Grow Your Own Food – 6 Simple Essentials for A Self Sufficient Healthy Garden

By James Barton โ€ข  Updated: 03/05/18 โ€ข  2 min read

We grow food almost everywhere, at our house unit, office, wall, fence or roof. Homesteading and survival depends on this for being self sufficient. For good growth your plants need a balanced mix of these 6 essentials.

 

Self Sufficient Garden

 

1. Soil From Compost

Start composting now with food scraps. To start a simple compost bin consists of a bucket with a towel or bag over the top,  fill this with green scraps. You will need a larger compost bin so this is a good start while you find one. It takes around 8 weeks for food scraps to break down and become nutritious ready to use soil.

 

2. Plant Vegetables or Fruit.

Once your compost soil is ready it’s time to start planting. You need to choose the plants depending on what’s in season.

 

3. Seal In Nutrients With Mulch

Mulch and compost are important for your gardens health. Mulch will help your garden by minimizing evaporation and sealing in all the nutrients it also help with weed control.

Some of the best types of mulch:

 

4. Self Watering Gardening

If your plants are watered using water that is piped from dams using electricity then you will never have a self sufficient garden. Catch water directed from your downpipes in tanks. If you have a shed you can also catch water from this roof too. Connect your tanks to a slow release drip feeding hose. Always water at the drip line of your trees ( Where water drips from the leaves of the plant).

 

5. Save The Seeds

Be sure to save all the seeds from your new plants as this will help repeat the process. By saving the seeds you will always have plants for every season. Plants will also develop a resilience to the conditions where they are being planted so it’s important to save your own seeds.Tomatoes self pollinate so it’s easy to keep a pure variety.

 

6. Mulch Again

Repeat step 3, keep up the mulch. Mulch will start to break down and therefore will need replacing to ensure all nutrients and moisture is contained into compost soil. Some plants can also be planted to create a self mulching environment.

James Barton

James Barton

Hi, I'm James. I am the founder and main editor for The Survival Corps. I have been a part of the survival and prepping community since my mid 30's as I downsized and started to prepare to be self sufficient in a time of crisis.