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Surviving EMP: Suburban Circle Garden- Part 1, by Northwest Native Elder
Being descendants of Native Americans and Swiss/German immigrants, my family has survived and thrived off our land for generations. We hunt and gather an abundance of local food– venison, salmon, elk, smelt , crab, clams, acorns, huckleberries, and seaweed– from the Redwood Forests, Wild Rivers, and Mighty Pacific Ocean, and we cultivate our “civilized” gardens and orchards, grown in the manner brought by our European ancestors. Having the best of both worlds so to speak, we have never really experienced a lack of food in our area. The art of gathering, growing, and preserving food for winter has always been the top priority for us. Preparing for disasters has also been a full-time job around our home, and believe me where I live in the Pacific Northwest there are plenty of disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires, drought, economic collapse, foreign invasion, and/or EMP to prepare for. While all these can strike quickly with little or no warning, only the EMP can cause major world-wide or national damage to civilization as we know it. Unlike a regional disaster, this will effect a large area with no one really left to help you because of a major societal collapse. If you are lucky enough not to be radiated by a nuclear meltdown or freeze in the winter, you will still want to eat at least a few times a week. In pockets here and there across our great nation, there will be hundreds of thousands of people (perhaps millions) that will be living in the quiet desperation of starvation. Any food at all will be like gold. I often think, “What if it was just me, a woman alone? How would I do it? How could ANYONE do it? What if I only had a handful of seeds and a few hand tools? What would I need to have on hand to make it as easy as possible, or just possible, period?” Let’s not be sexist; many men will be in the same position. I hope to help a portion of these people by teaching non-gardeners how to start a garden, even if all they have is your basic suburban back yard with a lawn that has never had the soil turned over.
Growing your own food is a skill that takes practice, practice, practice. We have heard this mantra so many times. For those of us who love to garden, this is no chore. We “practice” like it’s play rather than work. However, for the majority of people the “practice” will only begin after having the nerve to start. I am a gardener with over 40 years experience, but when faced with an article that rambles on in extreme depth of information, my eyes glaze over. I can’t imagine someone who cares very little about gardening being able to even get through the first couple of paragraphs! How can we encourage people to start if the information is so overwhelming?
I would like to share the Circle Garden, which is a simple low-cost garden plan that can be started and successfully completed either today or at worst after a catastrophic event by the inexperienced gardener (IF your gardening tools are purchased NOW and seeds are bought and kept fresh YEARLY).
Source: http://survivalblog.com/surviving-emp-suburban-circle-garden-part-1-by-northwest-native-elder/
