Emergency Garden

This is the sort of garden you may have to grow should some sort of catastrophe occur. This is where the fabric of society has broken down. There's nothing in the freezer (or it's stopped running), and the looters have made of with all the tins piled up in the local supermarket. The fresh goods in said supermarket are rotten and you don't know how to slaughter a cow...

Sounds a bit far-fetched, I know. But it could happen.

So what do you do with piece of soil that has never been touched by human hands and never grown anything?

Well, the best thing to do is to be sure that the soil is rich enough to grow something.

This means ensuring that you have a form of fertilizer. Something such as rotting leaves is not going to be enough. Fish, offal or cow manure are all ideal.

In extreme circumstances you could use human faeces, but I wouldn't be growing any root vegetables in it!

Then, it is important to ascertain what is going to be the best yield for the season at hand (or the season you are planting for).

Start plants indoors or in cold frames to get a better start. Hardier vegetables include: English peas, onions, asparagus, rhubarb, and Irish potatoes. Start planting vegetables in early spring. To plant earlier, cover plants with thin cloth. As your garden plants grow, thin to the spacing recommended on vegetable seed packets.

Then, really, apart from using a lot of common sense, it really is up to you. The survival of an Emergency Garden will depend on your need for it. Lots of tending, watering and weed-pulling can only help.

It seems to me that this is a scenario that we should all think about. After all, were some kind of global catastrophe occur, it really might be our very own quick-thinking and attitude that will save us. What a great thing to already have a healthy, bountiful vegetable garden right at your fingertips just when you are going to need it the most.

Considering an emergency garden is something we should all do. Not only for survival if the worst should happen, but merely for the joy of having it even if we should never have to fully rely on it.

And should the worst happen?

Well, getting your garden in order sounds like one of the first things to make sure of.