Best Crops for a Survival Garden?

Finally, you need to focus on calories first, nutrients and fiber second, and herbs and flavorings last. It's great to have something to spice up your meals, but not at the expense of filling your belly.

Stacie Kim wrote:I recently read an article that suggested the following 12 crops for a survival garden:

Beans
Basil
Cabbage
Carrots
Potatoes
Corn
Amaranth
Berries
Chamomile
Cucumbers
Strawberries
Arugula

These crops were noted for being nutrient dense, easy to grow, and easy to preserve. The basil and chamomile were listed for medicinal/digestive benefits.

I think, for my own family's survival garden, I'd made a few changes:

I'd opt to grow walking onions instead of basil. The reason being that I can use more of a walking onion (bulb and greens) for more versatility. I think onions, even small ones, would offer more calories than basil.

I'd swap the cabbage and grow collards instead. They grow much more readily here than heading cabbage.

I'd grow winter squash instead of amaranth. My family really enjoys spaghetti squash.

I'd grow mint instead of chamomile. The authors of the article cite chamomile's medicinal benefits, but they warn it's a hard plant to get established. I have mint that is un-killable here!

Instead of arugula, I'd grow sweet potatoes. The greens of sweet potatoes are also edible, plus you get a good starchy tuber to eat when you dig up them up.

I'd also put tomatoes on the list. My family eats an alarming amount of tomatoes!

Have you ever considered an "SHTF" crop list? What if you could only grow 10 to 15 crops on a small plot of backyard space? Would you agree with the original list of crops? Do they grow well in your area?


Original article: Best Crops for Your Survival Garden

Tyler Ludens wrote:This is one of my favorite topics!
For my semi-arid warm climate ( with irrigation) I am trying to grow as staples:

Sweet potatoes
Moschata winter squash
Tatume summer squash
Garlic chives ( utterly unkillable,  needing no irrigation)
Kale
Mulberry
Chili piquin/Bird pepper
Moringa

The plants which survived the Big Texas Freeze and utter neglect best were Moringa (froze to the ground but grew back), Garlic Chives, and Chili Piquin.  

Kim Goodwin wrote:

Tyler Ludens wrote:This is one of my favorite topics!
For my semi-arid warm climate ( with irrigation) I am trying to grow as staples:

Sweet potatoes
Moschata winter squash
Tatume summer squash
Garlic chives ( utterly unkillable,  needing no irrigation)
Kale
Mulberry
Chili piquin/Bird pepper
Moringa

The plants which survived the Big Texas Freeze and utter neglect best were Moringa (froze to the ground but grew back), Garlic Chives, and Chili Piquin.  

Wow, Tyler, moringa outside in zone 8.  I didn't realize that might work.  How established was your Moringa before the big freeze?  I'm trying to figure out if I want to risk planting any of mine out.  I have the short bush ones from Baker Creek heirloom seeds.  But it gets tiresome keeping things in pots through the winter...

Mk Neal wrote:  I am not sure what is meant by "survival garden." As in, what disaster are we surviving that leaves the garden intact?

Mk Neal wrote: This year I made a point of documenting all the food I harvested from my backyard to get a rough idea of what gave the greatest yields.  I only measured the amount I harvested, which is less than the total output b/c I have a dayjob and just can't get to everything (looking at you, carpet of fallen mulberries...) I also quickly realized that a bowlful of lettuce or a handful of herbs or snap peas did not have enough calories to be worth documenting for this project, so these items are left out...
...Total calories documented past year: 24,397
Top 5 crops for calorie yield: Redcurrants (5542 Kcals), Grapes (4099 Kcals), sour cherries (2751 Kcal), acorn squash (2670 Kcals), black raspberry (2136 Kcals)
Top 5 crops for volume: Tomato (10.3 kg), redcurrants (9.9 kg), acorn squash (9.2 kg), grapes (6.1 kg), sour cherries (5.5 kg)

Mike Barkley wrote:For purposes of this discussion I'm assuming we're talking about a vegetable garden that will get some amount of care & not be subject to ravenous hordes of zombie thieves.

Mike Barkley wrote:Our deer are foiled by a tall fence around the garden. Plus we have numerous food plots planted specifically for deer & turkeys. I've seen turkeys in the garden but never any deer.

Cathy James wrote:As others have posted, the only thing that really stops deer is a strong fence.  It can either be too high for them to jump, or a double fence with several feet between the two fence.  If you go the double fence route, the space between the fence can be used for gardening, not just the inner.
I have a single strong fence about six feet high, which isn't truly deer-proof but the local deer population have never tested it. They'll come right up to the house, eat the fallen birdseed, and leave deer scat, but haven't tried to go through the fence.
There are no simple, inexpensive tricks that keep deer out. Don't waste time with noisemakers, predator scent products, or other strange approaches.  They don't work.  Invest in that fence.
You might consider building a small coop now, but not actually getting the hens until you think you need them. You can install a few hens a lot faster than you can procure materials for a coop or build it.

Greg Martin wrote:This thread has me thinking a related thought.  How many of which tools should we have to allow others to join us in growing out and processing/cooking these crops?  If things were rough and I took in 20 people how many of which tools would I want to have available to allow us to work together?

Benjamin Abby wrote:There are some plants I love but I didn't find on here- I think everyone said it better for all the big ones (calorie dense ones like fruit, beans, nuts, sunchokes, potatoes, etc).  I like these for a little nutrition but in my area (zone 7) they are hardy perennials that provide greens all winter and you can eat the entire plant.  I also post these because I've left them in areas and the dock and plantain has a good hold over those spots; in one spot I've had dock all around my apple tree for years and they are both doing amazing.  
          1. Dock plants.  I have looked but can't find how many calorie the seeds or roots provide otherwise I'd really tout this plant but the seeds will stay on the plant throughout the winter (zone 7 so frost) and the greens have a lemony flavor to me which is great with the right meal and they are very nutritious.  They are perennials too and are great self-seeders.  They say the root is edible and medicinal but I haven't tried it.  I like the seeds to supplement a meal but I've been making entire meals from them since late June and I can still go collect an entire bowl full even though we've had a couple of weeks of frost below 20 degrees.  If anyone knows the calories then please let me know.  

Kate Muller wrote:

 I am giving up on growing potatoes due to the large amounts of work keeping bugs and disease off the plants. (I also can get low cost potatoes in large quantities from my relatives in Maine.)   I will continue to grow parsnips, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, diakon radish, and celery root.  One or more of them veggies can be swapped out for potatoes in most of my recipes.

Faye Streiff wrote:



Kate,
  Potatoes don’t like lime, but they do like gypsum as a source of calcium, as it has sulphur also in it.   The sulphur in the gypsum doesn’t cause scab the way plain lime does, but also repels the voles which eat root crops.  We use gypsum with a little soft rock phosphate and a small amount of wood ash, for potassium.  One of your problems may be the wet soil.  We have the same problem here some years, but sometimes it is too dry.  Lately we never know what is going on with the weather.  Makes it very hard to grow anything.  This year I had some nice potatoes, but made deep furrows between them to drain the excess water from heavy rains.  Just didn’t have very many of them, as I didn’t plant much.   When plants get the minerals they need they don’t usually have much if any bug damage.   Potatoes are moderately heavy feeders and need plenty of well finished compost mixed into the soil.  

Sounds like you are doing a great job considering all the climate challenges.  

Faye Streiff wrote:

Kate Muller wrote:

 I am giving up on growing potatoes due to the large amounts of work keeping bugs and disease off the plants. (I also can get low cost potatoes in large quantities from my relatives in Maine.)   I will continue to grow parsnips, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, diakon radish, and celery root.  One or more of them veggies can be swapped out for potatoes in most of my recipes.

Faye Streiff wrote:



Kate,
  Potatoes don’t like lime, but they do like gypsum as a source of calcium, as it has sulphur also in it.   The sulphur in the gypsum doesn’t cause scab the way plain lime does, but also repels the voles which eat root crops.  We use gypsum with a little soft rock phosphate and a small amount of wood ash, for potassium.  One of your problems may be the wet soil.  We have the same problem here some years, but sometimes it is too dry.  Lately we never know what is going on with the weather.  Makes it very hard to grow anything.  This year I had some nice potatoes, but made deep furrows between them to drain the excess water from heavy rains.  Just didn’t have very many of them, as I didn’t plant much.   When plants get the minerals they need they don’t usually have much if any bug damage.   Potatoes are moderately heavy feeders and need plenty of well finished compost mixed into the soil.  

Sounds like you are doing a great job considering all the climate challenges.  

I have been working on my soil for years and too much drainage is more of a problem since we are on glacial sand.  We use lots of compost and mulch our beds once the plants are established to reduce watering needs.   I hadn't thought to add gypsum to the soil since it is on the acidic side.  Other than the gypsum we amend our soil the same way you do.  We also add magnesium in the form of lobster and crab shell since our soil is very  low in it and it makes a difference when growing nightshades.  The oldest beds have the healthiest soil and every year they get better.  If I could keep the wind from damaging netting and row covers I would just grow them under low tunnels.  The wind gets bad enough to make low tunnels impractical for netting or row covers.