6) How to Add Gardening to Your Emergency Prepping. Part of Provident Living/Homesteading

Part of Provident living

By Sindy Wakeham

How can any preparations done in and around the house be complete without the use of a garden? Have you ever lived on store cupboard food, on its own, for any amount of time, short or long? My family have, for a very short time! Not going to lie, to make basic store cupboard food thing that our pampered tastebuds can endure out of those kinds of basics, takes a lot of creativity and a VERY diverse collection of added ingredients!

What are those basics and ‘added’ ingredients? I’ll be going into that in other articles and videos between both blogs and YouTube channels; Blue Garden Cottage and Escaping the Dole with Sindy.  For now I’m concentrating on the importance of the garden as part of emergency and production and preservation of home grown produce.

The Store Cupboard

This week I've been focusing on the UK Government’s re-release or rather update of their Prepare website.  It encourages citizens to store 3 months supplies in case of emergencies and advises us to assess the likely or possible emergencies that could arise in our areas. Personally, I have theories about the timing of the update but I’ll keep those to myself.

All the gathering, organising, storing, cataloguing and use of any resources in the home are still not enough to guarantee complete health if the prepared storage is needed to survive AND thrive for more than a couple of weeks. We’re talking sanity here!

Oh, if the basics are stored, it IS enough to survive and be healthy, especially when we think about the scriptural account of Daniel and his friends when they lived on pulse and water.  According to the scriptural translations, pulse means all seeds and grain. Again, details in other blogs to come. It is possible, especially if you have never had some of the delicacies of our modern times.

Incidentally, in my own mind and to help me overcome the ‘addictions’ that come from those delicacies like sugar, I try to condition my mind to see those ultra refined ingredients as ‘the king’s meat’ referred to in those scriptures. Those ingredients like sugar, salt and refined seed oils are anti-nutrients. See future blogs.

Nutrients!

Let’s get to the nitty gritty then of why the garden is so important in making a store cupboard one we can thrive on instead of just survive on.  The most obvious one is the addition of fresh, colourful, flavourful and fibre filled nutrients that have not been degraded by the preservation and storage process.

All whole foods are best eaten fresh for full nutrient value but cooking and especially preserving, because of the temperatures needed to safely store food for a longer period of time, destroys nutrients like vitamin C and others. Thankfully, today we have more science than ever revealing the huge variety of nutrients in live fresh foods we never knew or understood before. Words like phytonutrients (plant nutrients), antioxidants, polyphenols, fibre and enzymes form part of nutrition vocabulary.

All we need to know is that fresh diversity of plant foods of roots, leaves, flowers and seeds if consumed regularly (daily) will provide us with all the plant nutrients we need for physical health as far as what we eat goes.

The Prepare website doesn’t mention gardening at all as far as I can tell. That’s because the site is focused on emergencies such as floods, fires, possible chemical contamination of water or air (more likely if you live near an industrial area) and other natural or manmade disasters or events. It’s a very helpful site and I DO recommend you use it.

Growing or buying fresh plants for food is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Everybody knows that. What else then makes a garden an essential part of ‘prepping’, which from now on I’ll refer to as provident living?

Physical Health

I’m not a fan of heavy digging because it kills the soil organisms that in reality make and preserve the nutrient density and health of the plants. Digging then isn’t one of the healthful activities in our garden. The only time we dig in our garden at home is to build structures and plant deeper rooted plants and trees. When harvesting or removing roots we only lift the soil without turning it over.

When starting out for the first time in creating a garden, digging is sometimes necessary to get deep rooted weeds like brambles and bindweed out but once the garden structures and design are established, digging isn’t needed anymore.

The most beneficial part of gardening is the physical contact with the soil. Check out The Earthing Movie on YouTube. It’s worth experimenting. Vitamin D is also a benefit from being outdoors in general so gardening is a great way to get some sun rays bringing or creating that essential vitamin.

Mental Health

Who can argue the benefits to mental health of being outdoors too? Being connected with nature in any form lifts the soul and heals. I’m serious. Being in nature can speed healing in physical and mental health, mostly because when in nature we can relax. We tend to breathe more deeply and regularly.  Our senses increase and we can see, feel, taste and smell more intensely.

Gardening is a perfect way of getting in some of that soul exercise and filling the cupboards and freezer at the same time. What’s not to love about it? Ok, maybe the weather can scupper our gardening efforts. That’s where a polytunnel, greenhouse, conservatory or even just a veranda or gazebo comes in handy. That’s a blog for another time but here’s a video of my own veranda.

A garden is so much more than a space for growing vegetables and fruit. It could and should be an extension of the home where we could and should spend many more hours than we normally do. A garden is a physical and psychological necessity in my opinion.

If we had to survive on the resources we have, sort of like we had to for a time during the last pandemic, then I’d say having a garden space of any kind or size is an essential part of prepping for Provident Living.  A garden can make any situation more endurable, if that’s even a word. Indeed, I’d say we would thrive instead of just survive.

I prefer using the term, Provident Living over ‘prepping’ because prepping is more to prepare for specific or possible negative events or times. That’s important because “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear” but (Provide)nt Living provides a means to thrive at all times. We cannot thrive without nature. A garden makes us very wealthy. I consider myself very rich because I have a garden. That’s my wish for you.

Conclusion

Whether you are ‘a prepper’ or not, I would at least hope that you are living providently and including a garden space of whatever size or type to make your life one of holistic health. I hope that you can have a connection with nature and a greater appreciation of your food storage and shopping because of it. I also hope that instead of surviving, you will thrive is all aspects of your life in all times.

Do you have any pain points or problems you would like me to address? Let me know if you HAVE outdoor space and how you are using it to live providently.

Happy Provident Living to you.

Sindy.

Ps: Don’t forget that your interaction and feedback is appreciated and valuable in tailoring the content to your needs and for me to provide you with value. Please do comment and share this blog with your contact.