Want to Grow Your Own Food During The Apocalypse? Sound like Fun?

Most people think they can’t grow their own food.

They’re wrong.

Three years ago, growing any food felt like an epic quest. When we started, a delivery guy came by and laughed at us. “You’ll never get anything to grow in that landfill dirt,” he said. And he was right. We spent years rehabbing our yard. Eventually, we got it to a good place. Then we moved. Now we’re starting over. But now we have something even more valuable.

Experience.

It’s irritating when the hopium crowd tosses out “start a garden” as a quick fix for doomscrolling, as if you can just stick some stuff in the ground and automatically feel better about the future. Yeah, it doesn’t work like that. Many of the gurus who dispense that advice don’t even do their own lawncare. They would rather spend money on a landscaping crew, and then spend more money to go workout at an air-conditioned gym full of germs.

On the other hand, starting a small practical garden hits a number of birds with one stone. Yeah, it does give you something tangible to focus on. It does at least put you on the path toward sustainability. Even if you never produce all your own food, it can cut your grocery bill down a little, provided you’re okay with giving up some time and you have the time to give. When we started, it was hard. We didn’t even have a garage. We kept our supplies on a shelf in the living room.

We put seedlings in the windows.

Even if you live in a city, you can grow food. Try Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen’s The Urban Homestead. As it happens, there’s an entire urban homesteading movement now, led by city farmers like Silvan Goddin and Jordan Tony. They actually have a book on this coming out in April.

Often, the biggest obstacle isn’t logistical. It’s your city’s codes and ordinances. It’s HOAs. It’s neighbors giving you the side eye. This is the primary reason why a lot of people wait until they can move someplace where dozens of strangers aren’t breathing down their necks. But you can start now. And you’ll need to start now, simply so that you can start gaining experience.

If you grow food, you have food to give. And if you can’t physically do the work, there’s no harm in having the knowledge. You can still gather info and contribute to the planning—and there’s a lot of planning.

A lot.