Tomato Leaf Types: What Is A Potato Leaf Tomato

By Amy Grant Most of us are familiar with the appearance of tomato leaves; they are multi-lobed, serrated or almost tooth like, right? But, what if you have a tomato plant that is lacking these lobes? Is something wrong with

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My Story: Lessons we learned from hurricane evacuations

  These evacuations tips are excellent, even if you don’t live in hurricane country. Pin this for later! On August 28. 2005, My family did something we had never even considered doing before. We evacuated for a hurricane. After seeing Read More

The post My Story: Lessons we learned from hurricane evacuations by The Survival Mom appeared first on The Survival Mom. Be sure to check it out!

Urban Gardening Survival Secrets: Some Ways To Grow Food In Any City Even When Your Life Depends On It

In order to grow enough food for yourself and your family - enough that may sustain you in difficult times - you'd need several acres of prime farmland, right?

In short, no. You just need to some help with things to grow and the way to grow it, and also a few trips for the local home improvement store. Oh, and some friends who share up your eyes.



The community garden concept: An increasingly popular option in the urban/suburban environment is the concept of a "community garden." As Natural News has reported in the past, this concept has been adopted by organic- and fresh-produce-minded people in cities large and small, and the movement is definitely "growing," if you'll pardon the pun.

One organization, in fact, is dedicated to the spread of a version of community gardening known as "urban farming" (which just happens to also be the name of the organization). The group began in 2005 with just "three gardens and a pamphlet."

The concept is simple: Find an empty lot and get together with your neighbors to plant, cultivate and harvest a range of crops. Everybody shares in the labor and everybody shares in the harvest.

Now, for individual efforts:

Bucket veggies: You'd be surprised what you can grow in a five-gallon bucket you pick up from Lowe's or Home Depot.

"Even if you don't have much sunny ground, you can still experience the pleasure of harvesting your own vine-ripened tomatoes and other crops. All you need is a generous-size container, good potting soil, and a suitable spot - a patio, deck, or corner that gets at least six hours of full sun a day," Sunset magazine notes.

Sprouting: Growing your own sprouts is a great way to augment your other crops. As noted by Jules Clancy, creator of The Stone Soup food website, "sprouting turns legumes and grains into living plants with more vitamins, such as vitamin C, B and carotene. It also helps the absorption of minerals."

Rooftop raised gardens: Don't live in a house with a deck? With a little help from neighbors and permission from the landlord, you could build some raised gardens on the roof of your apartment building (provided you have easy-enough access to the roof). Your crops will get plenty of sun, though you will likely have to irrigate them at some point (which is true of anything you're trying to grow).

Window boxes: Though limited in what you can grow in them, window boxes are another way you can grow fresh. Herbs and sprouts do well in window boxes.

Orchards in the middle of town? Depending on the climate where you live, it may be possible to actually plant a small orchard - and communities all over the country are doing just that.

As reported by Britain's The Guardian newspaper, one such orchard - and urban farm - exists in Detroit, of all places, thanks to the enterprising nature of 38-year-old Mark Covington.

"The result is a transformation of the area around his childhood home. Local kids come to movie nights held amid the crops. Residents love the free, fresh food in an area where no major supermarkets exist. The Georgia Street Community Garden is never vandalized," the paper reported.

With a little ingenuity and help from your neighbors, there is no reason for you (or them) to go hungry. You can plant and grow everything from tomatoes to potatoes to corn to fruits of all kinds on small lots in cities and suburban communities, in buckets and other containers placed on your deck or porch, from raised beds on apartment rooftops, in window boxes outside your door and in any other place where you can put topsoil and seeds.

Credits to Natural News for this Urban Gardening article.

Survival Gardening for Depressed Economic Times

Times being what they are we’re all trying to save a little money. Here’s some tips on how to stretch that dollar even further with a home garden. Start planning now for next years growing season.

Choosing what to plant.

Make a list of the foods you eat regularly at their basic ingredients level. You have probably already done this so this part should be pretty easy. For example our family likes to have spaghetti at least twice a month. So this would be tomatoes, basil, savory, garlic, onions, peppers, etc. You can leave off things you know you can’t or don’t have room to grow such as a cow for beef or semolina wheat for pasta. Then cross out items that won’t grow in your area. The remaining items are your working list. Next, and you may already have this data handy from your thrifty grocery shopping, find out what each of the remaining items cost, and how much of these you buy. I use tomatoes in tons of dishes, and I know it takes about a pound to two pounds of tomatoes depending on the variety to make marinara sauce for two. Tomatoes are x per pound, and I need y pounds per month. X times y is how much I would spend if I bought just the tomatoes.

Sample working list:

• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Carrots
• Bell peppers
• Leeks
• Parsnips
• Lettuce
• Strawberries
• Summer squash
• Zucchini
• Basil
• Savory
• Sage
• Celery
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Cabbage
• Raspberries

Once you have that list you can see how much money is going to each food item you might be surprised, but now you know where your garden can impact the reduction of your food budget best. I also found that there were several foods, lettuce being one of them that we ate frequently, was expensive from the store, but frequently went bad in our fridge before we finished it. By growing the lettuce in the garden and not picking it until I’m ready to use it I no longer waste it, or my money. The next consideration is the amount of space you have to garden, and the yields of the things on your list. Maybe you’ve only got a balcony on an apartment that doesn’t get much sun, or maybe you’ve got an empty acre just waiting to be planted. Most of us will be somewhere in between. But no matter how much space you have, gardening space should always be considered at a premium. To a point its better to have your garden as compact as your desired yields allow, if for no other reason than it will take less time to take care of. There are a ton of books out there on companion gardening and square foot gardening. I highly recommend reading up on the subject. You can find these books at your local library, or on Amazon. And a lot of the information is on the internet just waiting for a simple google search. Most seed selling websites will give you numbers in both how many seeds are in a packet, and what the expected yield per plant will be although the yield will be a broad generalization. Lots of fruit, a little fruit, etc. They will also give you a rough idea of the plant size. Tomatoes, have a generally high yield per plant, while with carrots and leeks are only going to give one to one per seed. At the same time tomatoes take up a lot more space. Than carrots or leeks, but there’s a lot of room under that tomato plant for other things like carrots, and basil. Here’s a list of Deep root plants vs shallow root plants. (plants that are extremely easy to grow have a star after them) If you have a container garden shallow or medium rooted plants will do better for you. Keep an eye out for varieties meant for containers if you do, for example dwarf carrots which don’t grow as deep as regular ones do.

Deep: 12 inches or more

• Carrots *
• Parsnips*
• Tomatoes
• Peppers*
• Potatoes
• Bush type beans and snap peas

Medium: 8-12 inches

• Herbs*
• Strawberries
• Compact varieties of cucumber*
• Ginger*

Shallow: 4-6 inches

• Lettuces*
• Radishes*
• Onions *
• Garlic*

Now you may be thinking you’ve got to go out and spend money on buying these seeds or plants and that’s money I could be spending on groceries I can eat now. Not so you can get almost everything you need to garden for free. If you live in an apartment or if you choose to container garden you might need to be a bit more creative in finding pots, old Rubbermaid tubs work well. I bet you have some laying around. Most counties have collection areas where residents can pick up compost for free, you just have to go get it. Call your county extension office and ask. If you have an outdoor garden space you can also improve any “dirt” you have by composting in some junk mail and your kitchen scraps I won’t go into this, as there has already been an article on composting. Now for plants: Many things can be grown either from a piece of something you got at the store or from the seeds of things you got from the store. For example you can grow potatoes from a potato you got at the store. When ever mine start to get eyes I just cut a chunk of the potato off with the eye on it and stick that part in the ground. You can do the same thing with Ginger. Onions will re-grow from the root section on the bottom, as to celery you know that part you normally throw away. Leave a little more onion attached and stick it in the ground. In a few months you will have not one but two more onions. Bell peppers grow well from seeds inside the store bought one, and so do tomatoes as long as they haven’t been bred not to. Garlic cloves starting to get that green inside? Stick ‘em in the ground. As for other things you may find neighbors willing to give you some of their extra seed to start out. But theirs always the Dinner Garden a non for profit organization who’s mission statement is to get families self sufficient and healthy. They have many distribution sites around the country and if you aren’t near one, they will mail you the seeds. These seeds are free and available to anyone who wants to start a garden, regardless of economic standing.

Thanks to The Survivalist Blog for this informative article

Endless Food Systems: Fish-Powered Aquaponic Gardens

Why do we choose Aquaponics instead of regular gardening?

Initially when i first started prepping, I soon remarked that storing up freeze dried foods isn't just expensive, but not a great policy for long-term survival. If something devastating happened that changed our society forever, stockpiles could eventually come to an end regardless how much you've got stored. It's no little amount to put much money into something you we do hope you will never have to use.

When I stumbled upon a limitless strategy to grow food called aquaponics, it revolutionized my way of thinking when it comes to long-term survival. The benefits of an aquaponic Endless Food System are immediate, and definitely will generate clean, non-GMO food on your family immediately. A lot of people in addition have found eating natural and eliminating toxic pesticides and chemicals employed in a lot of today's processed foods has strengthened their defense mechanisms.

An aquaponic garden is a thing that may benefit your household without delay, and you'll be crucial in the case of an extended-term food crisis. Growing your own organic fruits and vegetables (and fish!) can help to conserve big money in your grocery bill. Know what's even better, besides the fresh taste, is that you simply don't ought to own acres of land. Scalping strategies can generate around maybe five or ten times more food per sq . ft . compared to a traditional garden.



Aquaponic beds use 90% less water than a soil garden because the water is contained, and never has to be changed out. On top of that, growing vegetables in the elevated beds eliminates bending over and many traditional insect problems. Endless Food Systems are easy to operate and maintain, requiring only 5-10 minutes per day. I often get asked if the food tastes good. The truth is, once you've tasted vegetables grown the natural way in these systems, you'll never want to buy from the big box stores again. It is truly amazing how much better food tastes when it's allowed to ripen completely on the vine and grow without any chemicals.

So How Does Aquaponics Work?

An Endless Food System combines fish and plants together in a natural, symbiotic way. The fish provide food for the plants, and the plants clean the water for the fish. A water pump constantly moves the water from a fish tank into gravel-filled grow beds full of vegetable plants. The only inputs needed are fish food and a very small amount of electricity (can be from a car battery & solar panel) to run the water pump and air pump.

You can grow your own fish food, or even hang a hand-crank flashlight over the fish tank at night to attract bugs. The water and tanks never need to be cleaned. In fact, if you did, it could kill your beneficial microbes and bacteria that are doing all the work of converting the fish waste into plant food. The only thing that is really needed is a simple once-a-week brushing of the fish tank to stir up the sediment and send the fish waste up into the grow beds (where you want it). The idea of aquaponics is quite ancient, but has only recently been re-discovered. And while the overall concept is simple, designing and building a system can be quite complex. 



It is difficult to pinpoint exactly how much food an Endless Food System will produce, but in our experience, it is very possible for most families to drastically improve their food independence and health. As with anything, you generally get out what you put in, and an Endless Food System is no different. The better a system is managed, the more it will produce. We have found that a 12 foot wide by 20 foot long set up will generate around 1,200 pounds of vegetables and 50 to 80 pounds of fish per year. There are a lot of factors involved that could affect that number, such as your climate, type of plants and fish, and whether you are growing in a greenhouse that is climate controlled or in a basement.

For those in an urban environment without much space, we offer a compact indoor system, Eden. The peaceful sound of the constant water fountain cascading over the pebbles acts as both an accent piece, and functional aquaponics system for indoor growing.



Due to National Geographic for this very informative article regarding Aquaponics.

Happy Gardening!

9 Things to Consider Before You Ever Grow a Survival Garden

Do you desired to expand your own garden? And provide your household the most nutritious and fresh produce? Well! This short article would allow you to know what are what you require to think about before you increase your garden.



In a permanent emergency, people do not possess the time to leisurely be employed in the backyard.  Instead, they will be gardening for survival, together with a lot of other daily survival chores.  Survival gardening will be labor intensive, and enormous quantities of energy (sweat) is going to be needed to achieve the garden produce enough food for that present and enough to  put away money for hard times.  In substitution for your time and energy, you will want a survival garden that may provide your family abundantly with food.  Keeping specific things under consideration before starting a sizable scale garden will help give you the most out your energy, provide your self together with the healthiest vegetable varieties, and help you find the easiest kinds of vegetables growing.

Variables to Consider When Growing a Survival Garden

• A survival garden should incorporate dependable and easy to grow vegetables that produce more than one harvest or bears more than one fruit per plant.
• The vegetable varieties should be types that the family will eat.  It’s not worth the trouble of growing this food if your family will not eat it.
•  Grow vegetables that have high amounts of nutrition and vitamins, as well as finding varieties that possess medicinal properties.  According to medical experts, green vegetables such as broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Lima beans, peas, asparagus, artichokes, cauliflower, sweet potatoes and carrots are some of the most nutritious vegetables in the world.
• Find varieties that grow naturally in your area.  Environments where plants grow naturally mean that less time and effort will be needed in raising them.
• Need for excessive fertilizing to produce decent sized produce is a waste of precious resources.  There are exceptions to this rule of course.  Such as, if the fertilizer used will help the plant produce many fruits or vegetables.
• If space is limited, plants that take up as little space as possible, but produce abundantly will make for a good investment.  Furthermore, finding gardening techniques such as the Three Sisters also makes good use of space.
• If fuel is needed to harvest vegetables, the noise could be an indicator of a thriving homestead, and an OPSEC nightmare.  As a result, the home could be frequented by unwelcome guests.  Additionally, this type of farming method would consume large amounts of fuel.
• Find vegetables that can do well for storage.  Vegetables such as potatoes, onions, and root crops like beets and carrots that store well can be used when the weather is too cold to grow.
• Varieties that serve more than one purpose is also an efficient use of space and resources.  Varieties such as root crops or broccoli leaves are varieties where the greens can be fed to livestock.  In addition, some survivalists agree that yellow dent corn has a multi purpose use of making grain and feeding livestock.  But this crop requires a large amount of land, resources such as fertilizer, and energy to grow this plant to fruition.

Preppers that are stocking up on non-GMO or heirloom variety seeds to grow, should also have adequate knowledge in gardening skills to get these varieties to produce vegetables and fruits.  However, before a survival garden is started, sitting down and planning the garden and considering different factors will save headaches later on.  Likewise, researching how much food a family will need and how much of the time/energy yield will be needed to produce these vegetables is a valuable use of time.  Also, keep in mind that you know your family best.  You know what they eat, you know what they will not eat.  Come to your own conclusions as to what type of survival seed varieties are best suited for your family and the environment you live in.

Credits to Ready Nutrition for this very useful information.

10 Healing Herbs To Grow in Your Survival Garden

Hi! I found this great article about healing herbs that we can grow in our survival garden. It includes ten healing herbs and what it can do to us. It is very informative that's why I wanted to share it!




10 healing herbs that have been used for centuries and you can grow in your survival garden Time has come to plan our summer gardens, in this article we will show 10 superhealers you’ll want to add to your garden. These herbs possess amazing powers that have been used for centuries to soothe and heal, and with usage dating as far back as the first century CE and before, so it´s undeniable including them in your diet can yield big benefits.
Basil: Traditionally called the “king of herbs”. Thought to have mild antiseptic functions and used medicinally as a natural anti-inflammatory. Some healing uses are for flatulence, lack of appetite, nausea and cuts and scrapes.
It´s a great herb to add to spaghetti and in pesto too. Basil will have to be renewed on a yearly basis as it´s an annual plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seed, within one year.
German Chamomile: Chamomile´s flower heads are commonly used for infusions, teas and salves. It´s also used in herbal medicine for a sore stomach, irritable bowel syndrome, and as a gentle sleep aid. It´s normally taken as an herbal tea, two teaspoons of dried flower per cup of tea, and mouthwash against oral mucositis.
Feverfew: This perennial, member of the sunflower family has been used for centuries in European folk medicine as a treatment to treat headaches, arthritis and to reduce fever. Its many uses include easing headache pains, especially migraines. Feverfew should not be taken by pregnant women.
Lemon Balm: Lemon balm is a member of the mint family. Considered a calming herb, it has been used for centuries to reduce stress and anxiety, promote sleep, improve appetite, and ease pain and discomfort from indigestion. You can also crush the leaves and rub them onto the skin as a mosquito repellent.
Lemon balm has an exceptionally high antioxidant activity, and promotes the sense of calm.
Parsley: This biennial plant when brewed as a tea, helps supplement iron in a person’s diet, particularly for those who are anemic. Drinking parsley tea also helps boost energy and circulation of the body, and helps fight fatigue in anemic people. Other uses? Parsley tea fights gas and flatulence in the belly, kidney infections, and bladder infections, this herb should be avoided by pregnant women, as it is known to have uterotonic effects in high doses.
Sage: Named “Salvia” which means “to heal”. Native to the Mediterranean region, this plant is used in traditional medicine internally (as tea or directly chewed) for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, mouth, gastrointestinal tract, and skin, due to its excellent antibacterial and astringent properties.
Thyme: Thyme is used to relieve coughs, congestion, indigestion and gas. This perennial is rich in thymol, a strong antiseptic, making it highly desirable in the treatment of wounds and even fungus infections. This plant can do well in cooler climates.
Rosemary: Rosemary is known to help sharpen mental clarity and stimulate brain function. The needles of the fragrant rosemary plant can be used in a tea to treat digestive problems. The same tea can also be used as an expectorant and as a relaxing beverage that is helpful for headaches. Other healing uses include improving memory, relieving muscle pain and spasms, stimulating hair growth, and supporting the circulatory and nervous systems.
Peppermint: Peppermint has a long tradition of medicinal use. It is commonly used to soothe or treat symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, indigestion, irritable bowel, and bloating.
The leaves and stems contain menthol which in addition to use medicinally, is used as a flavoring in food, and a fragrance in cosmetics. The plant is prolific and grows well in almost all locations. The roots of this plant emit runners that quickly overtake gardens so they are best planted in a pot.
Lavender: This plant is a strong antiseptic, lavender tea, when applied topically, can help heal cuts, wounds and sores. It can also be used to mitigate bad breath.
A tea made from lavender has many uses with one of the foremost being its ability to have a calming effect on a person’s mind and body. Lavender can promote a sense of well-being and alleviate stress. Another excellent use is to dry them and seal them in pouches and place them among stored items of clothing to give a fresh fragrance and to deter moths. To get started with your garden will depend on the amount of space you have, the climate, and the availability of seeds, starts, or cuttings. A good recommendation is that to start with three or four herbs that appeal to you from a healing perspective. Most of these plants can be grown in pots on a porch or deck so if space is your problem, you can start modestly. If you would like to learn more about the healing properties of herbs, the University of Maryland Medical Center has a web site with a lot of useful information about herbs and other alternative medicine topics. Please share with your family and friends, so they can start their own healing garden!

Thanks to Natural Cures not Medicine for this very informative article.