So we have learned you can grow your body weight in potatoes in a few square feet of raised bed (or trash can, or old tires), but when all you have to eat is potatoes because your emergency food supply ran out you will be looking for something to liven those babys up.

There are all kinds of expensive prefab herb garden set ups that really only last one season and are just plain lame, so try this on for size:

Take that old shoe organizer some girl left at your house, or go down to big lots and buy one for 3 bucks, hang and plant. Not everything is difficult…its that easy. This planting solution takes NO floor space. If I maxed out my capacity on my balcony I could hold 4 of these growing 16 units of veggies each. Although the space alloted per plant is small, you can grow anything with a shallow root mass, including most herbs letuce, oinions and garlic.

Remember survivalism = multi use, modular, low cost, long life, easily availible. If all of your survival tools fit this criteria you are well on your way to being a well rounded urban survivalist….plus, gardening is fun.

the picture is from www.greenupgrader.com a great resource for alternative gardening ideas.

Being an urban survivalist can be tough, everything is expensive, there are people crawling all over each other, and the space we have to ourselves can be very limiting.  These factors make sustainable, food production very difficult.  However if you have a little open space and a little time you can build a garden that will give you much of what you need to eat.

My balcony is about 14×6, yet I grow tomatoes, onions, potatoes, avocados, asparagus, 6 types of peppers, lettuce, tomatillos, garlic, basil and house a rabbit, as well as bikes and patio furniture.  There are many ways to maximize small growing spaces for certain types of food, from training tomatoes to grow in an compact space to growing potatoes vertically to maximize yield. Below is a great how to link on growing potatoes in a self contained container with very high yields. If you are careful with your lay out you can grow a significant portion of your normal good stock for next to nothing in a very small space.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO GROW 100 LBS OF POTATOES IN 4 SQ FEET or see the info from the seattle times below

According to this article from the Seattle Times, potatoes planted inside a box with this method can grow up to 100 pounds of potatoes in just 4 square feet. All that is required:

• Lumber
• Seed potatoes
• Soil
• Careful attention to watering

The Times’ guide for building a potato growing box yields up to a 100 lbs. of potatoes in a mere 4 square feet is shown below:

Plant as early as April or as late as August 1, with an approximated 3 month till harvest turnaround time.

Here are some pointers from the article:

• Cut apart larger seed potatoes, making sure there are at least two eyes in each piece you plant.
• Dust the cut pieces with fir dust, which seals the open ends from bacteria.
• Fertilize with 10-20-20 fertilizer at planting and a couple of times during the season.
• Water so that the plants are kept at an even level of moisture.
• Don’t plant in the same area in consecutive years or use the same soil to fill your potato box, as potatoes can attract various diseases.

“To save space, Lutovsky recommends building a box and planting inside it, adding sides to the box as the plant grows and filling the new space with mulch or soil.

When the plant blossoms, it starts setting potatoes in this added soil. Soon after that, you can start removing the bottom boards from your box and “robbing” the plant, reaching in carefully and pulling out new potatoes.”

In the event of an emergency in an urban environment you probably will need to get in or out of somewhere that is secured by lock.   Every urban survivalist should know how to open various kinds of locks with tools made out of commonly available materials.  Using tin from a soda or beer can you can easily make shims that can be used to force open some locks.  Below are two videos one on how to open a combination lock and the other on how to open a keyed master lock. With a little practice you can get in and out of these type of locks in literally a few seconds.

In no way am I condoning or encouraging any type of breaking and entering etc..but in case you need to get into that locked locker , garage, or shed here is how (the second one was defiantly made by a 13 year old Australian kid, but he does it right so don’t complain):

Even if you never try this it should at least drive home the fact that it is VERY easy to get around these type of locking mechanisms, so easy that if you currently rely of these for security you should probably rethink your security strategy.

Back in the day you were supposed to pack all your critical documents in a waterproof container and keep this in your bug out bag.  Well now a days thanks to the kids with their loud music and internets times have changed.  Thanks to low cost scanners and mass storage devices you can leave the paper at home to burn and pack our your personal information via USB drive.

Keeping the following information on your USB drive and be critical post disaster to establish your identity or access your own sensitive information.  I like to keep the following:

• copy of social security card
• copy of drivers license
• copy of passport
• copy of deed to your home
• copies of critical account numbers
• contact lists, with addresses
• copy of resume
• music (if the drive is big enough)
• photos of friends and family
• anything else you see fit

With allt his critical information in one place you should do two things: Protect the information from the world by password protecting or encrypting, and waterproof/shock proof the drive to endure extreme conditions.

When properly protected a USB drive and endure a lot.  Below is a video outlining how to waterproof your USB drives with common two part epoxy found at any hardware store.  Ive done it. it works, it costs 4 bucks.  Go do it.

I’m only going to touch on this subject as its a bit taboo and personally I don’t think its something even worth considering until you and your family are in extreme danger.  The Booby Trap

I am in no way suggesting to try any of these in anything other than life or death circumstances…

If you decide that your urban location fits the requirements of a safe Bug In Location, you may want to set up some very basic, very deadly traps to help keep looters and gangs out of your home.  Most common booby trap knowledge seems to step from the Vietnam War, which was fought in a wilderness jungle environment, but trapping is trapping, with a few small tweaks you could wire your home up for next to no money and sleep a lot better at night in the middle of your worst case scenario.

Below are some basic easy to build security traps courtesy of the Royal Australian Regiment.  You can find the posting in its original form with more detail

HERE

HERE

HERE

The Cartridge Trap

Granade Trap

Most of our houses and apartments are really flimsy.  My condos walls are basically wooden studs and some plywood, so even if I feel safe if my home you could easily inflict terrible damage to me from the street, no entry needed.

Since we have already established that most of us downtown dwellers cant build a full on fortified compound, what can we do?  Well, assuming you own your place, there are a few options for the urban survivalist:

Buy bulletproof panels. They are effective but EXTREMELY expensive, I have seen 4 foot panels go for more than $1500 per piece!! Here the thing, if you can afford this option your house is already built right..so catch 22.

or even better….

BUILD GRAVEL FILLED WALLS. This is one of the most effective and lowest cost alternatives to turning any room into safe one.  For the price of a new Kevlar panels you can turn a walk in closet into a panic room or a bedroom into a fortress.  This method simply involves replacing all your wood studs with metal ones and filling up the dead space with gravel and reinforcing exteriors with ply and sheet rock.  The end result is an almost sound proof room, that will even have an adverse effect on infra red technology.

Witnessing a gravel filled wall build out is eye opening (Thanks T.C!).  You will realize that this very high level of security is not an impossibility with a reasonable amount of work.

FOR DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN SAFE ROOM WITH GRAVEL WALLS CLICK HERE

FOR DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN SAFE ROOM WITH GRAVEL WALLS CLICK HERE

FOR DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN SAFE ROOM WITH GRAVEL WALLS CLICK HERE