Benefits of Guerilla Gardening in Food Production and Op Sec
Jan 18, 2022 14:32:23 GMT -6
kelabar, blueshoes, and 1 more like this
Post by ninab on Jan 18, 2022 14:32:23 GMT -6
One of the things that convinced me that my new BIL was “the one”, was the naturally occurring biodiversity present on the property. On a three-hour self-guided “tour”/hike, I came across, edible mushrooms, black berries, grapes, walnut, pecan and chestnut trees, paw paw, persimmon, mulberry, wild dill, oats as well as a myriad of other “strange-ling” edibles. I saw rabbits, hog tracks, deer, water fowl and fish. The ability of land to propagate a vast array of food, without human intervention is, in my opinion, the differential for selection of a property. What I found growing on the property told me the soil and environmental conditions were fertile for whatever I would choose to artificially grow.
There are many pieces of land that are remote and isolated. Many pieces of property are large. Many have a creek or ponds and are capable of growing something…for me, the ability of the land to produce, on its own, enough food to sustain at least 2 people per acre, is the piece de-la-resistance of BOL/BIL selection.
Guerilla Gardening involves working with the naturally occurring edibles, as well as planting regionally adapted but, uncommonly recognized, perennial seeds, in a disorganized fashion throughout the property.
This serves several purposes.
The advantages of this are that natural plants, do not need you to mess with them. You do not need to weed, fertilize, propagate or water them. They are there because nature has found the optimal space for them to grow.
It will behoove us in a TEOTWAWKI situation to not burn more calories than are necessary to stay healthy. Propagating, fertilizing, irrigating and weeding, are all labor and resource intensive (especially in the heat of summer). Nature’s garden, asks much less from us.
A second advantage of nature gardening is Operational Security (op-sec). In a SHTF situation where non preppers have fled the cities and suburbs (AKA The Golden Horde or human locusts), few will be able to recognize much of the native vegetation as edible.
They will be visually much more attracted to things like a fenced in garden that they are familiar with. A fenced in garden will be the equivalent of a neon sign that says “Eat at Joe’s”. You may wake up one morning to find that it was silently stripped clean while your “garden guard” was intentionally distracted for five minutes by a suspicious sound in the nearby scrub.
With the shallow root system of most traditional garden plants, it is quite easy to simply pull an entire plant out by the roots and be gone with the produce before their owner can efficiently react. It is the equivalent of a SHTF fast food window.
Raiders, do not care if the plants are alive tomorrow or not. They will have moved on. All they want is something to eat right now. Snatch and grab fits the bill. Shallow root systems are not often the case with naturally occurring perennial edibles (at least in my area).
Staying under the proverbial radar and not advertising your food plots is going to be important in many regards, and an out of the way, even isolated location with patrols, may not be enough.
Guerilla gardening can be self securing. One of the things I have noticed about living in Texas, almost everything natural here either has spines, bites, stings or is poisonous even the plants.
Mesquite has been called “nature’s barbed wire”. As a bonus, it produces beans that are edible and actually have a sweet taste. Medicinally, when ground, they produce a flour that has a negligible affect on blood sugar as opposed to wheat flour making it useful for people with glycemic issues.
When trimmed, the branches of an older tree can sport thorns well over an inch long (On a couple of occasions, I have had the misfortune of mindlessly stepping on a large spike and having it go through the sole of my boot and into my foot, does not feel too good!). Placing or weaving this debris on or near fence lines, you have made access difficult if not downright painful.
Devil’s walking sticks, are another tree, that if planted closely together like bars on a cage, once matured is almost impassible unless you are going to make a lot of noise cutting them out. I have ripped jeans on these plants and they are quite formidable.
A strategically located patch of stinging nettles, will make life uncomfortable for anyone whose bare skin comes in contact with it. Having brushed up against one, I always think I am being bitten by a mass of fire ants. It certainly makes me stop and look usually while furiously brushing the stinging spots (doing the fire ant dance). Stinging Nettles are also edible and medicinal. Nettles are actually quite nutritious as well as being used to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. Made into a tea, I find it to have an “organic” flavor, like a mix between grass and dirt but, if TSHTF, and I am out of pain reliever, I won’t be complaining.
Ease of identifiability is also an important aspect to protecting your natural garden. Plants such as grapes, raspberries, black berries or blueberries are easy targets because they are immediately recognizable as edible. Look to the ones I call “strange-lings”. Plants that are perfectly edible but, that don’t show up at the local grocery store either because they are not widely consumed or are not easily mass produced and harvested/profitable. Plants such as Agarita, American Beauty Berry, Elderberry can mimic highly poisonous berries and are more likely not to be gathered by those who are not 100% sure.
Additionally, by spreading the plants out over large areas, you are making it more difficult for plant poachers to gather a meal. A thief is going to have to spend more time collecting a portion, increasing the chances of them being detected, than if they are in an all-in-one traditional garden where multiple plants are within a few feet or inches of each other.
Of course, you also will have to spend more time harvesting but, since monitoring your property will also be a daily necessity, regardless of where you are growing, it really won’t add too much more to your collection time.
The law of redundant redundancies. Two is one and one is none. Guerilla gardening adds one more tool to the toolbox.