What To Prep For a Survival Garden

Not just starting out, but have all the usual hand tools, hoe, shovel, mattock, rake as so on. Also, as we expect quite a few of my relations to turn up here WTSHTF and we have been preparing for them with caravan accommodations, I also have a 6 foot rotary hoe and a David Brown Tractor, with lots fuel stored away (stabilized).
Water is next, a dam with solar pumping to a large header tank to give gravity feed to the crops.
We use miniature pigs, both for fertility and to turn over the garden beds, which after a week or so, are clear of all the grass, roots and ready to plant straight in to.
Don't forget bees, get a few hives, learn how to take care of them, spilt into new hives, and of course as well as getting almost 100% pollination, honey is the by product. Makes for good trading item as well.
Preserving, we are busy dehydrating as much as possible, with 2 Sunbeam dehydrators running all day, every day. Luckily we are 100% solar powered, so cost is nothing. Also, do some canning as well as a couple of large freezers.
Crops, sticking to staples, spuds, carrots, lots of beans, some wheat, and various fruits. Stuff that grows well, and quickly and fills the belly. The usual salad vegies, kale, and such.
We make our stand here, if we have to leave, its all turned to s..t and survival will be hard when on the move.



Hard work never killed anyone, but why take the risk ?

Good info, We are ending up selling our home we are in now - 3 acres with an orchard, fruit trees, I had planted corn, potatoes.
Chickens with chicken poop for fertilizer (and sawdust).
Veggie garden with herbs, berries - we had built a greenhouse for winter growing here in the NW.
I was going to work on a rainwater catch system to irrigate the garden, but now that we are moving, I will save that.
Husband has a large shop with a bobcat (all the attachments), large tank for fuel, we have a rota-tiller, and of course all the usual hand tools.

On the list is definitely bees - I want to build an outdoor kitchen for canning on the porch so I don't heat up the house in the summer - also so it's easier.
Also will try my hand at growing mushrooms once we get into the new place.

1. A collection of open pollinated seeds. Not necessarily heirloom or survival but open pollinated. I like to store my seeds in vacuum sealed bags in the freezer and they will usually stay viable for many years with just a few exceptions. I save as many seed as possible every year. 

2. Fertility:  I stock some soil amendments such as lime, soy bean meal and cotton seed meal for homemade fertilizer. I also stock some standard commercial fertilizer non organic. I keep them in large metal garbage cans in  my shed. I stock some sprays such as neem oil and some pyrethrin and bt. I also will compost anything I can get my hands on and plant crops specifically for composting as well as cover crops. I suggest a good manure fork and extra tarps if you plan to compost or either build actual bins. I also have small stock animals for fertility chickens, rabbits and ducks. 

3. Tools: Several pruners with a way to sharpen, the normal shovels, a couple good hoes with extra handles and files for sharpening.  I do not till but do use a broad fork.  I find when you till sandy soil you get concrete. I try to work my soils with a broadfork and use a cover of compost and then mulch and some cover crops. In my beds I like to double dig the soil. 

4. Water: I also store rain water specifically for crops but rarely have to rely on it with more than adequate local rainfall as a general rule most of the year. 

5. Crops: I grow the crops that traditionally grow well in this area that we like to eat. I plant successive plantings about every 3 weeks of some crops to maintain a steady supply of fresh food from about April to November. I like to plant what grows fast is most nutritious and stores/cans/freezes/dehydrates well. I develop recipes around those crops. I also plant crops for livestock and soil enrichment. I also plant herbs and flowers for both seasoning, drawing pollinators and some medicinal teas. I maintain a wide variety of native and non native fruit trees and bushes. 

6. I have a metal greenhouse but do not use it. I do utilize cold frames for season extension. 

I do not intend to bug out. This is DD's last stand 

Sounds like a great set up! Couple questions MWT what is a rotary hoe? Do you use cover crops of any kind? The bee suggestion is a great one. Are you strictly using pigs for fertility or do you store fertilizers/amendments as well? I make my last stand here as well. Just too old to go traipsing around the country. I do own other property with a cabin/shack but do not plan to leave. Your setup is similar to mine except for the pigs.
A rotary hoe is a set of beaters that rotate to break up the soil ready for planting. I have a picture of them, but it wont copy across.
We usually sow oats as a green manure crop in winter, let it die back, and plough it in for summer crops.
The pigs are there for several reasons, but not food. The main one is to dig up the runner grass and weeds, to make it ready for planting into. The other reason is for fertilizer, although there really isn't much of that as they are kept in large areas, around 3 acres at a time.
Weve spent 18 odd years getting ready for this time, have 5 independent off grid solar systems (over 20 kilowatts), plus solar water pumping from the dams, solar hot water, and nearly finished building homes for our grown up kids and my sister and her girls when they escape from Wollongong, near Sydney. Have a fully set up radio room and workshop with enough gear to tackle most on farm jobs, but a lathe would be nice !
I think we will need to be our own first responders when the world collapses, so have our own on farm fire truck and equipment that is all compatible with the RFS gear.
Security is an issue, but being a long way from town will help, and I have some home made night vision gear, along with a couple of portable high powered torches that can floodlight an entire paddock in one go, for about 10 mins till the internal battery goes flat. We have enough UHF radios for all expected to be here (Up to 12 or so), and EMP/CME proof Ham comms gear.
Looking at buying a new bull to replace old Jerry (short for geriatric !)



He who asks timidly makes denial easy.

@frosbite have you had soil tests done? You might need a few tons of lime and fertliser as well as the machines to spread it before the cultivatable land would be productive? Likewise for herbicides & seed.

In response to your tactical hehe garden Beno my husband and I were talking the other day that we both had noticed ironically that our gardening efforts have spread to the surrounding countryside courtesy of the wild life. We are noticing asparagus now in the fencerows and ditches where the birds have sowed it. The surrounding properties are starting to get tomato seedlings coming up again spread by the birds. The other day we spotted elderberry and plum thickets emerging along the forest edges in a couple places on adjacent properties. As the animals steal and carry off fruit and as the birds feast they are doing a nice job of spreading the wealth . 

My garden is small - when I moved here, the soil was very sandy and had bugger all nutrients. 8 yrs of composting, adding more decent soil, manure, compost etc, I actually have worms.
Each year is different - one year tomatoes rage, the next not - seasonal, temperatures etc all influence.
Last year finally got Basil raging, now Coriander, but I can't get Dill to work.
I also grow a LOT in pots/containers, so if I have to, and get the chance, can throw them in the trailer and take to my bol.
I don't have a garden there atm, just a few fruit trees and native bush tucker - but hopefully soon I'll get an established garden.
Have enough seeds to plant out at least an acre though, and some seeds I've been replenishing for over 20 yrs.

The other garden I have access too, soil is really poor, sandy, no structure - but apparently it was top quality garden soil - yeah right - grows weeds ok, that's about it. Hoping this summer to at least get a good crop in of veggies and some fruit trees too.

DD, if you are ever in Oz, you will have a few months work (paid) getting my gardens into shape, and at my bol too.