In an effort to keep from putting all of our eggs in one basket (that pun was definitely intended) we look to multiple sources for our food. That way, if one source is limited or not available, we've got a backup plan, or two, or three.
With that being said, growing a garden is as important of a food source as you can get. At our home, do we grow enough crops to feed our family from the garden alone? Absolutely not. We just don't have the time to take care of a garden that large. Not to mention, in Maine, our growing season is a very small window which certainly makes it tough. Growing enough vegetables in a 3-4 month time frame to last an entire year is no easy task. It can be done, and it has been done by many, but we are not there just yet.
So in our home, we supplement our harvest with fresh fruits, vegetables, and even meat and dairy with Thrive Life freeze-dried food. It's as close to farm fresh food as you can possibly find, and it's shelf stable for 25 years! Find out more by clicking this link: wickedprepared.thrivelife.com
But getting back to the garden, the first and most important step is forming a plan. Most folks in Northern climates can agree, the planning process usually begins in January. You get through the holidays and then the seed catalogs start flowing and the stores begin displaying racks full of seed packets.
So. Many. Seed. Packets.
You can begin narrowing your search by concentrating on crops that do well in your climate. In a climate like where we live, in Maine, that eliminates quite a few options. Although it's still fun to experiment - I grew peanuts in our garden last year by starting them indoors in March and then transplanting them into the garden when things warmed up in June. My grandfather was able to do the same thing decades ago even when everyone told him it would be impossible to grow peanuts in Maine. Never say "never!"
OK so you've ruled out fruits and vegetables that aren't suited for your climate.
Now you need to consider what you and your family will eat. You need to grow what you eat and eat what you grow. If nobody in your family likes carrots, I'd suggest not planting carrots, for instance. If they're just going to go to waste and take up precious room in your garden, it's not worth it.
You do need to consider how much space you have. One good example is corn. If you're going to grow corn, you're going to need an area big enough for at least 16 plants at the minimum, and arranged in a square rather than a single row. Wind can do a number on a single row of corn! It's also best to keep corn and other taller plants in the side of your garden facing north. Otherwise, the corn can block some of that precious sun that the rest of your crops desperately require.
Now you get into choosing variety. Say you decide you want to grow tomatoes. Well, there are over 10,000 different varieties of tomatoes. So I'll start with the Big Beef Hybrid and go through its characteristics, then we'll only have 9,999 left to go over. Then we move onto peppers!
Just kidding
Generally seed catalogs have slightly more information than the back of the seed packets in the store, but both should give you a pretty good idea of flavor, growing time, and how much the plants will produce. And then you'll come across the two big "H" words, and that's when things get very interesting when you're preparing for the worst.
I'm talking hybrid versus heirloom.
In a (pea)nutshell, hybrid fruits and vegetables are essentially created by scientists who cross two or more varieties of plants, eventually producing an offspring that exhibits the positive qualities of their parent plants. This could be anything from disease resistance to increased yield, even color and shape.
Heirloom plants, on the other hand, are grown from seeds that have been saved and passed down from generation to generation. This is possible because heirloom plants are open-pollinated, which means you can grow a new plant from the seed produced by its parent plant. It's exactly how plants survive in nature. We just help facilitate the process by harvesting the seeds and keeping them safe until they're ready for the garden.
When you buy a packet of heirloom seeds, it means those seeds were produced by a successful plant, and when you plant those seeds, you will get an exact replica of the plant from which they came. This new plant will produce seeds that, if collected and cared for properly, can be planted to make, yet again, another replica of that same plant.
If you purchase a packet of hybrid seeds and plant them in your garden, from them will grow the plants that were designed by the manufacturer. Depending on the variety of the parent plants, these plants may or may not produce seeds. If the plant does produce seeds, these seeds may be infertile. If the plant does provide viable seeds, planting them will produce plants that do not resemble the plant from which they came. This new plant could share characteristics with one or both of the hybrid's parent plants, but they may not necessarily be the more welcomed characteristics. Results are extremely varied and very unpredictable, to say the least.
That brings us to why heirloom versus hybrid is an important decision to make if you're in the Wicked Prepared mindset.
If you keep heirloom seeds on hand, if used correctly, you would have the potential to produce crops indefinitely. The heirloom plant you start this spring will produce more than enough seeds in the fall for beginning your plants the following year, and you just continue the cycle from there, year after year. This is simply not scientifically possible with hybrid varieties. Yes, hybrids are designed to produce more uniform fruits and vegetables that are less prone to disease, but they cannot reproduce year after year.
What we do for our garden is try to split evenly between heirloom and hybrid plantings. Each has their own, distinct, advantages. But remember, if you are looking for a sense of independence from the outside world, or if you're looking to be prepared for a time when you have no help from the outside world, heirloom seeds are the only long-term solution.
Plus, most of them come with a wicked cool story about how old the variety is and who discovered it! Most predate WW2, but many have their origins dating back hundreds of years ago. And when the seeds are grown today, you are tasting the exact same flavors your ancestors tasted, possibly centuries ago!
Now that's Wicked Cool and Wicked Prepared!
And now, if you want to learn how NOT to choose and grow seeds, give this a watch. And be sure to subscribe to his channel -
The Dorbert Diaries
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