I hope you will forgive me for the admittedly crazy topic of this post. The inspiration for it came when I noticed that survivalist websites were linking to some of my past posts on growing food in containers. Although the crazy part, I am almost embarrassed to admit, is not hypothesizing about the collapse of the economy/government (Hurricane Katrina, anyone?), but whether it is possible to support yourself only on what you and your neighbors could grow in an urban environment.
Photo by Mr. Greenjeans of Katrina aftermath
Almost certainly people could not live entirely off what could be grown on a typical balcony. Careful and efficient space planning could make good use of your balcony space, but I don’t see how it would be possible, for example, to support a family of four solely on what could be grown on even a large balcony or patio. A roof might be enough space, if you have access to that. But a balcony? I think not.
I’ll be interested to read what you guys think on this topic (if you write a post about it shoot me an email with a link so I’ll be sure to see it), but I think any long term survival plan would have to involve taking over additional land (i.e. guerrilla gardening). This wouldn’t be a problem, I don’t think. There is tons of “wasted” landscaping around most buildings, street center dividers, etc that could quickly and easily be converted into edible gardens.
Another thing to think about–if urban survivalism is your thing–is that when the time comes, it will be too late to learn things like canning, about medicinal plants, how to forage for food, or to collect seeds. It seems to me that there is no time like the present to learn how to store food for the winter months, or any other useful skill or bit of knowledge. And if you’re going to create a seed stash, you’ll need to use and replace the seeds on a rotating schedule because seeds have a 12-24 month shelf life (some longer).
I’m assuming, of course, that you already are growing food and learning those skills, and have the basic tools. Surely then, you realize that it would be necessary to have a pantry full of canned goods in advance of any societal meltdown, because you’d need to give yourself time to set up your expanded garden. Even quick growing greens would need several weeks to get to a stage where you could eat them.
Anyway, this post is only partly tongue-in-cheek. Have you ever thought about what you would do if you had to support yourself for an extended period of time without any of the modern conveniences we’ve all become dependent on?
