12 Survival Garden Crops to Grow (In an uncertain world)

Its called a Victory Garden

SPRING 1. Beets 2. Turnips 3. Kale 4. Spinach 5. Cabbage 6. Peas SUMMER 7. Potatoes 🥔 8. Corn 🌽 9. Squash 10. Tomatoes 🍅 11. Beans 12. Carrots 🥕

Awesome. One thing though is that if 'survival' is really something on one's horizon, it's best by orders of magnitude to practice growing these crops long before one really needs to. 'Survival skills' are only skills when practiced - otherwise it's just just trivia. Preservation is a key part of success.

I just read about Zucchini flour, I'm planning to give it a try this year, could be a great way to utilize the super prolific Zucchinis in the winter 👍🏻

Happily I can say I grow all the mentioned crops! We started growing most of our plant foods in 2014. That was the year we expanded our garden after moving to the country. God has blessed me with a green thumb, and the joy of providing for our family. It’s hard work, whether IN the garden or in the kitchen preserving the harvest. I push myself every year to learn something new. I now start all my seedlings and sweet potato slips so I don’t have to buy any from the garden center. I’ve even learned to grow celery. My goal this year is to perfect a bbq sauce, enchilada sauce and ketchup recipes so I don’t have to buy them from the store anymore.

I love your channel. Great concise and timely information. Well thought out and no fear mongering or political talk. Bravo sir.

I second the idea of herbs and other plants that provide flavor in a survival garden. Herbs go a long way in making foods taste great and usually not too fussy to grow.

Thank you Gardener Scott. My wife and I have become huge fans of you after recently discovering you. Thank you for taking the time to educate others. You are very encouraging and helpful. Thank you and God Bless

I have successfully grown Georgia Jet sweet potatoes in my zone 5b for a few years now (upstate NY). I think they are worth it because they are so nutritious. First, make sure you get the slips or plants from a good source because that matters a lot. Second, pre-warm the soil with clear plastic for at least a few weeks before your planting date. I leave the plastic on and make holes for the plants like you would a mulch. The major downside is that weeds will come up, but the clear plastic does a great job of keeping the soil very warm which is what sweet potatoes want. Mulching in between plants helps. Black plastic might work too but I haven't tried it. Last year I got over 40 pounds of sweet potatoes in a 5ft by 12ft area which was enough for about 20 quarts canned. I can them with a brown sugar syrup....SO good in the middle of winter!

Great content. This has been on my mind for a few years. The challenge for me is when to convert from hobby gardening like I do, to survival gardening and calorie production for hard times. One way I've tried is to have perennial fruits that produce at different times of the year so there will often be something to eat in the garden. For my area, sweet potatoes tend to make sense for summer and store for months and months, though they take time. And root crops in the winter. Cowpeas make a great survival crop here, they will grow everywhere and are edible as greens and the beans. Very prolific, fairly quick, heat tolerant, and dried the peas store forever. Thanks for your consistently excellent content.

It's Autumn here in Adelaide, South Australia, so I'm starting my winter sowing like brassicas, carrots, beets, salad greens, onions, garlic, peas, root vegetables...etc. I just harvested my lettuce and beet seeds ready to sow again. I'm close to harvesting my first lot of watermelon. My next lot is a bit late and will go right into winter (end of May). I have late tomatoes too. I have peppers coming along nicely. We're eating our peaches and fig. I have potatoes and sweet potatoes too. And, not forgetting oranges and mandarins.

Po Tay toes. Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew. And beans. And peas. Turnips. And beets The greens of turnips, beets, spinach, kale, all brassica! Are multivitamins

I really need to concentrate more on saving than giving away my harvest. I did can 60 jars of tomatoes and still have good onions, potatoes, and some frozen veggies, but need to expand on different methods preserving and cooking what comes out of my garden. Great video Scott!

Great video! I have a very similar list, which also includes swiss chard, lettuce and leeks. I also grow perennials that provide a welcome harvest as shoots in early spring, such as asparagus, hostas (they're all edible), udo (Aralia cordata) and caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides). And jerusalem artichoke for its healthy inulin. With a greenhouse or a polytunnel it's even possible to harvest precious leaves in the middle of winter by adding an extra insulating layer over the plants. Miner's lettuce or winter purslane (Claytonia perfoliata), curly leaf parsley and spinach can be grown like this. Use hoops and fleece over the beds, and they can survive temperatures as low as 0° F (-20° C) without any heating. It's also important to learn how to save seeds. Without this knowledge, you won't have anything to grow once your seed packets are empty.

Great video Gardener Scott! In addition to the spinach/kale/cabbage I would also add swiss chard. I grew rainbow chard for the first time this year and the leaves are huge and delicious! It tastes "salty" to me and I prefer it over some lettuces.

We’ve been encouraging people to grow their own food for a long time. Macros/calories/nutrition/productivity. It’s great to see gardeners uniting to encourage people to be more self sufficient. Great video.

I'm growing a winter garden this year. Carrots kale leeks turnips beets cabbage Swiss chard green onions radishes. I recommend snap peas myself because I don't like sheling them lol I would add butternut squash. They keep for a very long time and those seeds are filled with nutrition and you can roast them like pumpkin seeds. Alot of people forget about the seeds in there.

Yes, sauerkraut is fantastic. I have a good supply of canned sauerkraut. I’ll end up planting Swedes not turnip or beets as I’m the only one in my family that eat the latter. I stopped growing as a hobby more than 10 years ago and have learned as many preserving techniques as possible. So glad I did because during the pandemic and the uncertainties of the invasion in Ukraine, I’ll have an abundance of food preserved or for fresh eating.

When considering Beans, one of the most common green beans is also known by another name when allowed to dry, Great Northern Beans

in early human settlements the "beets" were sown so closely together that we think they were mostly grown for their greens (which was a long standing traditional dish in my home region here in germany: rübstiel)