Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

Farm Wars Outdoor Garden 2011

With the last cabbage processed, this season’s outdoor gardening and food processing project is officially over. That is, all except for soil prep for next season, when we let the geese and goat in the garden to eat the leftovers, then spread the horse manure. Then, it’s all about enjoying the fruits of our labors, and telling the corporate veggie distributors to take their pesticide-laden produce and… well, you know the rest.

This is our fourth year gardening in the high desert, and I’ve got to admit, we messed around and got it right this time. We have enough in the freezer for the year, and the garden fed us and the critters with fresh produce all during the harvest.

Brian planted and hand watered the garden morning and evening. We both weeded and harvested, and I processed. Processing consisted of cleaning, trimming, blanching, chopping and freezing, as well as some drying. We both collect seeds.

Here are pics of some of the bounty (cabbage, onions, beets, radishes, spinach and zucchini). We had carrots also, but I forgot to take pics of them. The garden area was 60 X 80: 

If we can do this, so can you. If you don’t have any land, get with someone who does and see if you can work out a deal to use a bit of it for growing food. I lent out a portion of mine this season as a training garden for a neighbor. If you can grow your own food, you will not starve.

Don’t wait. Start your garden today.  Make plans to nourish your family with good, wholesome food that you can grow yourself. Get rid of the lawn and plant a Guerrilla Warfare Garden instead.  And if zoning permits, get a milk goat. A goat and a garden will keep you alive and healthy through any food crisis. 

© 2011 Barbara H. Peterson

Guerrilla Warfare Gardening: The Beginning 


survival seed vault

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8 Responses to “Guerrilla Warfare Gardening 2: Toil’s no Trouble”

  1. patrick rich says:

    Hey Barbara, congrats on your bounty. I have a small garden in santa monica and am getting ready to plant some winter crops. Had some wild bees in a shed to be torn down and just Sucessfully trapped out the colony into a Manmade hive. My new Beekeeper friend,said the colony was looking Strong and productive. Says I should be able to harvest some Honey next yr. I am really jazzed over this development. I Really Appreciate all the Info you put together for us.May the Force Stay with You and Your Mate. Revolt,Rebel,Resist,Defy

  2. mile says:

    Sherry, stay away from the prescription Ace inhibitors, if you like your kidneys and a aneurysm free aorta..an your savings,,,,,,,,,,,,

  3. Sherry Morse says:

    My garden was 120×110. This past year I suffered a stroke and
    had to downsize by a third. It was not a good year at all though we did get tons of tomatoes. I lost the first crop of
    green beans to some blight so moved them about 20 feet and
    replanted. Arrrgg, wouldn’t ya know early frost so we picked our tomatoes till after dark and had to leave the beans. Oh well. The rutebaggas did OK too and got about half the corn.
    Then came the horrible drought. It is so dry we are unable to till. We have a 8HP Troy Bilt and it just couldn’t break through the cement even though composted.

    We do not have any farm animals. Most farmers around
    us but they all sold their animals and retired so as for manure
    we’re out of luck. My husband “retired” works PT at a big
    farm store in town and bought 20 bags of cow manure just for
    the asparagus and it still wasn’t enough. I watered and watered
    till I was nuts. We have crackes in the garden 2″ wide and the
    entire thing looks like a map. Many of the “big ag” farms
    had thousands of dollars in damage to their equipment due to
    the hard ground too.

    So far we have not had any snow. Up in northern MN they did
    but we are suffering in what I suspect is a man made drought
    right now. If we don’t get spring rains next year I will not
    plant a garden at all. I am afraid our well will go dry.

  4. Barb (& Brian), I am glad your garden was bountiful this year. I look for information, which your readers might contribute. I also garden at altitude, living at 4300′ above sea level at the foot of the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico. People around here, including experienced gardeners selling produce, tell me their gardens were largely failures this year. Mine was especially disappointing. In view of radiation from Japan, chemtrails, strange weather, etc., I think it would be good if “Farm Wars” served to collect information from us in the field (pun intended) to gather information on the impacts upon homestead agriculture. We might get some really decisiove data if we all pool our reports from all across the land. How about it?

  5. Try this instead : If you don’t have any land, you don’t really need to ‘get with someone who does and see if you can work out a deal to use a bit of it’ . . . instead dig up some SOIL and put it in as large a container as your apartment can handle (but watch the weight to prevent collapse it happens with pianos for example, don’t think it won’t with soil). That will solve the veggie and starch problem (add worms to aerate the soil.

    For protein, get as large a tank as possible, and fill with seawater (don’t bother with the mineral balances and b.s. but get water from a clean unpolluted area with sealife) or freshwater (for the rookies) and start breeding whatever seaweed or shrimp, fish or shellfish you prefer (somethings like Lobsters need far more so your choices will be limited, but that solves the food problem). If you have a larger property, breed some fowl, if even bigger, pigs, goats and even cattle can be bred, but these smell and take up alot of space, also be prepared for slaughtering. I’d advocate petri-dish grown meats but lack the know how. Any lab types here want to spill some secrets?

    This can be done in as small a space as a few hundred sq feet, which can be doubled with the use of racks .

  6. JFET says:

    Way to go!!! Very impressive. I really dig the garden scene (pun intended) keep up the good work, you inspire us all.

  7. Chet Bottorff says:

    One may shorten the phrase pesticide-laden produce to just
    “pesticide produce” which is much more catchy and effective. “Pesticide produce, do not want.”

    Thanks for the positive motivational article. Keep up the good work.

  8. Scott says:

    You’ve come a long way! Great. I recently took it a step further and now can 95% of our “stuff.” I feel that we are now protected from extended power outages. Yes,we have a generator
    but why use all that fuel? Also, gasoline has a short shelf life & may not be easily available and/or be much more expensive. Then there are the issues of noise and fumes.
    Last year we even canned game and fish which
    were great for soups and stews & supplemental food for our 2 Labs. We live on a productive river and now eat fresh or canned fish once a week all year long. This year we tried salting some fish,but haven’t sampled it yet.
    For about 5 years we’ve raised chickens for meat and eggs–haven’t bought either during those years & the flavor & nutrition value is
    far superior.
    An added benefit of all this is the pride and security one feels….plus it keeps me out of trouble! HAHAHA