What are the best plants to grow in a survival veggie garden?

depends on your preservation skills - after all everything has a shelf life

Things like the celeriac and swede can be kept in the ground until you need them!
Just gotta watch for bugs.

I'd plant chickens along with carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, onions,cabbage, spinach, and pole beans...

Last Edited by BRIEF on 04/28/2011 10:00 AM

I got chickens too, and rabbits.
:)

I must admit though I do not eat them at the moment.
But if I had to then I would...

You should grow winter storage root crops.

Potatoes, turnips, rutabagas (swedes), parsnips and carrots.

You need to focus on food for the winter. Dry beans are very important.

A survival garden is a big garden. It ain't playing around with something small.

I wintered over some parsnips and salsify (oyster root) and will be harvesting my own seed in the summer.

Here in Ohio you can overwinter spinach and turnips and harvest greens in March. After a winter of roasted root vegetables you will be very happy to get some greens again to cleanse your body and get some fresh vitamins A and C.

Lentils and chickpeas are great storage food too, but I have never grown them.

Hmm, I have looked a Lentils.
I may need to take another look at them.

It's too wet to plant yet...here in Southern IN, but I already have carrots and lettuce coming up from last year...carrots are about the perfect veggie, lots of nutrients...

try this:

[link to en.wikipedia.org]


they taste not really that good, but they grow like shit!

I know this is not a veg but you can eat roses as well if need be ..just put some honey on them and they make a nice meal ... I just planted some beans today so in a few weeks they will be nice , i don't know if you will like them but gooseberrys are great and the plant will go crazy with fruit if you don't cut it back

Just did a quick check on the Lentils and it looks like it may be a bit of a wast of space.
Still looking into it though.

hmmm, Jerusalem artichoke.

They look interesting.

Just place them on a bit of land out of the way, and away they go...

the information is all available online.

google: "best plants to grow in a survival veggie garden"

LOL...

Nickname:- 'fartichokes'

I cannot believe nobody here has said Kale. Kale is delicious - I'd never eaten it before this year and even my 8yo daughter is addicted to it.

It is said that kale saved the lives of over 1 million during the Depression.


Also, collard greens. They are long-lived and last throughout the winter.

Cook the above with a little bacon grease and you'll be plenty happy.

Kale is good.
It is an annual, so has to be planted every year.

I am thinking towards perennial plants if at all possible.

Also want to suggest that you plant pears out the wahzoo. Plums and peaches are ripe and fall within a couple weeks, but pears can stay on the tree for absolutely ages because the ripening factor kicks in after they've fallen or been picked. We've had delicious pears for months out here and have planted several more trees because of this.

Trim the trees so they are thinned and the lateral growth is mostly removed. Then they branch growing upwards and you have a tree that stays low enough you can harvest, while still bearing loads of fruit.

My serious advice is to look back historically to what the old timers raised and survived on in your area.

Also, it is hard to go wrong with the "Three Sisters" of South American fame.

Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatos, parsnips, and winter cabbage and you are set for your veggie part of survival.