Apocalypse gardening

I spend allot of time thinking, and finding evidence, for the "End of History" apocalypse that was supposed to take place in 2012 was rescheduled for summer of 2024. They just didn't want allot of people following them! So I live in a place that is ranch land, really rocky and any soil comes from pine needles. I figured, if i want a garden for when the lights go out then I'm going to have to make my own soil. To this end, at the beginning of 2022 I shredded up a bunch of cardboard and collected a bunch of organic matter from juice stores. It is now decayed to the point that you cannot tell it was cardboard - it looks like organic soil! But it cannot be this easy! I'm wondering if anyone with some experience can give me some ideas about what they would do if they only had what's left on hand, so I can have a better chance of success before the 2024 event (I think its gonna be a solar flare). Can you use animal parts? Maybe collect algae? Any ideas on how to recycle the soil (I have to bring in all my supplies by foot).

clover could add some nitrogen, but honestly id stock up on coco and nutrients. It wont go bad.

Get an aquarium fish for food.fish poop and carcases for plants.chickenpoop for nitrogen.

But anything organic will turn in to compost

amneziaHaze said:

Get an aquarium fish for food.fish poop and carcases for plants.chickenpoop for nitrogen.

But anything organic will turn in to compost

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thats a really good idea. but how would you feed the fish without any fish food? what would they eat.

You get aquarium plants dry them and they eat it.allsoo some eat meat other fish worms bugs.depends on what fish you get.

amneziaHaze said:

You get aquarium plants dry them and they eat it.allsoo some eat meat other fish worms bugs.depends on what fish you get.

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very true, could start a worm growing bin.

Try to find some manure, more the better. And worms
Once you have left it for a month or two, start growing veggies. Leave the soil undisturbed in between grow seasons, and let all the roots and matter from left over plants to decompose. Add some compost every now and then.
Each year the soil will be better than previous year. Plus you can gather seeds from the veggies for next year.

you could always add urine to supply nitrogen to the compost to decompose quicker

amneziaHaze said:

You get aquarium plants dry them and they eat it.allsoo some eat meat other fish worms bugs.depends on what fish you get.

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I was thinking about doing a aquaponics situation, I have a 100 gallon pond with goldfish that have survived for about two years now. The biggest problem I found was filtering, and the fact that I have to feed them a few times a day. I do have a great idea about getting a bunch of insects out here in the forest... I bought a bug zapper for mosquitoes and when I came home that night it was an insect APOCALYPSE!

talking about a bug zapper, ive seen some videos of people putting them over chicken coops and the bugs fall down and they eat them haha

Joe.Grow said:

talking about a bug zapper, ive seen some videos of people putting them over chicken coops and the bugs fall down and they eat them haha

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I'm definitely doing a quail setup in the near future.

Joe.Grow said:

clover could add some nitrogen, but honestly id stock up on coco and nutrients. It wont go bad.

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Do you have any recommendations for nutrients for my cardboard soil? I'm planning on stocking up on other things and just want to make things "work".

Bug growing is easy.lots of edible ones and almost all of them eat leafs and shit. They say bugs have 3 times more protein than cows.
Or you could use them to feed the fish

Stinging nettle is good source of nitrogen and iron

Alfalfa is hugely beneficial to the soil, and if you live on ranch land it should be readily available. It contains almost everything you need as well as triacontanol a natural growth hormone.
Once you have a quail coop going save all the eggshells you get from the eggs. Eggshells are a good source of calcium but it takes a long time for them to break down. Dry them thoroughly by sticking them in the oven for a little while at low temp, or set up a solar drying station, Once dry and brittle grind the eggshells as finely as possible to give more surface area for the eggshells to be broken down by microbes in the soil and converted into a form of calcium that can be used by the plants.

I'm curious. If you feel that is going to be a solar flare how do feel that would impact growing plants in general?

Closed loop systems and KNF/Jadam.

refriedbeano said:

I spend allot of time thinking, and finding evidence, for the "End of History" apocalypse that was supposed to take place in 2012 was rescheduled for summer of 2024. They just didn't want allot of people following them! So I live in a place that is ranch land, really rocky and any soil comes from pine needles. I figured, if i want a garden for when the lights go out then I'm going to have to make my own soil. To this end, at the beginning of 2022 I shredded up a bunch of cardboard and collected a bunch of organic matter from juice stores. It is now decayed to the point that you cannot tell it was cardboard - it looks like organic soil! But it cannot be this easy! I'm wondering if anyone with some experience can give me some ideas about what they would do if they only had what's left on hand, so I can have a better chance of success before the 2024 event (I think its gonna be a solar flare). Can you use animal parts? Maybe collect algae? Any ideas on how to recycle the soil (I have to bring in all my supplies by foot).

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You would probably do better finding a few prepper sites for info. A year and a half until your doom scenario isn't much time to build up enough of a productive garden to support one person at the rate you're doing it. We have a good sized garden we've been growing in for 20 years and it was here 20 years before we bought the place. The wife has been using most of it to grow garlic for sale and has planted 3000 for next years crop. Most is sold before it's out of the ground. 14 different varieties this year.

She got 10yds of topsoil delivered as well as 5yds of composted cow manure. A mile of clay under us so always having to add more real dirt as the clay seems to work it's way up. We have about 30 chickens so lots of their poop in the 3 compost piles. A big 80x50x4m deep dugout for lots of water on hand and I have a big steel tank I can make into a water distiller heated with firewood should we need that. She cans a lot of stuff so we could get by for half a year or so if it all goes sideways. No wood heat in the house so winter could be rough. Gas heater that works without electricity but won't heat the whole place with no fans to circulate the air. And if gas became unavailable it won't heat nothing. Already hitting -25C at night and colder to come. Close to -40 for a few weeks each winter.

Spring garlic coming up.



Preparing the garden for fall garlic planting this year.



Me out in my belly boat putting a screen filter on my water intake. Have to do that now to install a $160 air diffuser on the end of my aerator line or it's stinky water all winter. Hurt my back so hoping I can borrow my neighbour's little boat in a week or so before the ice gets too thick. Was ice to the shore but warmed up for a week and gave me space to get out there.

Funkentelechy said:

Alfalfa is hugely beneficial to the soil, and if you live on ranch land it should be readily available.
I'm curious. If you feel that is going to be a solar flare how do feel that would impact growing plants in general?

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Thanks for the alfalfa tip, I think that's just what i was looking for. I still have till next spring to add stuff to it, but I wanted to preserve the experimental goals of SHTF situations. Really I only need about two years worth of food, enough to outlast the worst of the "great flush".

You know, when the Great American solar eclipse happened, and I found out there was going to be another eclipse that puts a big X across America, I came across the idea of a solar flare as being the perfect vehicle for the apocalyptical end of history because it would not affect plants at all. People usually don't think that nature is just as good at consciousness as we are! But if you know what to look for in the historical record, you'll find evidence that she is thinking right there.

OldMedUser said:

You would probably do better finding a few prepper sites for info. A year and a half until your doom scenario isn't much time to build up enough of a productive garden to support one person at the rate you're doing it. We have a good sized garden we've been growing in for 20 years and it was here 20 years before we bought the place. The wife has been using most of it to grow garlic for sale and has planted 3000 for next years crop. Most is sold before it's out of the ground. 14 different varieties this year.

Me out in my belly boat putting a screen filter on my water intake. Have to do that now to install a $160 air diffuser on the end of my aerator line or it's stinky water all winter. Hurt my back so hoping I can borrow my neighbour's little boat in a week or so before the ice gets too thick. Was ice to the shore but warmed up for a week and gave me space to get out there.

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You know your probably right. But the land I'm on isn't conductive to soil gardening (had to buy a jackhammer) but I was gonna put some effort into it anyways. I figured I'd collect cardboard and leftovers from juiceland and use the rocks to make a huge soil bed. But its pretty daunting to shred all that cardboard, and then I didn't do something right and my experiment fails. That might put me behind! But my other plan is to harvest a few deer, enough for two years, but again that's something I have never done. Really though, I was heading down the prepper path even if it wasn't for the apocalypse... diy food is so much better than what I would normally eat, I imagine.
I've been catching rainwater for all of my cooking and drinking needs. I've done nothing to it except put some duck tape over the opening and use a britta filter. I've been able to get enough just between rainstorms so far, 50 gallons at a time. But I do have access to river water, which is about 50 feet below me. I ran about 400' of garden hose and fixed up a gas water pump to get it up here, to mix up aircrete or water the plants.
You should look into a cheap ozone generator used in cars on ebay. You probably could run it a few times a week to get rid of the smell. I bought one for about 10 dollars and it does indeed pump out some fury, so smell it at your own risk!

refriedbeano said:

You should look into a cheap ozone generator used in cars on ebay. You probably could run it a few times a week to get rid of the smell. I bought one for about 10 dollars and it does indeed pump out some fury, so smell it at your own risk!

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I have a couple of ozone generators already but they won't do anything for the stink of stagnant water and it's not good to breathe the ozone. For a bath I'll toss in a shot-glass of 35% peroxide or even some bleach. Clears it up nicely but I bought a $400 dual-cylinder aerator pump last year but it was so powerful it blew the roll of soaker hose off the end of the line so I invested in a proper 12" air diffuser but still need to get out on the water to install it. The water is as good as teh summer time when properly aerated.

Came with the 5lb weight to hold it down and hopefully hits the bottom the right way up. I'll tie a rope to the weight so I can pull it up if it disconnects from the 1/2" air line that runs underground from my basement along with the 1.5" intake pipe.



Connects at the bottom like so. The larger lightweight plastic diffuser should act like a parachute so the weight hits the bottom first about 10' down this time of year after almost no rain all summer.