Seed tips

When survival gardening, try to use open pollinated, heirloom seeds. These seeds are more robust and will often self-seed for a persistent crop. Use permanent plantings, like clover, day lilies, Jerusalem artichokes and globe artichokes. There are many more perennial plantings of edible foods possible. Try to choose plantings that compete well with weeds. Even wild blackberries are a good survival plant, yielding tea and fruit. Here is a page from my web site on how to cultivate wild blackberries.
This picture is of a street planting of day lilies in a large concrete planter. Few people know these are edible and I believe I am the only one who harvests any, although many people pass this planter daily. I take only a few here and there.



Here is a picture of the edible day lily flowers and pods.


Here is my web site.

Persistance pays off

Gardening for survival requires a high level of persistence. The growing conditions are usually not optimum and the growing sites may be widely scattered. If you are considering survival gardening, you need to understand that in the beginning stages, it may be a lot of hard work.

Finding good, safe growing spots, selecting plants, doing soil improvements, etc. all take a lot of time and energy. But just like building raised beds, once the initial setup is completed, the work load goes down dramatically.

Hauling soil in small batches and hauling small amounts of water to widely scattered places can be quite time consuming. If at all possible, choose place that are close together or, best, choose one larger plot that can be disguised. You will save a lot of work if the growing places are close together.

Choosing the right plants

When survival gardening, it is important to be choosy about which plant varieties you plant. Some plants need a large amount of care and attention to succeed. Others can be left to grow virtually wild and unattended.

Some things to keep in mind when choosing plants varieties are:
How much water does it need and how regularly?
Does it need nutritional supplements to thrive?
What type of soil does it need?
Does it compete well with weeds?

These issues will tell you whether or not to use a particular plant variety. Survival gardening and especially stealth gardening, both impose restrictions that are not encountered in a normal home garden. There may be water shortages in a stealth garden. Or plenty of water available and no way to water the plant regularly.

If the soil is poor, it will be hard to get a usable crop from heavy feeders, such as some onions or squash varieties. Is you are stealth gardening, you may not be able to attend to the plantings regularly and weeds will be a problem. Growing weed and drought resistant plants will be helpful in these conditions. Choose the plants wisely and you will have a crop.
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