There is a lot to be said for
seeding patches in the wild, particularly along roadsides. Usually they are open with plenty of sunlight
and drainage control. He targets root
vegetables which are certainly the best to tolerate the rough conditions. It is useful to not that potatoes are not
touched, as they should not be. It may
even be a good practice to plant potatoes loosely throughout a roadside to
provide additional cover and give com-petition to the many weeds. It is certainly easy enough, although it goes
completely against normal practice which calls for ample tilling as they grow.
If one is not too concerned about
size and the like, it is certainly a great place to produce a lot of product
and potatoes are the one crop that could actually be grown on a roadside. There is actually a lot of available land and
so long as one is not trying to mechanize the process it works.
Go farther; invite folks to do
just that with your permission. At least
you may have the weeds largely suppressed.
Recall and acre of land will easily produce a ton of potatoes.
Gardening in Plain Sight
By James Wesley, Rawles on June
10, 2011 9:08 PM
Dear JWR:
A few years ago I started food plots for wild game on my ranch. Since then, I have noticed that the game have returned in greater numbers. The reason is the variety of plants from the seeds sown. One of the plants in this mix is the turnip. The seed mix allows there to be food from spring to winter, with the turnips being the last food consumed. I find deer, elk and bears eating them first thing in the spring.
I got an idea from this last year. If turnips grow this well in the
wild with no care, and humans consume turnips, what other food would grow with
no care and would be a real resource for human consumption? So last spring I
planted my regular food plot mix that you can buy at any sporting goods
store. I planted the seeds along the roads on National Forest land on the
way to my ranch at three different elevations and added a new plant, one I have
never planted before; the lowly potato. I planted them along forest service
roads and I was amazed at the results. My food plots at all elevations, (3,300
ft, 5,000 ft, and 6,800 ft) all produced more potatoes and turnips than my
family or five families could eat in a year. Also, the potato is not as
attractive to bears and wildlife. They were virtually untouched.
The turnips, on the other hand, were consumed by deer, elk, and bears, so there
was some competition for some of the resources planted. This spring I have gone
to the store and found some hearty carrot seed, and I am adding this to my
private garden along forest service roads. I am hoping to get a positive
result.
Another discovery I found amazing is that not one human intruder had
found, disturbed, or messed with these any of these food plots. They are in
plain sight, just not planted in rows, but planted sporadically along the road,
creek, or drainage. My only explanation is that the plant's nutritional value
is under ground, and how many people know what the tops of a potato plant looks
like?
My goal this year is to see how dry land wheat grows wild at these
different elevations. I know it grows well at 6,800 ft, because it is a part of
the food plot on my ranch. This year I have planted a lot of it to see
how much could be harvested if one wanted to in the fall, with no human care
until harvest time.
The reason for this experiment is simple. How much food can you grow in
the wild, with no care, how much work is involved, and can you produce enough
for a family of four for an entire year? And can you do this in
plain sight and get away with it undisturbed? The answer is yes, with no real
effort.
This is a simple plan of insurance in addition to your TEOTWAWKI preps,
with no cost but seed, and no labor except planting and harvesting, and nobody
knows where your food plots are, except you! Simple and basic. Of course,
this will only work in areas were you can "dry farm" like in portions
of the American
Redoubt. - M.O.
JWR Replies: I encourage readers to check into the legalities
before planting any crops on public land. You wouldn't want to create a
"weed" nightmare that would displace native species!
4 comments:
This is really a great idea! If left alone, --with these crops come up in following years (self seed)?
Great idea! Will these crops self-reseed & come up in following years if unharvested?
A comment regarding the comment at the end of the article: "legality" has nothing to do with the common sense of making sure that there is no problem with introducing non-native species.
That said, if we ARE concerned about the legality of planting or harvesting food crops in rights-of-way (or on ANY public land), we need to remember that the legality is going to vary SIGNIFICANTLY from state to state, county to county, town to town, tribe to tribe, and indeed, even within those jurisdictions. In part this will depend on who is the owner of the property immediately outside the ROW: one set of rules will apply if it is privately-owned, another if it is BLM-controlled or some other federal, state, or local agency.
But as this is for emergency and essentially clandestine food production (and incidentally for wildlife, which can indirectly be for food production), it is not legality as much as not getting caught that should be of concern.
A comment on the comment at the end.
Legality has nothing to do with the common sense concern (a valid one) about introducing exotic species into a habitat.
Legality is, at best, a very muddled situation and varies from town to town, county to county, state to state, and tribe to tribe, and indeed, since what can and cannot be done in a designated right-of-way (which might not actually be a deeded right-of-way, but only an easement) often depends on the ownership of the adjacent property, from agency to agency (whether federal, state, or local). And what can be planted might be different than what can be harvested.
But the real concern, given the fact that this is a matter of providing food for emergency conditions as much as anything, is NOT legality but the more pragmatic issue of getting caught or not getting caught.
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