Plant These 5 Foods Now to Increase Your Harvest

Why Increase Your Harvest?

Maybe you are a small backyard gardener. Maybe you get your kicks by growing a few tomato plants and some peppers each year.

Why on earth would you look to increase your harvest from the year prior. Well, the answer is simple. You see, you have laid the groundwork for success as a gardener. You already have soil that produces food and you understand the basics of what plants need to be successful.

Let’s look at a few reasons why the average backyard gardener would want to increase a harvest year over year.

Nutrition

The quality of the food that you produce is going to be a hundred times better than anything that comes out of a grocery store. That is just the simple facts. When you nurse your soil and layout your yard to find the best place for sunlight, when you water your garden and deter pests naturally, you have a food producing system that exceeds everything large scale agriculture is capable of.

Food Independence

At this moment you might have a little food on hand in the pantry. What would happen if you found out that there would be no more food on the shelves at the market?

After many natural disasters we find that the supply chain gets disrupted and food deliveries are affected. How long could your food last without going to the market?

By growing more food at home, you will not only increase the food you have on hand, but you will increase what you can preserve to put on your shelves. You will experience a small bit of independence from the system.

Raspberry

A powerful perennial the raspberry is something that will propagate your whole yard with those delicious red fruits from just one cane. Many backyard gardeners don’t deal in fruits because many of them are quite the commitment.

Maybe you tried the blueberry bush with the peat moss and found that your plants either didn’t produce or died altogether. Maybe you are too afraid to commit to a fruit tree. All of that is understandable.

Raspberries, however, are basically unstoppable. If you can keep that first plant alive for a year you will never want for raspberries after that.

They are great in salads and fruit plates but don’t forget they also make great preserves. Freeze dried they are a great snack and they freeze well, too.

The more perennials you grow the less you must plant year over year. Think about it.

Black Walnut

Maybe fruit trees aren’t your thing, but nut trees should be. One of the best options is the black walnut. While we don’t give trees the attention they deserve its well known that the black walnut is one of the most powerful healers in the tree family.

The green husks that coat the walnut are full of anti-fungal and antimicrobial properties.

We need nuts and seed oils in our diet. Its not an option. So, growing them only makes sense.

In Ralph La Guardia’s must read volume on health, injury and illness The Doomsday Book of Medicine he is very clear that walnuts are full of phenols, two forms of Vitamin E, zinc and selenium which are great immune boosters and omega 3–6–9 fatty acids

Walnuts also contain melatonin which acts like hormone and regulates sleep patterns.

Zucchini

The Sheer output of zucchini makes it ideal for growing. Even if you don’t like to eat them you should figure out some preparations that you do like. Zucchini are so prolific that you will eventually get sick of them!

You don’t need a great expanse of land to grow a lot either. If you put posts in the ground like rebar or fence posts, you can tie the juvenile plants to the posts, and they will grow straight up rather than out. This can be a powerful answer for people growing in tight spaces.

If you are looking for sheer numbers to harvest the zucchini is a winner.

Green Bean

The magic of the pole bean is something to behold. There are few plants that have the nutritional benefits, high yields, nitrogen output and space efficiency that pole beans do. Green beans literally put nitrogen back into your soil. That is incredibly important because most vegetables take that precious nitrogen from the soil.

Pole beans vine up. This is how they grow, and you can take advantage of this by creating large trellises, poles, fences or other means of growing vertically. This means you can maximize your space by growing a food that doesn’t grow laterally.

Pole beans are also tremendous producers. They are powerful producers and a matter of 8 plants can absolutely overwhelm the average family with green beans. Now that is some serious growing power!

Kale

We have learned tremendous things about the importance of greens in our diet. Dark leafy greens help our body in so many ways. Some people have so fallen in love with the nutritional benefits of greens like kale that they make up the whole of gardens across the nation.

A strong kale plant will not only power you up with nutrition, it also lives a long time and can be harvested for months after it reaches maturity. Leaves can be cut and more continue to grow from the center out.

Conclusion

In an age where medications are still the recommended answer to health problems, it’s important we have other options. While some doctors are treating with diet and even exercise, we have a long way to go before they start prescribing ginger tea!

However, science has stepped in and proven that fresh vegetables and a healthy lifestyle are key to long and prosperous life. If you want to understand the fundamentals of SOIL TO SELF healing, there is a full chapter on this in The Doomsday Book of Medicine mentioned earlier. It’s a 800+ page mega resource and highly recommended.

That means, we can take control of our health, to some degree, by having a bigger harvest of fruits, nuts and vegetables that fuel our body for success.

This article was first published on finalprepper.com.