Fantasy Prepper Garden

[IRememberWhenThisWasAllFieldsAndCakePunching]

We have a tiny backyard but we are redesigning it as the shed is falling down blah blah.

I like a good prepping session, I frequented the boards back in late 2019 early 2020
and it was thanks to all of the posters here back then that I was sorted and settled through that first lockdown, even if no one else in real life believed me until it actually happened. In fact, I was seeing a therapist at the time and when I told him I had started creating a store of food (back in the beginning of February 2020) he called me neurotic and told me nothing was going to happen, the told me he couldn’t counsel me anymore 😂

But I digress.

I have requested an outside pantry, as our house really is too small to have three months worth of stores. We will have a big log store with space for a year or so of wood and We have a water butt to be installed. Importantly though, I think we will double my growing space. I want to grow more herbs - I’ve got sage and rosemary, lemon balm does ok here and I’ve got aloe vera. I’ll try again with oregano and thyme, but what other medicinal herbs would you put in?

I want to plant fruit, I’ve got raspberries and blueberries, I’ll grow strawberries. What would you grow though, in an ideal preppers garden? And what else would you have in general?

Cordon fruit trees? They will maximise the amount of fruit for the space. Blueberries can be hard to grow and need acidic soil. You could put the water into a series of different galvanised metal containers which feed into each other. It would look nice and allow you to store more water.

Plantain eg ribwort, if its not growing naturally in your lawn anyway.

Ooh yes I had heard that about blueberries needing acidic soil - they grow really well in the village we live in so I assumed they would grow fine, except I then realised the soil I’d be planting in is not ground soil but whatever was bought in the garden centre! Pots for those, I think. I’ve got a dwarf cherry tree that has yet to bear fruit, but has flowered every year… I’ll have a look in to what trees might grow well here!

we don’t have a lawn sadly, so I will have a look at plantain, thank you so much!

We have apple trees in containers and a plum and another apple tree planted in the ground. All did really well last year. We have raised beds with vegetables in and you can grow spuds and carrots in containers. We also plant tomatoes outside which seem to do well most years. Rhubarb grows well in containers. I have herbs but also grow Echinacea and Comfrey, again in containers, for their medicinal properties. Our garden isnt huge, we just make good use of the space.

Soapwort for cleaning?

Blueberries will grow fine if you mulch the surface with pine needles every year

If you have walls or fences around the garden, how can you use those for trees trained along wires or putting wires to grow vines, peas, beans, cordon-type tomatoes etc climbing up or proper hooks to hold smaller pots of herbs or hanging baskets of strawberries/dwarf bush-type tomatoes etc (to leave more space for heavier pots on the ground).

is there a good sunny spot to put shelves for smaller pots (can be relatively big like window boxes, just not massively tall growing plants in them)…possibly with a cover you can use in colder months to extend your growing season.

If you want to put any protection for sitting out, is there scope to put solar panels on top?

Space for tools, and to do tinkering and repairing?

This is a great question. I rent but have access to a pretty huge garden. It’s practically a blank slate at the moment. I took the plunge and planted a raspberry bush a few weeks ago. There’s already a pretty well established blackberry bush that I just need to coax into not spreading all over the place like a mad thing. Can’t wait to hear more about what you do so that I can take inspiration from it!

I like the idea of perrenial vegetables where you cut them and then they regrow.

I have herbs, a raised bed but they can be in tubs.

ooh I forgot I’d posted 😂 loving all these suggestions, thank you so much! I have convinced DP that we will need a ‘greenhouse area’ so that will help. He also has decided he wants to put a small sauna in, as he feels it benefits him loads health wise. We will have a cooking area with space to sit, a big log store and finally hook the water butt up.

In my front yard I’ve got rosemary and sage growing, but will also replant oregano, thyme and lemon balm as they did well until I killed them by accident. Chamomile didn’t do well but I’ll try it in the back instead.

Also planning chives, strawberries, raspberries. Mint is a big one for me as I like to make tea with it in the summer.

hmmm, I’ve also written echinacea down, I’m so excited!

Be careful with the mint, if it establishes itself in your garden outside of pots it’s an absolute bastard
to keep under control.

Enjoying this thread. Apple trees are useful and the apples are versitile for sweet or savoury dishes and freeze well once prepped.

I grew mint and lemon balm in pots for this reason

Do you have space for hanging baskets? Tomatoes and strawberries could grow in those.

Berries tend to be expensive in shops, but strawberry and raspberry plants are pretty much bomb proof and prolific. Tomatoes tend to do well and are very easy to can. I haven't bought tinned tomatoes in 3 years.

Look at Reka blueberry. It grows in any type of soil so far easier to maintain

I grow dwarf raspberries. Yellow, orange and red varieties. The stay like a small bush max 1m so again easier in small gardens.

Go for high value things (rhubarb, strawberries/raspberries), high bulk things (potatoes, perpetual spinach, beans) and high transport cost things (tomatoes, aubergines)

Get stuff started now since if we are facing imminent price rises, small plants in nurseries will sell out more quickly than usual.

How is it going OP?

I missed this at the time.

I'd say blueberries are a bit of a waste of space, they take ages to produce a decent amount, the plants cost loads, they need special compost and the yields are low.

Whilst strawberries, you can buy 3 plants, the next year you have 30 and the year after 300. It won't be long before you have a freezer full from 2 summers ago.

I'd add thornless blackberries to the mix, thuggish but ho boy the taste and the volumes!

Then for trees, a few apples grown on espaliers or cordons and pruned regularly will produce a decent amount whilst pears ripen overnight and can be spoilt by birds and wasps, cherries the birds get the moment they are ripe and plums are horrendous for the moth grubs inside them.

Rhubarb, you can get a decent lot in a small space but it does take a couple of years to get going.

For veg, apart from the usual potatoes and tomatoes and onions, think how many meals or jars of stuff can I make with this space? So for example, peppers or chillis? In the same space with 3 plants you could get maybe 3-6 sweet peppers harvested if you are extremely lucky, or 30-60 chillis, which can be made into a sauce or relish or jam and keep you in chillis for a year.

Onions, you can plant relatively closely to each other, and take out the larger ones around this time of year to use and leave the others to carry on growing. My polytunnel ones are starting to bolt so I take those now and use and leave the rest to carry on.

Leeks are a good use of space over winter, but you can get leek moth so when they go in, often after the potatoes, cover with a fine mesh only removing for weeding purposes.

My other top tips for growing to eat is do not forget spinach. In the last year of living in the UK I put spinach plants in every nook and cranny in the autumn and I was harvesting carrier bags worth every weekend; it really helped to give winter food a burst of healthy goodness all winter long.

The best herbs to grow for cooking IMHO are thyme, coriander and basil. Thyme grown all year round anyway, basil and coriander you can grow a shed load of, cut it regularly and wash, dry off and pop in a freezer bag and freeze, and then when you need it, just crumble some into whatever you are making near the end of the cooking. Don't let either Basil or Coriander flower, just keep cutting and freezing.

And my last one, is cucumber. Grow loads, and make cucumber jam. Honestly, it is one of the best condiments I ever made.

Also. Just walked round my garden and remembered oregano. How could I forget oregano? Yes, cut it before it flowers and freeze or make into pesto. It is bomb proof. Sorry oregano.

If you leave it to flower and let the seed drop you will always have it.

Just bought a camellia sinensis to add to the garden to make tea (green or black - both come from the same plant just processed differently).

DH would not be good in an emergency without a cup of tea.

I grow almost all of my fruit and vegetables in pots. Strawberries and tumbling tom tomatoes do brilliantly in hanging baskets. I have large pots of herbs (mainly rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage..... with mint potted up separately.)

I grow potatoes in those bags for life you can get from the supermarket, and dwarf beans are really prolific and easy to grow in relatively small pots. In my biggest pot I keep an apple tree I bought for £5 from B&M a couple of years ago and it's brilliant.... it's just in blossom now.