the garden. link to rain barrel how to. www.youtube.com

Could you and your family get off the grid and survive in a panic? Do you have enough seeds to plant a crisis garden to be able to feed your family? Do you have the right kind of seeds to plant? If you’re answering no to these questions, you need to stop wherever you are and ask yourself one very important question. “What would I do if the grocery stores closed and I could not buy food?” The answer is that you and your entire family would probably go hungry unless you have survival food stocked away.

Have you ever grown a garden? Most Americans have grown them for tomatoes or some of their favorite foods. This has been an exceptional way to reduce food expenditures and have fun at the same time. Yes it is work however it has always been rewarding work. Before I began thinking about the ever increasing problems in the world and this country I enjoyed growing tomatoes, broccoli, corn, peppers, beans and many other foods that we either ate or gave away to the neighbors. I will no longer give away what we cannot eat unless it is in exchange for a food I have not grown. I will now use canning methods to store all of the excess foods from my garden to create more survival foods for the future. In case the stuff hits the fan as is becoming increasingly likely I will process foods from my garden for our future consumption. However there is a problem in that most of the seeds that we use are HYBRID meaning that they will produce for a season (Maybe two) and the seeds from the hybrids will not germinate or reproduce again. These are known as terminator seeds in the industry and could kill you crisis garden plans for the long term. The other problem with these seeds is that the nutritional yield of these seeds is lower as seed companies and farmers have striven over the years to produce more, the nutritional value has declined in the end product that you buy in the grocery.

The answer to this problem is heirloom or open pollination seeds that have not been genetically altered. These seeds will produce year after year and produce some amazing results in nutritional value, you may not get as many tomatoes but they will have a vastly higher nutritional value and the seeds will reproduce. These seeds will assure that your crisis garden has a long term chance to ensure some of your family survival essentials. These types of seeds are still available but are highly sought after and increasingly unavailable for many varieties of food. I believe this is due to the 2012 believers and the TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) followers. Whatever your beliefs are the seeds are becoming increasingly hard to find and I would humbly suggest you stock up on your favorite varieties when you find them.

With the increasing prices of fuel driving up the prices of food it only makes that much more sense to start your crisis garden to lower your food cost for your family. I do not follow the 2012 or other groups however the economy has me worried and I am taking steps to add to my family survival essentials and prepare for the worst (even long term) as the national debt rises I know I will be negatively effected in the future. This is one way I can prepare for a disaster and lower my grocery bill at the same time.

Meat rabbits and garden update on the suburban homestead. 6-14-10

Garden update for April 10th. Day after our snowy weather. Herbs coming up in the garden and more seedlings in the greenhouse.

An update on our gardens. Lots of peas and carrots planted. Some swish chard, spinach, radishes, beets and summer turnips. And more seedlings in the greenhouse!! Visit us at www.homestead-acres.com Check out our forum at www.homesteadacres.ning.com