this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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I'm sorry but this article is ridiculous.
Like for a meal or two. Not for a year. Not to survive on.
I've grown all kinds of things. Worked at community farms. Been hired to grow fruits and veg for other people at their homes as a side thing. Pruned and managed small fruit tree orchards.
A 2 foot by 3 foot patch of beans takes 60 to 90 days to grow, and that is not going to feed anyone more than once or twice. Whoever wrote this does not know what they are talking about. Like at all.
The hard truth that a lot of people are not ready to hear is that complete off the grid survival takes many hands. No one person or anal family can survive alone. I don't know what the number of people would be, but if have to guess it would be 10-30 minimum.
giggles
Idk. If you've got years of experience and set it up right you can bring the work load way, way down. But the space they're discussing here is just so off base. Depending on how many grow cycles you can do in a year (how long/cold your winters are), you can expect to feed about 4-8 people per acre. That's about 5-10,000 sq feet per person. For a full year. All their food.
The 4,000 sq foot number the article refutes is close-ish given the right climate, but you can't space crops that close. They're just unmanageable and also will shade each other out.
Again, if you're experienced and setting it up right, you can mostly manage about 1 acre on about 4-8 hrs work/week, maybe a bit more certain times of the year (with more daylight), plus some long weekends here and there to clear and plant new crops, redo drip, big stuff like that.
So, mostly, the issue here is they are way underestimating space requirements to actually survive off a garden. (Plus, if you're surviving off of it you really need to at least double plant space for everything to deal with failures/pests/etc.) If they had just written their article like 'here's how much space you really need to grow some fresh veg for your family at home' that'd be fine, but saying someone can survive off 6 square feet of lima beans for a year's worth of protein is utter bullshit.