Not all plants are created equal. Some plants are going to be better for self sufficient gardeners when compared with others. In this article, we are going to see the best plants for building self sufficiency which are easy to harvest and store, return good yields, and be calorie dense to provide the food energy from carbohydrates that you need each day.
Grow what you and your family will eat, but making the right choice and best crops will help your garden add more to you self sufficient goals.
10 Best Plants For Self Sufficient Garden:
Onions:
Onions works best when you want to lead self sufficient garden. Whether you grow them in sets or from seeds, they are easy to grow and don’t take lots of space.
They are essential in a lot of dishes that you make from the scratch. You can also make onion powder by storing the dry onions.
Dry beans:
Beans are another crop for self sufficiency and even though they provide 3 pounds for 100 square feet, those 3 pounds will provide you with roughly 4500 calories.
They are many varieties available, select the best one that grows well in your garden. Once dried, beans can keep very long time and best to use within a year. This is also very easy to grow crop from seeds and wait until pods dry to store them in grain sack and hang it from rafter.
Garlic:
Garlic is known for its medicinal properties from many years. It is another very easy to grow garlic and the best part is it doesn’t take much space too. Just like onions you can make garlic powder or ferment it and use it to alleviate some pesky cold symptoms in winter and use it as an amazing flavor in your favorite dishes.
Cabbage:
Cabbage is incredibly cold hardy, nutrient filled plant that works perfect for self sufficiency. It is also very easy to grow plant and kimchi is very nutritious and easy way to keep cabbage for several months. The best part about growing cabbage is you can harvest it later than a lot of other crops.
Winter Squash:
Winter squash includes pumpkins, butternut, acorn and spaghetti squash are self sufficient crops that need to be added in your garden. Even though they take lots of space to grow, they will yield almost as many pounds as the square footage they’ve taken up.
When squashes are stored properly, they will make a beautiful display on your kitchen counters.
Tomatoes:
Tomatoes are very important part of becoming self sufficient. They are one of the best and versatile plants you can grow in your garden. A small patch of tomatoes like 4 feet by 16 feet with around 16 plants will give you 200 pounds of tomatoes every year.
Tomatoes can be canned, frozen and dried. They can even used in soups, salads, pastas as well as in your favorite dishes.
Potatoes:
Potatoes are important to any gardener and especially for the one who wants to be self sufficient. They are full of calories and very easy to grow and store incredibly well.
Generally, potatoes will take 2-3 months of harvest and can be grown easily by using a small potato with few eyes in it in a mound of dirt. Once they are harvested, they need to be cared properly and kept in a cool and dry place to store them up to 6 months depending on the variety. Make sure to check them for every couple of weeks.
Carrots:
Carrots can grow all year around in any region easily when planned properly. They do not take lot of space and are relatively high in nutrients and minerals. Along with the fact that carrots need to be stored properly to make them must have for any self sufficient gardener.
All you need to do is sow some seeds in the container or in the garden and allow the nature to her beautiful work to give you healthy carrots every year.
Beets:
Beets are very easy to grow and nutrient dense plants that do great work when stored incredibly well. This is the best crop that will not take very long to mature and store well depending on the variety can feed you or your livestock. Beets can store most of the winter, can be pickled or eaten fresh too.
Grain Corn:
Grain corn used to be staple and provided easy to grow, inexpensive grain to Native Americans and homesteaders alike. Growing your own will provide you many nutrients and doesn’t have to take up a half acre. So, if you have enough area start growing this crop.