Many preppers and survivalists are planning on planting vegetable gardens to help provide for their long-term needs in a survival situation. I’m totally in favor of that. In fact, I already have a vegetable garden growing in my backyard, both to meet my current needs and to help me through any situation which might come up.
The Problem With Your Standard Vegetable Garden
There’s only one problem with that vegetable garden; that is, it’s not very stealthy. I mean, anyone who looks into my backyard can see that I have a vegetable garden. While that’s not a problem now, in a post-crisis world, it could be. My garden alone could break my OPSEC, making me a target.
A key principle of operational security (OPSEC) is in making sure that nobody else can see your preps. While that may be an impossible goal, a lot can be done to make them harder to see. In a sense, my vegetable garden is camouflaged, because it is in operation during normal times. So, it doesn’t look like a “survival garden.” Nobody is going to see that garden and conclude that I’m preparing for a catastrophe. But, on the other side, that might be different.
How Can I Keep People Out?
When people are hungry, they will be looking for food from wherever they can get it. That includes my garden. I wouldn’t be surprised to find people climbing over my back fence to see what they could gather from that garden. So, in a time of crisis, that garden may not be as much help as I want it to be.
So, the question is; how can I have my survival garden and not have people climbing my fence to take advantage of it? Sounds a bit like wanting to have my cake and eat it too, doesn’t it? But I believe it’s possible to do both. All I need is a way of camouflaging my garden, so that it doesn’t look like a vegetable garden.
Hide Your Garden In The Wild
The easiest way to do that is to get rid of the vegetable garden and plant my survival garden in my flower garden. If I created a flower garden, several feet wide, running around the border of my yard, nobody would pay much attention to it during a time of crisis. There, amidst the flowering shrubs, tulips and marigolds, I could plant my vegetables too. That way, they would be less conspicuous to those looking for food.
This idea is even more important if I choose to bug out. Cultivating crops in the wild is a sure sign that you have a survival retreat. Not only that, but it’s a sign that can be seen from a long way off. Garden plots, like other things man-made tend to be square or rectangular, shapes that don’t naturally appear in nature. So, they will attract attention.
But it’s actually easier to hide your survival garden in the wild, than it is to hide it in the city. All you need to do is to plant your vegetables scattered around amongst the foliage, rather than in one garden plot. Plant tomatoes next to one tree and some carrots next to a bush. Put your lettuce alongside the path to the spring and the melons growing amongst the rocks. Climbing plants, like cucumbers can climb on trees or rocks, depending on what you have available.
One of the best books on the subject is the “Secret Garden of Survival: How to grow a camouflaged food- forest” by Rick Austin. Check it out here <<<
Just Like Johnny Appleseed
This is not all that different than what was done by Johnny Appleseed. If you remember the story of Johnny from elementary school, he traveled west, in advance of the settlers, planting apple orchards. As people moved into those areas, they would find apple trees waiting for them, ready to provide them with food.
Johnny’s apple orchards weren’t the commercial operations we’re accustomed to seeing today. He would plant a few trees in a clearing, wherever he could. In that way, the trees that he planted, blended in with the countryside. It was only when people stopped to settle or make camp that they could see his handiwork.
Stay Under The Radar
Likewise, your handiwork will only show to those who take the time to walk the trails you are walking and live where you are living. To the casual passer-by, or the person who is looking for someone to raid, your survival garden won’t appear to be anything. It will be protected by the lack of attention it draws to itself.
