Survival Tools for Independent Minded People

People need to start thinking about becoming less dependent on "the system" however they can. One way to insulate yourself against rising food prices is to learn how to grow your own food.

Even if you only have a very small amount of room you can still grow your own food. For example, there is one family that is actually producing 6000 pounds of produce on just 1/10th of an acre right in the middle of Pasadena, California.

Just because we have lost some of the basic skills that previous generations possessed doesn't mean that we can't get them back. Back during World War II, "victory gardens" enabled Americans to grow 40 percent of all the vegetables that they needed. Those gardens greatly contributed to the war effort and helped Americans get through some very difficult times.

Container gardening is a great idea as well, on the patio or deck, and also raised beds gardens are a lot of fun to build.... regardless where you decide to do your survival gardening, don't let it overwhelm you or intimidate you...

Host a seed swap in your area to connect gardeners and help everyone learn more about gardening in your region.

From Mother Earth News, By Tabitha Alterman

The traditional model of a seed swap is an informal local get-together, usually in early spring, where gardening neighbors all bring extra seeds saved from previous seasons — along with any surplus seedlings they won’t be able to use that year — and trade these valuable goods among themselves. Who had the juiciest tomatoes last year? You’ll want a few seeds from those plants. You started too many broccoli seedlings in your backyard greenhouse? Why not spread the love around?

The most valuable aspect of attending a seed swap may actually be the chance to glean local wisdom about what works — or doesn’t work — in your shared gardening microclimate. Christine Sheppard, an organic farmer in Hawai'i, says she has learned a great deal about her microclimate through local seed swaps. "It put us in touch with a whole fund of knowledge about what plants grow well in our varied microclimates here in Hawai'i, most of which are not like anything on the mainland. Which tomatoes stood up to fruit fly, which root vegetables would grow in our very gritty broken lava soil, what to do with the local traditional staple of taro apart from making poi, which greens grow in our humid hot climate. It was "eat local" at its best, and a whole lot of fun too!"

READY, SET, GO! ORGANIZE YOUR OWN SEED SWAP

So now, how about some step-by-step instructions for organizing a seed swap of your own? If you already know other gardeners in your area, you’re well on your way to setting up a fun event that will get everyone in your neighborhood started down the path to Master Gardener!

1. Choose a time and place. Depending on how many people you think may attend, it might be coziest to host the seed/plant swap in someone’s home or garden. (Reserve tables, chairs and tents, too, if necessary.) Or, if you expect to draw a larger crowd, look for free spaces you can reserve, such as a public library meeting room or a church basement.

2. Publicize your seed swap. A good place to start is by notifying local gardening groups and botanic gardens, and you can also reach interested people through classified ads, grocery cooperative newsletters, community bulletin boards and chamber of commerce calendars. Mother Earth News magazine can help you publicize your seed swap. They will gladly e-mail their subscribers in your area to notify them of your community seed swap. Visit www.MotherEarthNews.com/Seed-Swaps.aspx to sign up for this free service.

3. Invite speakers. Contact your local gardening groups to find experts who know how to save different kinds of seeds, and can get folks fired up about why to save and share seeds. Extension agents also can give great tips on gardening in your specific region. Another excellent discussion topic would be about how to start seeds and transplant new seedlings.

4. Request seed donations from local gardeners or seed companies in advance, to bolster the offerings that people will bring.

5. Print off some handy articles about seed-starting, seed-saving and other gardening techniques to distribute at your seed swap. MotherEarthNews.com provides tons of free resources for gardeners, including how-to articles, seed company directories, gardening event listings and more.

6. Label everything clearly. Bring plenty of little dishes, or baggies and markers, to help gardeners divvy up and identify everything. Ask seed and plant donors to write down everything they know about their seed that might be helpful to donees. For example: “Green Zebra Tomato: open-pollinated, heirloom, saved from last season, has grown well in my garden for years, heavy producer, medium-size fruit, indeterminate growth habit, about 70 to 80 days to maturity, good slicer, amazing tart flavor, attractive green and yellow stripes.” It may help to give your donors notecards that they can fill out, with all these variables.

7. Host a contest to make the event more fun! Prizes could go to the gardener with the widest variety of seeds, the attendee who traveled the farthest, the youngest or oldest gardener, etc. And Mother Earth News can help you with a contest, too: The gardener who brings the widest variety of heirloom tomato seeds will win one of their highly recommended ergonomic garden trowels! (Visit www.MotherEarthNews.com/Seed-Swaps.aspx to participate.)

8. When it’s all over, let us know how it went. So you organized a smashing success of a seed swap, right? E-mail your feedback to OrganicGardening@motherearthnews.com for us to post online for other organizers to share.

Excerpted from Mother Earth News magazine, the Original Guide to Living Wisely. Read the full story at www.MotherEarthNews.com or call 800-234-3368 to subscribe. Copyright 2009 by Ogden Publication

NOTE: Stuck with a small area for gardening? Learn about gardening in a 5X20 space and get free spreadsheets to track your garden harvests at:

Or give them a call at: 402-687-2100 As for the Farm Bill Hotline