The last twenty years have seen more and more people engaged in the activity of survival gardening. With new gardeners, it is a hit-or-miss situation as to whether or not they are successful, and unfortunately some will give up even before they begin. It is important for new gardeners to ask the right questions, like how can you pick asparagus the first year.
The fact is, you can, but not all season long. The spears do come back each year in most regions, so one needs to allow the roots and tubers to mature. If a harvest is done for only about two weeks, then the plants are allowed to complete their cycle of maturity, the next Spring will see an even better crop.
Plants like broccoli are the opposite. It is an early spring blooming plant that will continue to generate florets until July, depending on what zone one is in. However, it is a plant that must be harvested daily, for if it goes to seed and produces yellow flowers, then no more florets will be forthcoming.
In some climates the seeds do not die, but it is generally recommended that the gardener try to harvest the seeds when they mature. This is only possible if they know for certain that they planted an heirloom variety of broccoli. Hybrids and GMO plants generally have seeds that are sterile and, while they might grow a plant the next year, that plant will generally not produce any fruit.
One thing seen in some of the new gardens around the country is a chicken run set up all around the perimeter of the vegetable beds. A chicken run is just what it sounds like. It is an area enclosed, sides and top, with chicken wire and this allows the chickens to roam the area, eating bugs one might not want in the garden, without getting in and damaging the vegetables themselves.
It may sound like they are not free-roaming, but guinea hens in the wild have a small territory. Chickens do not need to have acres of space to roam in, but the average back yard will do. Should one live in an area where such farm animals are forbidden may want to stick with hens and have no crowing roosters, and a privacy fence is also a good idea.
Most gardeners are doing so because they want to be able to feed their families in a crisis, and this is an excellent and noble reason. Some people do it so their children will have the experience in their childhood. However, the most informed of the people are growing their own food because they know the GMO foods in the grocery stores may not be as safe as the FDA would like people to think.
Another really good reason for survival gardening is so that the foods one eats are flavorful and vine-ripened. When fruits and vegetables are picked green and allowed to ripen in transit, they lack many of the nutrients, and they totally lack flavor. Young people these days do not even know what a tomato or a peach is supposed to taste like unless they have parents who garden.
The fact is, you can, but not all season long. The spears do come back each year in most regions, so one needs to allow the roots and tubers to mature. If a harvest is done for only about two weeks, then the plants are allowed to complete their cycle of maturity, the next Spring will see an even better crop.
Plants like broccoli are the opposite. It is an early spring blooming plant that will continue to generate florets until July, depending on what zone one is in. However, it is a plant that must be harvested daily, for if it goes to seed and produces yellow flowers, then no more florets will be forthcoming.
In some climates the seeds do not die, but it is generally recommended that the gardener try to harvest the seeds when they mature. This is only possible if they know for certain that they planted an heirloom variety of broccoli. Hybrids and GMO plants generally have seeds that are sterile and, while they might grow a plant the next year, that plant will generally not produce any fruit.
One thing seen in some of the new gardens around the country is a chicken run set up all around the perimeter of the vegetable beds. A chicken run is just what it sounds like. It is an area enclosed, sides and top, with chicken wire and this allows the chickens to roam the area, eating bugs one might not want in the garden, without getting in and damaging the vegetables themselves.
It may sound like they are not free-roaming, but guinea hens in the wild have a small territory. Chickens do not need to have acres of space to roam in, but the average back yard will do. Should one live in an area where such farm animals are forbidden may want to stick with hens and have no crowing roosters, and a privacy fence is also a good idea.
Most gardeners are doing so because they want to be able to feed their families in a crisis, and this is an excellent and noble reason. Some people do it so their children will have the experience in their childhood. However, the most informed of the people are growing their own food because they know the GMO foods in the grocery stores may not be as safe as the FDA would like people to think.
Another really good reason for survival gardening is so that the foods one eats are flavorful and vine-ripened. When fruits and vegetables are picked green and allowed to ripen in transit, they lack many of the nutrients, and they totally lack flavor. Young people these days do not even know what a tomato or a peach is supposed to taste like unless they have parents who garden.
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