Doom and Bloom (TM)

 In a collapse situation, it stands to reason that we may find ourselves without pharmaceutical medications. Pharmaceutical manufacture is a complex process involving a lot of chemicals (just see Dr. Bones articles on how to make Penicillin or the formula for Insulin if you don’t believe me).  Therefore, certain medical issues, which had relied upon these drugs, will [...]

Hey Preppers, I just put up 2 videos (part 1 and part 2) on putting together your survival pond on Youtube.  We’re still getting the hang of making these, but there’s a lot of good information.  Constructing a fish pond/aquaponics setup will help provide a source of protein and a source of nutrient rich substrate [...]

Hey Preppers, Who doesn’t think that natural and holistic methods of growing food are best?  Nurse Amy and I sure do, but not everything that’s “organic” is without problems.  There are a lot of natural things that aren’t that great for us; snakebites come to mind. Still, the organic movement is truly a revolution for [...]

Survival Garden Pea Beginning a survival garden is one of the crucial steps towards preparedness success. The only way to gain this skill is to start a garden now. Gardening is not as easy as throwing a seed into any random soil. Here is a guide for container gardens and also raised beds. I have [...]

Hey Preppers, Have you ever noticed that your supermarket in Chicago has bananas for sale in February?  Down here in South Florida, we have chestnuts available at Christmas time, and lots of other stuff that you know came from a place far, far away.  Can anyone even remember a time when the only things you [...]

I wanted to share some more medicinal plants that I have growing in my garden, but today I’m going to share with you the ones that ARE NOT growing… Every plant has a general growing zone which provides a guideline for planting. Sometimes, if you place the plant in just the right location, you can [...]

Hi! I just made a new video about container peppers which is now on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHgwLAd0A4g I explain how to plant peppers, seed germination, fertilizers, pest control and scoville units. I have Hungarian Yellow Wax Banana, Serrano, Ghost Chile, Red Cherry and Bell Peppers. Thanks, Nurse Amy

Nurse Amy in her raised gardens I wanted to provide you with some principles of herbal healing before reviewing a few of my medicinal garden plants. These are basic common sense rules, but are worth learning if you decide to utilize herbal healing. These are found in a great book I own, “Prescription for Herbal [...]

Eggplant and seeds Sunday we went to our local farmer’s market for some fresh produce. I discovered the owners were growing some of the food offered for sale, and inquired about the hardiness of their crops. The owner was a lovely lady full of great information! She offered to let us pick our own produce [...]

Banana Peppers and Nurse Amy I have put two new videos on YouTube called Patio Container Garden part 1 and part 2 by Nurse Amy. Here are the links: part 1:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnrtIpvYP2U part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO2twXXWtx4&feature=related I review what I have growing on my patio in containers and offer helpful hints on planting, fertilizing, watering [...]

Nurse Amy in her garden ( not the medicinal garden) This is a continuing list of my medicinal garden plants, part 2. Catnip: Nepeta cataria    zones 3-8 Lamiaceae family, Medicinal/Beverage/Aromatic Medicinal uses: To settle the stomach, sedative and since it powerfully stimulates sweating, fever reducing. It’s pleasant taste and gentle action make it suitable [...]

Nurse Amy in her gardens (not the medicinal garden) My background and education, Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner, Certified Nurse-Midwife and a Master’s Degree in Science of Nursing all focused on traditional medical strategies. My midwifery training at the University of Miami did include some natural remedies, but they were primarily for use during pregnancy and [...]

Polyculture Garden Hey, when we talk about gardening here, we always advise you to choose different varieties of edible plants to grow.   We recommend growing various kinds of, for example, tomatoes so that you can see what type grows best in your area, but also so that you can find at least two varieties of each [...]

  Nurse Amy’s Container Corn, 14 feet tall!( I’m standing on a ladder!) Hi! I just uploaded a new video on how to grow corn in containers! I hope you will enjoy watching. I explain the soil mix, seed selection, spacing, adding microorganisms and humus for drought tolerance and nutrient use, watering, fertilizing, pollination and [...]

Survival Prepper Community Corn growing! Survival Prepper Community Garden New Tomato Trellis Today we visited our prepper group community garden. It was high time we weeded all of the grow beds! The tomatoes were growing and needed a trellis for support. We used a fencing material in a snake shape supported with 5 feet stakes [...]

  Blond Kopfchen Tomatoes, planted 11/14/10 in my Prepper Garden Cherry Belle Radish, planted 3/26/11 in my survival prepper garden, under the cucumbers Garden of Eden Pole beans, in my survival prepper garden Purple Podded Pole Beans, second generation seeds from My Survival Prepper Garden Bright Lights Swiss Chard, planted 3/11/11 in my Survival prepper [...]

Hey Prepper Nation, During WWII, we experienced a number of shortages, and food was one of them.  The government encouraged us to plant Victory Gardens to grow food, supplementing our diet and encouraging self-sufficiency. In all, 20 million gardens were planted!   Today, more and more people are starting their own home vegetable gardens, and this is [...]

I have read many complicated recipes for candied orange peels that take days and days to complete ( see the Excalibur Recipe Book). I chose to use a simpler method. First get 6 organic oranges, I used navel oranges for this recipe. I cut them in half and cut out most of the pulp ( [...]

Millions of google search results exist for garden pest control, but I did not find one “real” hit when searching “no-spray pest control.” There are many many organic and non-organic pest control substances found in today’s world, but what if today’s world disappears? How will you grow your garden and win the war against the [...]

  Here are the red peppers I dehydrated overnight. Very easy processing! Wash them and then cut off the tops. Place the peppers on the trays and dry at 125 degrees for 12-15 hours. When finished the tips will be dry and firm.   To make crushed red peppers place a few peppers in a [...]

Recently I posted about dehydrating apples. In that post I peeled the apples and used a salad shooter to slice them up. After thinking about how long this process took I wanted to “keep it simple” and try another method.   I purchased two bags of apples and washed them thoroughly, including a light scrub [...]

Well these are the potatoes I harvested on March 5th, 2011. I have dehydrated some and boiled others. Currently I have planted another 20 grow bags of seed potatoes. I put dried comfrey leaves and “energy pellets” in the holes and also Micorrhizae fungi for disease protection. I planted them with 6 inches of soil [...]

Well, here’s some updated pictures of some of my patio container plants in my prepper garden. The top one includes: dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, carrots, sweet corn, green and yellow pole beans, bush beans, stevia, peppermint, oregano, marjoram, dill, sage, thyme and basil. The second picture is an onion and the third is [...]

Well it’s been an interesting experience on the road of aquaponics. The bad news first, or the DOOM, the hot peppers and strawberries were not happy in the aquaponics system. On the BLOOM side, I have already harvested an eight inch head of broccoli! The pictures above show the second broccoli head that is around [...]

Well these are the potatoes I harvested on March 5th, 2011. I have dehydrated some and boiled others. Currently I have planted another 20 grow bags of seed potatoes. I put dried comfrey leaves and “energy pellets” in the holes and also Micorrhizae fungi for disease protection. I planted them with 6 inches of soil [...]

Well, here’s some updated pictures of some of my patio container plants in my prepper garden. The top one includes: dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, carrots, sweet corn, green and yellow pole beans, bush beans, stevia, peppermint, oregano, marjoram, dill, sage, thyme and basil. The second picture is an onion and the third is [...]

Well it’s been an interesting experience on the road of aquaponics. The bad news first, or the DOOM, the hot peppers and strawberries were not happy in the aquaponics system. On the BLOOM side, I have already harvested an eight inch head of broccoli! The pictures above show the second broccoli head that is around [...]

Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later! The great aphid invasion 2011. Fantastic. I ignore my garden for three days and aphids show up unannounced. First I grab a bottle of organic mosquito fogger, not my best idea..the oils in the fogger begin to wilt the leaves almost instantly. Wonderful, now I have [...]

Today I dehydrated apples. The picture shows the granny smith apples. I purchased an electric peeler and a salad shooter to make this task a bit easier. However, they are only time savers and not necessary for preparing the apples for the dehydrator. I peeled each apple, then cut them into 4 equal pieces. Then [...]

Dr Bones and I are serious about learning skills and gaining knowledge. We have always been and always will be interested in teaching others what we have learned. Today was our first Master Gardener’s class, one of 14. The beginning subject was all about butterflies. Our home is a Certified Butterfly Sanctuary already, but the [...]