I live with my partner and in-laws on a few acres in the rural US. Right now we both have jobs and are saving as much as we can given the crazy way the world is at the moment.

I make less and am more of a junior professional so it’s likely I would be laid off first in a depression. Given this I’ve been thinking about non monetary ways to contribute.

One obvious one is gardening, which made me realize it might be a good idea to stock up on fertilizer if it went from a hobby to a necessity to grow food.

What other bulk things, or things in general might we stock up on that we would kick ourselves for not buying a lifetime supply of while we can?

Thanks a bunch!

  • IMALlama@lemmy.world
    9·
    2 days ago

    If you’re thinking about growing anything start considering:

    • Your goals. Are you looking to sell some/all of your crop? Is this meant for sustince? A supplement to groceries?
    • Land management. Do you want to let fields go fallow? Rotate crops? Grow cover and/or summer/winter crops? Till or no till?
    • Equipment. Do you need to buy anything to help with maintenance, plowing, planting, harvestint, or processing the harvest?
    • What you intend to grow. Do you want a few main crops? A ton of verity? Do you care about how easy it is to store? How do you want to balance calory density, nutrition, and flavor? Are you looking for single year or multi-year crops?
    • What grows in your zone?
    • Layout. How are you going to layout the planting area(s)? Do you need to worry about fencing? How about irrigation? Do you care about containing crops and/or weeds?
    • Required inputs. Things like water, fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide, etc. You will want pest and fungicides even if you’re going organic

    Note that all of the above are strongly interrelated.

    We have a decent size fruit/veg garden that’s mostly annuals. Despite having done this for 10 years, the last thing on my mind for the next season is whether or not I should buy fertilizer now.

    A final suggestion: go in open eyed to the amount of effort this will take. The amount of labor required by our garden follows a boom and bust cycle. On some weeks I’m out there once for an hour. On other weeks I’m out there multiple times a week. If you’re not able to devote continual time to the garden then your crops, and yeilds, will suffer. Harvesting and processing is time consuming and is greatly influenced by what you grow. Doing something with perishable crops before they go bad can also be a challenge. Even with 40 sq ft of raspberries our family of four can’t keep up so we have to jam/can/freeze them or turn them into compost. The same is true of tomatoes and a bunch of other produce - especially if you plant crops that actually taste good and you pick them when ripe.

    • crimsonpoodle@pawb.socialOP
      1·
      2 days ago

      Thats true a lot to consider; we have plenty of tools tractor, were all engineers so we have a fuck ton of wire, a machine shop, micro controllers etc. so repair wise were probably ok. But yeah should probably consider land management; mostly its just forest and a yard atm. Pesticides!!! Thats a good though. Tbh wondering if the route to go is to buy a lot of chemicals as well if we need to synthesize stuff.

      • IMALlama@lemmy.world
        1·
        20 hours ago

        It’s good to hear that you have equipment already. If the wooded areas of your property have been that way for a while, odds are the soil in that area is pretty good. Granted, clearing the trees could take some work.

        Before buying anything I suggest focusing on your goals and planning. If you’re more on the hobby vs commercial side of the spectrum I suggest starting small. Our garden is only 175 square feet of beds and pots, but it greatly reduces the amount of produce we buy during the summer and fall (yay zone 6).

        I have another idea, but am going to break it out as a top level comment.