Clandestine Gardening

[taiarain]

Feel free to move this to a more appropriate folder if needed...

Has anyone every heard of the trend toward clandestine gardening? I'm not sure what it's actually called, but it's based in establishing your plantings to look random and uninviting. This way, in the event of a regional disaster, people won't think to raid your crops.

I've only come across limited mention of this and am interested in learning more. Anybody have links or know people who practice this?

[mamab]

The only context I've every heard it in relation to was growing illegal plants, IYKWIM. I've often heard of them being grown in a clandestine manner.

Here's a blog I found http://www.guerrillagardening.org/index.html You ought to check it out.

[taiarain]

Okay, I found the blog I was reading it from, but it doesn't link to the original article online or the author. It was called stealth gardening/guerrilla gardening/edible landscaping. I found a bunch more sites from trying to search for the original article and will have to post the good ones.

[tater03]

This is the first time I have ever heard of this concept. I guess it makes sense. But to do something like this now would to me feel like I was waiting for the worst to happen. I don't know it is a good idea though.

[taiarain]

Hehe, Tater. I did learn about it on an end-timer's blog so the person actually is waiting for the worst to happen. lol

[Bowcatz]

The thing about clandestine gardening in the wild is the deer, rabbits, and other animals eating your food before you can get to it. I've considered planting things in the crooks of trees, but the squirrels would find things like greens or beans and devour the tender shoots. I suppose below ground food like potatoes, carrots, and sugar beets could be grown easily in the wild. Sweet potatoes are very nutritious, too.

[echos]

Wow, thankx, never have thought of this. But, makes sense. Onions are good for this I bet? Sugar beets?

[Bowcatz]

Sugar beets would be a good carb source for enduring cold winters or times of famine. Maybe below ground foods would stay less polluted with radioactive fallout a little longer than surface foods, too. Don't know about that one though. Just speculating.

Tomatoes would be a little too obvious that someone is survival gardening. The National Guard troops sent out to look for stragglers not wanting to be put into forced work concentration camps are probably trained to look for garden crops in the wild anyway.

[donny h]

Sugar beets are very versatile, that would be a good choice.

I would think all the bulb/root vegies would be the most low-key, and better for long-term storage: beet, turnip, radish, potato, onion, yam, garlic.

In hard times a fella could make booze from those sugar beets.

[taiarain]

I imagine berries, fruit trees and sunflowers might be decent plants for this, too. I still need to post the links I've been finding here.

[Bowcatz]

If you already have a plan as to where you are going when the time to run is upon you then you could cultivate the native plants already there. Fertilize the berry bushes, prune (but not obviously) the fruit trees, and plant lots of native nut trees or put tree fertilizer spikes down for your favorite acorn type. For me, it's the white oak. Large and meaty kernals.

Down south we have lots of pecan and walnut trees, so I would plant even more of those. I would encourage bull thistle growth, too. Bull thistle is a good food and water source. The root can be roasted and the pulp can be chewed as a moisture source. Each tall stalk will yield about an ounce of pure moisture safe to ingest on the spot if it's not near a road or has been sprayed by fertilizers or poison. Wild grape vines are a good water source. Move and plant those shoots that might not make it where you see them coming up so none are wasted. Don't put the cut end of a wild grape vine in your mouth though. Gritty. Let the water drip into a cup or the palm of your hand or be soaked up into a clean rag.

I am considering planting cattails along the damp gullies and streams on my property, too. They are good for food, fiber, and tinder.

[lovegettinlost]

I don't know much about this but I'd imagine trying to grow several varieties of vegitation in a random manner would take more time then it's worth, plus if you are in a dire situatuion where people are looking for food, jsut becasue your corn isn't in a straight row, doesnt make it look any less like corn, an idiot would have to see random shoots of corn, radom apple trees, berries cabbage, onion, and other vevetaion in one area and think of, thast not food, I'll keep looking. Pklus unless you are sacttering a variety of seeds, platning one husk of corn, then moviung far away and planitng another and doing this over again, then switching to onions, it's jsut sounds like way more work then its worth!!

[Chicago Dan]

I like this idea and it follows if you have already reached your destination but are afraid of observation especially aerial. Of course you still have the ground threat of someone coming in and stealing but if you have reached your destination you have probably devised some means of security if not for your crops then certainly for yourself/homestead.

This obviously also follows that the opinion is that the person will be "out" for quite some time. That said, bringing some seed/seedlings to start with would probably be a good idea and a judicious planting my limit aerial observation and maybe even some ground. At least certainly more than straight rows.
I agree that spreading it out to thin does not sound practicable but patch planting may "blend" more and of course is easer to defense.

[Rick]

Who's out flying around? I'm a bug in kinda guy and I have edible flowers around my house along with my garden. Sometimes plain sight is the best camouflage.

[canid]

there's a lot of places in the world where people maintain peoples gardens or community gardens on public ground. it's like the guerilla cultivation of ganja, except where people are often discouraged from going near the pot grows with guns they are encouraged to help and share.

[dilligaf2u2]

I went down to an area considered flood plane. The boys and I planted randomly in that area. If all goes as planned we will be picking foods from that area this fall. The area is not accesable to off road people and no one realy goes down in there. You have to walk in the river to get past the brush.

Is that what you mean?

Don

[awfoxden]

ive read some magazine articles that talk alot about natural landscaping and using garden crops in flower beds and walkway edging and flower boxing instead of the normal non etable flowers. alway piqued my interest. i don't like cutting grass that much and the more creative you can get with landscaping the less grass there is to mow and why not plant fruits and vegtables instead of mums and daisies. probably not as pretty but much better tasting.

[Ole WV Coot]

Folks that I know have been doing it for years. They raise the illegal stuff to smoke. After all it's suppose to be WVs largest cash crop. They are kinda territorial so watch out for traps.