Underground Food Gardend3l1h3n4or6wo9.cloudfront.net/UGAR/3percentreport/... · 2014-02-21 ·...

***Confidential Report***

Underground Food Garden


*** SPECIAL CONFIDENTIAL REPORT ***


By Caleb Lee

© UGAR LLC 2014 and Beyond

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

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DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES:

The information presented herein represents the view of the author

as of the date of publication. Because of the rate with which

conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update

his opinion based on the new conditions. The report is for

informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to

verify the information provided in this report, neither the author nor

his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors,

inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are

unintentional. If advice concerning legal or related matters is

needed, the services of a fully qualified professional should be

sought. This report is not intended for use as a source of legal

advice. You should be aware of any laws which govern the topics

discussed herein in your city, country and state. Any reference to

any person or business whether living or dead is purely coincidental.




Anyone who is doing any sort of emergency planning and preparing knows the

importance of stockpiling food.

It doesn’t matter if they’re long-time preppers or just on the edge of the prepping

community, they’ve working on building their food stockpile.

Those stockpiles can be anywhere from a few weeks worth of food up to several years

worth, depending upon the individual and how long they’ve been working on it.

No matter how big that food stockpile is, when a disaster comes, it will eventually run

out.

Those who have ten years worth of food stockpiled may not have to worry about it for

a while; but there aren’t too many people who actually have that much food in their

homes. Most of us only have a few months worth or maybe a year’s worth.

So what are you going to do when your food runs out?

We’re all used to just running down to the corner supermarket and stocking up. But if

you’ve started stockpiling, you realize that you might not always be able to do that.

You’re going to need some sort of alternate plan.

That’s where growing your own comes in; actually, you don’t need to wait until

things fall apart to start growing your own.

Many families have vegetable gardens in their backyards, growing vegetables to

augment the food that they buy at the grocery store. These people are saving

themselves a bundle of money, just by investing a little bit of time into having a

garden; an enjoyable pastime.

How much you actually save will depend a lot on your family’s eating habits.

When we started gardening, we had to make some changes to our diet, in order to take

advantage of what we were growing. Basically, we started eating more fresh fruits and

vegetables than we had before.



It was well worth it, as we were eating a healthier diet and saving money to boot. I’ve

seen cases where families have saved as much as half of their food budget by growing

their own.

Let me give you a third reason for having a vegetable garden.

Not only will it save you money and provide food for your family in a time of crisis,

but it can protect you from GMOs. There has been a lot of talk lately about GMO

fruit, vegetables, grains and even animals. Some of it may fall into the category of fear

mongering; but there’s a lot of it that really can’t.

The problem is, we really don’t know if GMO foods are a problem or not, because

they have never been properly tested.

Regardless of which reason you choose, or even if you choose all three, growing your

own food in a garden at your home is a good idea. You’ll have more nutritious food,

delivered fresh to your table, at a fraction of the cost of buying it at your local

supermarket.

Okay, so the next problem is figuring out how to do it.

We’ve all seen pictures of those people who’ve turned their backyards into a farm;

growing enough food to feel the whole neighborhood. But you probably don’t think

you can dedicate that much time or space to a vegetable garden.

Don’t worry, most of us can’t. You don’t really need to go to that much trouble to

create an effective garden that will help feed your family. In fact, you can do it in

much less space and for much less time.

Let me say something important right here. Many people try and start a vegetable

garden “on the cheap” putting a half-hearted effort into growing a few tomato plants

and a few other things.

They never get much out of their garden, because they never put much into it.

In the long run, you’re going to be better off if you invest the time and money to do

things right. You’ll end up with less work and more production out of your garden.



Types of Gardens to Consider

When most of us think of a vegetable garden, we think of something we’ve seen.

It might be a garden that a family member or friend has, or a picture of a garden that

we saw on the Internet. Regardless, we all have an image of what a vegetable garden

looks like.

That image may be affecting your thinking, convincing you that you can’t have a

vegetable garden. Maybe you think that you don’t have the space, you can’t because

you live in an apartment, or you just can’t do that much work.

Here’s the good news:

You can have a vegetable garden anywhere.

If nothing else, you can put some plants in pots on the windowsill. Granted, you’re not

going to succeed in feeding your whole family off of what you can grow in a few pots

on the windowsill, but it will be better than nothing.

Fortunately, you don’t have to limit yourself to a few pots on the windowsill.

Even with the most restrictive space, it is possible to make a garden which will

provide your family with a lot of food. All I takes is to find a way to use the space as

effectively as possible.

With modern gardening techniques, you can get much more produce per square foot

than you might realize.

Raised Bed Gardens

If you have plenty of space to work with, you might want to build a raised bed garden.

This would be an outdoor garden in your backyard. The garden would consist of a

number of planter beds, which are built above the ground level.

Typically, these beds are three to four feet wide, by however long you want them to

be. They can be as high as you want, although somewhere between six and twelve

inches tall is typical.



There are two big advantages of a raised bed garden.

First of all, by raising the bed above the level of the ground, you don’t have to bend

over quite as much to work in your garden as you would if your garden was at ground

level. Sitting on a stool puts a 12 inch high raised bed garden at a nice height to work

with. This is much easier on your back than having to bend over all the time.

The second big advantage of using a raise bed is if you have very poor soil to work

with. Some parts of the country have very sandy soil or soil with a lot of clay in it.

Neither of these is very good to work with, as they don’t provide the right mixture of

water retention and nutrients to the plants.

By putting in a raised bed, you give yourself the opportunity to put a good growth mix

into the beds, without having to dig out a hole in the ground to put the soil into.

Raise beds also give you the advantage of separating the garden area from the yard in

a visible way.

This can help to keep kids out of it (not always), keep your spouse from mowing

down your tomato plants and provide a nice landscaping element. It is also easy to put

in underground irrigation while building a raised bed garden (we’ll talk more about

that later).

Vertical Gardening

The vertical garden has gained a lot of popularity lately, especially amongst apartment

dwellers. You can put a vertical garden literally anywhere that you have space and

light for the plants. It makes extremely good use of space, so that you can grow a lot

of produce in a very small amount of area.

The idea behind the vertical garden is to use some sort of containers to seed your

plants in, so that you can have multiple tiers of plants growing in the same area of

floor space.

Originally, this was done by attaching the flower beds or pots to the wall and having

the garden attached to the wall like shelves. This is very effective, as long as you have

an available wall and can attach things to it. Some lease agreements don’t allow you

to do that.



You can also build a vertical garden by creating some sort of free-standing framework

to hold the planters. There are no limits to the different ways you can do this, other

than the limits of your own mind.

I’ve seen free-standing vertical gardens made out of PVC pipe A-frames, wire display

racks from stores and gutters attached to a wood framework.

Almost anything can be used as planters for a vertical garden. One very inexpensive

way to do it is to use plastic containers, attaching them to the framework that you

build. Plastic soda bottles, water bottles, and containers that food is bought in can all

be adapted to be used for planters.

One ingenious way of making a vertical garden is to make a number of tubes out of

the wire mesh used for animal pens. The inside of the wire mesh is then coated with

either landscaping fabric or coconut fiber matting. This is then filled with the soil or

growth media to be used. These freestanding towers are then planted by making holes

in the fabric sides and pulling the fabric out to make a little cup. The seeds are plated

in that cup, allowing the roots to grow into the soil inside the tower and the leaves to

stay on the outside.

Hydroponics

For those who live in an apartment, a hydroponics system might be a good option.

Hydroponics eliminates the soil that the plants grow in, having them instead grow

directly in water. To do this, the nutrients that the plants normally take out of the soil

are added directly to the water, so that the water is providing the nutrients needed

directly to the plants.

There are several advantages of growing plants in a hydroponics system, notably that

no soil is needed. This makes it easier to use a hydroponics system indoors or in other

areas where it might be inconvenient to use soil. Since the plants roots are in the water

constantly, there is less actual water consumption.

This system allows for exact control of the level of nutrients provided to the plants,

which provides for a savings in the nutrients as well. The plants grow healthier, with

less problems from pests and harvesting of crops is much easier.



This is not to say that hydroponics is perfect. It does require constant monitoring of

the nutrient levels. If nutrient levels are allowed to drop off, then plants can suffer.

Without soil to act as a buffer, this negative effect can happen quicker, with more

severe results.

There are two basic types of hydroponic systems; static and continuous flow. Often,

some sort of inert medium is used, especially with a moving water system. This

provides a place for the plants’ roots to anchor, keeping the plants from moving. A

static system is much like the science experiments that children do, “planting” a

potato or bean in a jar of water. Continuous flow systems work well when combining

hydroponics with the idea of vertical gardening.

Any continuous flow system requires the use of a pump to circulate the water. This

provides an excellent opportunity to automate the system by the addition of

monitoring sensors and injectors to add nutrients as needed. The nutrient laden water

is flowed through the system, providing constant water and nutrients to all the plants.

As the sensors are usually located at the end of the water’s travel, you can be sure that

all of the plants will receive the necessary nutrients.

When combining a continuous flow hydroponics system with vertical gardening, it is

necessary to develop a means for the water to flow through the system by gravity. The

pump takes the water from a reservoir to the top level of the garden and it flows

downstream slowly from there.

A very easy way to do this is to make the entire system out of PVC pipe. Holes can be

pierced in the pipe for the plants to grow up through. The pipe needs to be laid out to

provide for a flow rate of about one liter per minute. With this sort of system, a lot of

plants can be grown in very little space, without the problems that soil can cause

indoors.

Aquaponics

Aquaponics has gained a lot of interest in the prepping community.

This is essentially a modification of a hydroponics system. The major difference is the

addition of a fish tank to the hydroponics system. While fish are the most common



aquatic animals used in an aquaponics system, crayfish, snails and prawns can be used

as well.

With a aquaponics system, the fish’s waste provide the nutrients for the plants, which

filter the water for the fish, preventing it from reaching a level of toxicity that can be

dangerous to the fish’s health. Bacteria in the fish tank covert the ammonia in the

fish’s waste into nitrates, which the plants need.

Aquaponic systems are an excellent microcosm of nature, working efficiently and in

balance to provide nutrition. However, balancing an aquaonics system can be very

difficult. The larger the system, the easier the balancing process is. For those who try

and make an aquaponics system at home, it is not uncommon to have problems with

killing off several generations of plants and fish, as one tries to balance the system.

To assist with balancing the system, it can be very helpful to have a second fish tank

available. Fish (or other aquatic creatures) can then be moved out of the aquaponics

tank to the secondary tank and back, as necessary, until the right balance is achieved.

This secondary tank would need to employ other filtering techniques for the water, as

the plants would not be available to it.



Planning Your Garden

Like anything else, a successful garden starts with a well thought out plan.

While it might seem as if you could just start planting, you’ll end up with a much

better garden if you plan it out. As part of this plan, you need to determine what type

of garden you are going to make, and how you will go about building it.

Different plants require a different amount of space. As part of your plan, draw a

rough layout of how you will be planting. As much as possible, make that layout to

scale, showing distances between plants and rows.

Finding out how much space a particular type of plant needs is extremely easy. All

you need to do is to look at the planting instructions on the seed packet. If the seeds

need to be three inches apart, that’s how much space the plant needs in your plant

beds. If you are designing a vertical garden, you’ll need containers that size to plant

those plants in.

Some types of plants should not go by others, as they will affect their growth. On the

other hand, some types of plants such as mint, onions and garlic will help keep pests

away from plants that would otherwise suffer. There are even plants that will help

each other grow, such as beans, which actually put nitrates that other plants need into

the soil.

All plants need sunlight to grow, although some types of plants can grow well in the

shade of other plants. This needs to be taken into consideration when developing your

plan as well. Tomato and pepper plants grow up, so they end up creating a lot of

shade. All types of melons and squash spread out across the ground, also creating a lot

of shade. These plants need a considerable amount of space, although they don’t

really take up that much space in the ground.

If you can plan your garden so that melons and squash grow out of the beds into

adjacent areas, you will be able to make much more effective use of your planting

beds. I like to plant them on the edges of beds and allow the stalks to grow out into the

pathway. In my planning, I space those far apart, so that I can run the plant’s stalk

along the edge of the pathway, leaving myself somewhere to walk.



Not all types of plants will grow in all climates. Some require a cooler climate, while

others need heat. The amount of humidity, sunlight and rainfall can all affect growth.

Some types of fruit trees will not produce fruit unless there are enough days in the

winter that are below zero.

This map, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, defines the 9 growing

zones in the United States. When selecting what plants you want to grow in your

garden, be sure to check their growing zone, to make sure that they will grow in your

area.

Irrigation

If you are going to use any sort of irrigation system for your garden, you’ll need to

include that in your plan. There are several ways you can irrigate plants, ranging from

a watering can all the way up to fully-automated systems.

I prefer automated systems, as one of the easiest ways to kill your vegetable garden is

to get busy and forget to water it.



Even with fully automated systems, there are many different ways which you can go.

One of the simplest is to install soaker hoses underground. You can run up to 100 feet

of soaker hose off of a normal hose connection. If you need more than 100 feet of

soaker hose, simply put in a manifold and use multiple runs. When it is time to water,

each run is turned on individually for the necessary time.

One of the greatest advantages of soaker hoses is that they are excellent for

conserving water. Since the soaker hose itself is underground, the water is directed

right at the roots of the plants. Less of it is lost to evaporation, as the water is kept

underground.

Being underground, soaker hoses must be installed before planting your garden. If you

start your garden before putting in the irrigation, you might want to consider using

drippers instead. This type of irrigation system sits above the ground and consists of

small hoses with individual watering points for each plant. The drippers themselves

are place by the plant’s stem and adjusted for the amount of flow that is desired.

Drippers are harder to install than soaker hoses. The soaker hose can be run through

the garden and left underground. With a three foot wide bed, two runs of soaker hose

is sufficient to water all the plants. With a dripper system, the hose must be run to

each plant’s stem and a dripper installed there. This makes drippers excellent for large

plants, but not so effective for a lot of small plants.

Regardless of which type of irrigation system you use, you will be well served to

install an automatic timer. This installs at the hose connection and turns the water on

and off for irrigating your garden. Most timers will also work as a manifold,

controlling up to four separate zones.

The timer needs to be installed with an anti-siphon valve, to prevent anything from

going back into the city water system. This is essentially a check valve, which only

allows water to flow through it in one direction. You may also want to consider

installing a chemical injection port, so that you can add chemical fertilizers and other

chemicals as needed.



In the timer pictured, the water enters through the hose in the lower right-hand corner.

It passes through a filter to remove sediment, protecting the timer. The timer itself is

in the lower left-hand corner. It currently has two lines connected to it via the two

automatic valves on the bottom side of the timer (the grey boxes). There are two extra

lines in the cabinet where I have the timer (one labeled with the number “1”) for

expansion of my system to water my fruit trees as well. The angled device above the

timer is a pressure relief valve. Soaker hoses can’t handle more than 30 PSI of water

pressure.



Preparing to Plant

While you can plant directly into soil, you will do much better if you create a planting

medium which is a mix of different ingredients. The typical potting soil that you can

buy in nurseries is actually a mix of this type. By creating your own, you can save

money over buying one that is commercially made.

Of course, the size of your garden is going to affect the type of mixture that you

create. When I started my raise beds, I used pure compost for a growing medium. That

was a mistake. As the compost continued breaking down, it created heat, which

caused problems for the seedlings. By creating a mix of different ingredients, you can

provide the necessary nutrients to the plants, without creating that heat to scorch the

roots.

An excellent mix can be made out of:

Perlite – a volcanic glass

Peat moss – great for storing water

Compost – partially decayed vegetation, provides nutrients

Fertilizer – for nutrients

The same mixture can be used for both beds and vertical gardening. While you will

use equal number of packages of these materials, that will not provide equal volume.

Fertilizer comes in much smaller containers than the other ingredients. There are

many excellent fertilizers on the market. One of the most effective is fish emulsion.

This is a by-product of fish processing. It is a natural fertilizer, high in the necessary

nutrients for plant growth.

Mycorrhizal Fungi

Another excellent additive to your mixture is mycorrhizal fungi. This fungi attaches to

the roots of the plants, helping them to absorb water and nutrients. As such, it

promotes plant growth, increasing your yields.



Mycorrhizal fungi can be mixed into the plant growth medium or sprayed on top of

your beds. As a living organism, it will multiply throughout your garden, binding

itself to the roots and immediately making a difference in your garden.

One of the first times I used mycorrhizal fungi was to replace a burned and dead area

of my lawn. The deck of my riding lawn mower had broken loose and fallen, cutting

the grass off right at ground level. I live in a hot climate, so I have trouble keeping my

lawn growing if it gets too short. After several months of reseeding and fertilizing,

trying to grow grass in that burned off area, I sprayed it with the fungi. Within a few

short weeks, the grass had grown back and was healthy as the rest of my lawn.

When using mycorrhizal fungi, it is not necessary or even advisable to till the soil

every year. Doing so breaks up and scatters the fungi; reducing its effectiveness.

Rather, remove as much of the dead plants as possible and put them into your mulch

pile, add more growth medium as necessary and replant in the same place.

Worms and Insects

Worms are an important part of breaking down compost into soil, as well as aerating

the soil. If you don’t have a good worm population in your yard, it is highly

recommended that you import some worms and put them in your garden. They will

instantly start working to break down the compost, keeping the soil loose and mixing

the various components.

You should also put worms into your compost heap or bin, when you start one. They

will help prepare the compost for use in your garden, breaking down the plants and

turning them into usable compost.

Some types of insects can be very harmful to the plants in your garden. It is important

to keep an eye on what type of insect life is growing there. It can also be very useful

to add some predatory insects, such as ladybugs, to your garden. These will help keep

the harmful insect population down and will not harm your plants in the process.

Ladybugs, worms and other helpful insects can be purchased in most garden centers.

By using them, rather than chemicals to control pests in your garden and help your

plants to grow, you will end up with healthier produce, with no risk of the normal

contamination that comes from pesticides.



Picking Your Seeds

The right seeds make all the difference in the world.

A lot of the seeds in use today are genetically modified (GMO). You don’t want these

for your garden, whether you think that GMOs cause problems or not. GMO plants

cannot reproduce; their seeds are sterile. So you would need to buy new seeds for each

planting, rather than harvesting the seeds from your produce to use for the next

planting. That partially defeats the purpose of growing your garden.

Instead of GMO seeds, what you want are what is known as “heirloom seeds.” These

are the natural seeds which have been used for centuries. There are literally tens of

thousands of these types of seeds, preserved and distributed by organizations which

are concerned with preventing their distinction.

Whereas we might only see two or three different types of tomatoes in the grocery

store, these heirloom seed organizations might have 3,000 different types of tomatoes.

Some are better for eating, while others are better for making sauces out of. There are

unusual tomato breeds, such as ones that are black or multi-colored. Most of these are

not used commercially, because they don’t meet our image of what a tomato should

look like. The same type of variety exists for just about any produce you can imagine.

Commercial seeds used by farmers are either bred or genetically modified to provide

specific characteristics. One of the characteristics that they are looking for is high

yield. A tomato plant that produces ten pounds of tomatoes is more valuable than one

that produces only five. Another thing that they are looking for is that all the fruit

mature at the same time, in order to make harvesting easier. Finally, they want to

receive fairly consistent sized fruit and vegetables from their farms.

Heirloom seeds will not have consistent harvest dates. Instead of all your tomatoes

maturing at the same time, you will receive two or three at a time, over a several week

period. This is actually to your advantage, as it allows you to keep receiving fresh

produce from your garden.

The seeds from your produce can be dried and saved for replanting. In this way, you

can keep your garden going perpetually, without having to buy new seeds every year.

Seeds will lose their potency over time (3 to 5 years), so you really need to use the



oldest ones first. Keeping your seeds in a sealed container in a cool, dry place will

help ensure that they last the longest possible.



Starting Your Garden

Depending upon the part of the country you live in and the climate there, you might

have a short growing season. The farther north you live, the shorter the growing

season will be. This can be a problem for plants that require a long time to germinate

or a long time before they mature. You can’t plant before the last freeze of the spring,

as it would kill your seedlings. The solution to this is to sprout your plants indoors or

in a greenhouse and then transplant them into your garden.

The purpose of a greenhouse is to protect the plants from cold weather, providing a

warmer local climate for them to grow in. This can be very useful in a cold climate

with a short growing season. The process of breaking down compost to soil produces

heat, which the greenhouse helps keep inside.

You can also sprout your plants indoors, using peat moss plugs in trays. This is a very

common practice, so the trays and plugs are readily available almost anywhere.

Essentially, it is a localized greenhouse, made in a container about the size of a cookie

sheet. Individual seeds are planted in separate plugs. When the weather warms up

enough to plant outdoors, the entire plug, with the sprouted plants can be transplanted

into the garden.

When planting, always put two or three seeds in each location. In the case of starting

your seeds indoors in peat moss plugs, that would mean each plug. If you are using a

vertical garden, this means putting two or three in every container. If you are growing

in beds, this means two or three in every hole.

Once the seeds germinate, you can remove the extras, leaving only one in each

planting location. This will ensure that you have a full garden and not have some

locations vacant due to seeds not germinating.

Potatoes and Garlic

Potatoes and some other tubers (roots) are interesting to grow. Instead of seeds, you

start them from existing vegetables. For a potato, this would mean cutting up an old

potato, so that each piece of potato has an eye. Before planting, the potato pieces need

to sit out in the open and skin over where they have been cut. A new potato plant,



producing several potatoes will grow from each piece. Likewise, garlic can be grown

by breaking it into individual cloves. Each clove will grow into a new plant.

You can grow a lot of potatoes in a very little space by building a special type of

raised bed. You will need to start with four stakes driven into the ground in the

corners. You’ll want the stakes to be sturdy enough to nail into and they should stick

up above the ground about three feet. These should be spaced to allow for a three foot

square raised bed. Put boards around the bottom of the stakes, making a raised bed.

These need to be attached to the stakes with screws.

Fill the raised bed and plant your potatoes. When the plants are at least 12 inches tall,

add another course of boards (1”x 4”) and fill it in with dirt, being careful not to cover

the plants entirely. It’s okay to cover the lower leaves, but leave as much sticking out

as you can. Allow the plants to continue growing and each time they get over 12

inches tall, add another course of boards, making the raised bed higher.

To harvest your potatoes, remove the bottom course of boards and carefully dig out

the dirt, removing the potatoes. Replace the dirt and reinstall the boards. The next

time you need potatoes; you can remove the second course of boards and harvest the

potatoes at that level. Continue in this manner until you have harvested at all levels.

By then, you’ll probably be at the end of your growing season and you can take apart

the bed, removing any potatoes that you had missed.

Canning

If you’re going to start a garden, you might want to consider canning as well. Canning

provides you with a simple, yet very secure way of preserving food without

refrigeration for later consumption. This method of food preservation has literally

been around for centuries and is very effective for all types of produce.

The way that canning preserves food is to kill all the bacteria in it, at the same time

that the food is being sealed into a container to protect it from any further bacteria.

Since bacteria die at 158oF, all that is required is to heat the food to at least that

temperature in the canning jars that are used. The extra space in the jar is filled with

water, to protect the food from oxidizing, which would cause it to change color and

lose some of its nutritional value.



Very little equipment is needed for canning. The canning jars themselves are the most

important part. They use a metal lid with a rubber seal molded into it. The jars are

filled with food and water and placed in a hot water bath. The temperature is raised

and they are left in the bath long enough to ensure that the canned food has been

raised to at least 158oF throughout. This can be done in any large pot, but a pressure

canner (a large pressure cooker) works even better. As the temperature rises, the

bacteria are killed and the water in the jar expands, pushing out through the rubber

seal.

When the jar is removed from the hot water bath, the water in the jar cools, which

causes it to contract. This creates a vacuum inside the jar, pulling the rubber seal

down and making it airtight. Verification of that vacuum is accomplished by checking

the concave indentation of the lid. Produce caned in this manner will easily last for 20

years.

If you are going to start canning, I would highly recommend buying a recipe book

specifically for canning. There are many great things you can do with canning, such as

making pickles and relishes. A recipe book will not only provide you with the right

temperature information to ensure that you are canning safely, but a wide variety of

recipes to make some very enjoyable dishes.



Final Thoughts

The hardest part of having an effective vegetable garden is being consistent in

watering and weeding it. Forgetting to water your garden for a couple of days in the

heat of summer can kill it. With the hustle and bustle of today’s life, that’s an easy

mistake to make. That’s why I’m a firm believer in using automated irrigation

systems.

Your produce will mature at different rates, making harvesting a prolonged process,

rather than a specific event. This is to your advantage, as the food that you grow will

feed your family over a longer period of time. If you end up with too much of one

thing, you can always can it, preserving it for consumption during the winter months

when your garden is dormant.

Once you’ve made it through the first year, you’re going to find that the following

years are much easier. The first is always the hardest, as you have to build the garden

itself. For the following years, all you have to do is plant your seeds and care for your

garden.

Having a vegetable garden in your back yard really isn’t all that unusual, although not

as many people do it today as in past times. Nevertheless, your neighbors won’t think

you are strange or suddenly decide that you are preparing for the end of the world, if

you suddenly start gardening.

On the other hand, starting a vegetable garden is one of the best things you can do to

prepare yourself and your family for any future disaster. You will have a consistent

source of food, when others are doing without.

If you are gardening for the purpose of being prepared, then be sure to think through

what it would take to expand your garden. While you might not want that big a garden

today, it would be a good idea to have the materials on hand, so that you can expand it

in the future.

Underground Food Gardend3l1h3n4or6wo9.cloudfront.net/UGAR/3percentreport/... · 2014-02-21 ·...

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