Gardening With A Twist

Although many preppers have a plan to evacuate if the need arises, while in the surroundings you are in, you should be able to live your simple life. This life of preparing for the worst, expecting the best is not something that one does overnight.

This lifestyle is a learning curve, or I should say a reprogramming, as most of our lives we have been inundated with commercialism, spend as if money grows on trees, and nothing bad ever happens.

If you are reading this blog, and others in the prepping circle, you believe otherwise. We may never be required to vacate our premises, but we may have to adapt to not having money to spend on electricity, foods, or medicines. So then what? Is your place adaptable? If not then I would seriously consider finding a new home. The desert of NM is a hard climate to adapt to, but it is highly rewarding. Last year my family learned such an incredible tip to growing foods we have not been able to contain our excitement.

Growing foods rurally is tough and you have to deal with the rodents, varmints, and birds, but here we also lack water. So without a rigid watering schedule everything will die. But the varmint issue is not a problem if you plant under the Mesquite tree. We learned this by accident when we tossed an old pumpkin out during the monsoon season and 40 pumpkin plants grew up in the Mesquite!

The thorns of the Mesquite deterred the critters, and the tree became the trellis. I can tell you I would have never believed that 20 and nearly 30 pound pumpkins could grow up 5 feet above the ground! This year we have decided to plant all our our ground runner crops(pumpkin, watermelon, cucumber, zucchini, crookneck squash, acorn squash, and cantaloupe) in the Mesquite. The only thing we will do is keep a map of where we plant them so we can salvage the gray water to the plants.

In addition to this planting we are doing we no longer feel the need to clear the Mesquite, because it *hides* our home from the roadway, and keeps all manner of the two legged critters from wandering the land as it is a natural fence, as the thorn below shows. Each tree has thousands of these on it, and they penetrate even the best boots we have bought. We no longer are looking to buy a better boot, but we invested in a great set of tweezers!

I am always one that believes that while I am where I am I will live the simple life. I suggest that while we are watchers and preparing for the reality that is coming that we can get a jump on skills that are quite valuable. I suggest that we strive to live each day with a goal to become more self sufficient.
Jennifer