Well, I have been reading up on the Year 2,000 predicted crisis and have to say everything that I have seen looks pretty bleak. I have a friend who is big on astronomy, and a while ago she was telling me we were in a transitional period, where time was moving faster - have you noticed it too?- and we were approaching a period where there would be NO time, and chaos would reign. During this time the weak and unprepared would perish and the strong would move forward.
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I can't help but believe that this astronomy forcast can only be the Y2K crisis, and this combined prediction has led me to wonder how we as a race will fare?
Something I would like to share, just to give an idea of what it could be like if all utilities were out of action. I live in Victoria, Australia. In September of this year ('98) we had a state-wide gas crisis. A huge explosion left most of the state without gas for cooking, heating and worst - hot water! This went for 13 days and was terrible - unless you had a friend with electric hot water! We still had electricity, which meant fridge, freezer, microwave and the pump - we have tank water and rely on our electric pump to get water to our house. I can't even begin to think of what could happen without gas and electricity. The majority of us would be paralised - and a bit stinky in winter! - if this happened for a week, much less a month or more. I am currently trying to work out how we can afford to go solar so if the worst scenario comes true then we'll still have the basics. I've included a link to a great solar info site down the bottom of the page.
There is no need to be without food. Even the smallest garden can supply most of your vegetable needs. A lack of ample water or cold weather would lead you to "permiculture" or no dig beds. It is almost too easy to set up a no dig bed. If you are concerned about the Y2K threat maybe you should start getting it together now, it takes a couple of years to work out exactly how much to grow and you might need use the next spring/summer as a test to what to grow and how much. Believe me, no matter how hard times might be, eggplant for tea every night could get a tad boring!
There are heaps of sites that can give you educational info on constructing a permiculture garden bed. What I have found works for me is the following:
I select a site that gets lots of sun, and make a border from bricks or bits of wood and start.
I usually dump lawn clippings into the site, then add a thick (min 2 inches) layer of damp newspaper, cardboard or both. To this I add a layer of chicken manure - having chickens helps to keep this a low cost venture for me - any sort of organic animal manure that can be purchased from nurseries or garden centres quite cheaply is fine. On top of the manure I add a layer of straw, then another layer of lawn clippings and manure and some topsoil. Then I put on another layer of straw and there you have it!
To plant, you simply make a hole in the top straw and soil and pop in your seedings. The top layer of straw works as a mulch, retaining water and stopping evaporation. As the layers break down the rich fertiliser qualities feed your plants. At the end you have a garden bed that is heading towards rich black, worm filled soil. After the season you top up the layers of your garden. I have to say, if you are prepared to put in the time to go into permiculture, you should not use pesticides, herbicides or any chemicals. If the chaos expected in the Y2K era occurs we might be lucky enough not to have access to these items anyway, so you need to learn to rely without these things.
Note:
I never try to raise seeds in a permiculture bed. I usually raise seeds to seedling then transplant them into beds. Raise your seedlings in a seed raising tray in a sheltered place and then transplant when they have reached the appropriate size - seed packets will direct you to this for each variety. Also try not to let the mulch layer of your beds touch on seedlings as they tend to burn with the contact.
What Size Bed?
In even a 5 foot x 4 foot bed you can grow more than enough zucchini for an average family of 4, along with buckets of tomatoes, butternut pumpkins and capsicum, cabbage, cauliflowers and eggplants.
In a 10 foot x 8 foot bed look at adding onions, beans, peas, broccoli, beets, button squash, silver beet etc...
Even apartment dwellers can have a small vegetable garden on a balcony, using the container gardening method.
One zucchini plant in a styro-foam grocers box will supply alot of zucchini for 1 or 2 people. Butternut pumpkins can be trained to grow up a trellis of some description - but you have to pick the pumpkins or make slings out of material to hold their weight agaist the trellis. The same for capsicums and cucumber. You can plant an open leafed variety of lettuce which allows you to pick leaves as it continues to grow.
All of these vegies can be grown on a balcony, verandah or porch in the styro-foam boxes (which can be disguised with a coat of paint or paper) without too much effort, and of course you can grow nearly all of the herbs in pots on a kitchen window sill or in the bathroom through the summer if there is a sunny ledge that doesn't get too hot.
Back to the backyard garden: the notion of planting in wide spaced rows with large gaps between plants is one to forget. Short wide rows and companion planting is the way to go.
The best way to decide on your garden size is to estimate your needs. For example, last year we had two zucchini plants who kept the 7 of us in more zuc's that we could stand to look at in the end! But this year I've planted 4 because I am going to bottle (can) and dry the surplus for winter. We have 20 roma tomato plants in - also called egg or plum tomatoes - because these are the best for cooking and preserving and about 10 of other varieties for salads, sandwhiches, roasting and grazing on in the garden. So work out what you'll need and take it from there. Like I said, use the comming summer as a test run. But get inspired. Find a sunny spot in the yard and start accumulating organic material, get it ready for planting. Go to your local green grocer and ask for some boxes, they're usually thrilled to get rid of them because they are extremely environmentally unfriendly - except in this interest.
Cold Weather
Unless you're prone to snows and severe frost, you can grow greens like silver beet and broccoli, also cauliflower should grow in cold weather. The permiculture gardens gives some insulation from mild frosts. You can also try hydroponic gardening and green house gardening in colder areas. Even small A frames covered in heavy, clear plastic to cover rows in your garden can prolong your growing season.
What to Grow?
Naturally you'll grow the vegetables that best suit your tastes and the growing climate in your area, and what I mean by "what to grow" is not actually the type of vegetable, but more the source.
Heirloom Vegetables are the wisest choice. Any non-hybrid seed source is perfect. Using hybrid seeds means that you are reliant on an ongoing supply of seeds. The resulting plant from seeds you have harvested yourself from a hybrid plant could be anything and is most often not what you were expecting. Using non-hybrid seeds means that you can harvest your own at the end of each season for next season with no shocks or surprises. Things like pumpkin, eggplant, tomatoes of course, capsicum and other 'seedy' vegies are the easiest to harvest, and growing self seeding herbs that will crop year after year is another good idea. Asparagus is also a crop which will come up year after year.
Potatoes can easilly be grown under straw in the garden and give a large yeild. Stop back in the next few days and I will have included details on how to plant out your own potato bed...
What to do with your crop?
There are alot of ways of preserving your food, but the 2 easiest methods are drying and bottling (or canning).
Tomatoes can be preserved either way, Check out my recipe page for more info on preserving and drying.
Links to other sites on the Web
Heaps of info on solar equipment and they supply the equipment.
Info on surviving the Year 2,000 crisis
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