Food security. That is a very important question and the other night I saw where in one area of the North Island that is suffering with a weather bomb that people were advised to have at least one week of food and water available in case.
One Week! My goodness I see when the supermarkets close for one day like Christmas there is so many panic buying. Not only that but during Covid toilet paper became an essential item!
In days gone by like back in the 50’s and 60’s people would not only have good vegetable gardens but likely chickens and a pantry full of food, bottled, pickled and preserved plus bins of flour, cereals, sugar etc so not only could they weather a storm but be relatively self sufficient for over a month or more.
They had good reason to be prepared as they had lived during hard times which was a lesson well worth learning.
There are some people and groups that are well prepared for any contingency if things go belly up and the motto is ‘Better Safe than Sorry’.
It is the wise squirrel that stores nuts for the winter to tide over till the relief of spring comes again.
In a wardrobe not used or a spare room it is not difficult to have a supply of non perishable foods, water, powder milk which you gradually build up and once you reach a target then you simply use and replace with fresh so that your larder is always well within any use-by dates.
If you have pets then you also need to have ample stocks to cover their emergency needs.
It is now halfway though February and with day light hours and rain for most areas it is the best time to grow some food for winter.
I was talking to a farmer up north yesterday and he was saying with all the unseasonal rain they are having, the grass is growing so fast and lush that the stock are having a job keeping it manageable.
He said that he has made lots of hay and Silage and still the grass keeps coming where normally in peak summer it would be eaten low and stock not having much to eat.
He told me that the freezing works are offering great money per kilo of meat but farmers can’t send stock to works to cash in as they are needed to eat the grass.
The price of vegetables will go up in a couple of months or so and having some of your own fresh out of the garden produce will be not only a great savings for you but will improve your health as well if grown naturally.
If you don’t have any land or lawn to grow food then you can put raised gardens on concrete areas or use grow bags, containers, veggie pods or at a last resort sprout seeds on windowsill like we wrote about last week.
I have seen some great front lawns that have been converted to big vegetable garden beds with lawn mower wide mowing strips separating them.
You can convert a area of lawn to a garden very quickly.
Choose a place which gets sun for most of the day and ideally a bit sheltered if possible.
Mark out an area about 2 metres long and about a metre wide and mow that area as low as possible.
Around the area dig a trench about half a spade depth and 10cm wide.
This will assist with drainage and be a mowing strip.
The sods removed can be put into a pile in a waste area for use in future.
Now over the selected area put a good layer of cardboard to completely cover the low cut grass.
If you have plenty of cardboard from cartons cut down you can have a double layer.
Wet the cardboard down and over it sprinkle any animal manure, sheep manure pellets, Wallys Real Blood & Bone, Wallys BioPhos and Calcium & Health.
Cover this with a layer of compost about 5cm or more deep. (use my favourite compost from Daltons)
Now into this layer you can plant seeds or seedlings.
All the goodies sitting on the cardboard which the roots of your vegetables will grown down into and though the cardboard.
It is by far best to plant seeds of cabbages, cauliflower, swedes, lettuce etc at the right spacing apart.
Carrots, parsnips and onion seeds sprinkled down a row and sprayed with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) to speed up the germination. Later on you can thin out the young plants to ensure ample room for those that will mature.
Spray the plants weekly or even twice a week with MBL and you can even add the molasses to increase growth and shorten maturity time.
One tablespoon molasses into a litre of hot water and add 10 mils of MBL and you have Wallys Liquid Sunshine ready to use.
Get growing and enjoy the heath benefits of naturally home grow produce and have more food security with cost savings as well.
The RCR Gardening Show that I do with Rodney Hide is proving very popular and if you have not listened to one of the broadcasts then have a listen to the latest one here.
Image credit: Joanna Stolowicz
Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz
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Thanks Wally great info desperately needed 😁