I have a decade of experience with growing crops without irrigation and little or no fertilizer, which is effectively what is being talked about here. If we are going to throw in lack of full sun on top of that might as well not waste one's time. What I have learned is that it's all about the crop species and timing. Crops that can establish in some kind of self-perpetuating perennial cycle give far better yields than ordinary annuals. Deep-rooted to boot is very desirable. Parsnips are perhaps the winner, IME. Walking onions would be ideal for this "wildcrafting". Well-adapted annuals that self-seed precociously and don't cross with close wild relatives are quite good, notably red russian kale and red mustard (in climates with mild, damp winters). Carrot is a problem because it does not compete well with weeds and won't seed true in most areas because of QAL. Wheat is a good choice because it does most of it's growing in the fall and spring when there is more likely to be rainfall. Harvesting is very difficult, however. Rye is a bad choice due it's allelopathy if you have anything trying to germinate in springtime. Corn, of all the common annual crops is by far the best IME. As noted, deer tend to leave it be, animals the will ravage ripe sweet corn don't bother grain corn, it tolerates summer drought pretty well, and drought is less of an issue in little-disturbed ground. Squash, IME often does very poorly in a non-irrigated condition. It must be direct-seeded (which goes for all crops that will not be irrigated). If you get lucky with rainfall you might get a decent crop. It does grow pretty well in coarse fresh ground if highly fertile. I usually have problems with deer and other varmints gnawing at the fruits and browsing foliage. In a survival situation I would put a lot of grain corn out in freshly-cleared dry-land areas, with beans inter-planted later. Almost all other staple crops - potatoes, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, etc, I would keep close to home for irrigation and protection from animals. This would be assuming there is no time to waste on likely failures.

the way I tell tomatoes apart from other plants is by the scent of tomato plants. it has a very distinctive scent that lingers on your hands when you run your hands gently along a stem or GENTLY roll a leaf between your fingers. I can't describe the scent really, but it's faintly tomato-y and I love it. they also have tiny little hairs on the stems and leaves. I've only planted one type of zucchini called Ronde de Nice and the leaves are fuzzy and downy, almost like velveteen fabric. hope that helps a bit! good luck and the others are right...you will get so familiar with what you plant as you go along!

Do you use Roundup? I had a container of Roundup that apparently they were attracted to and climbed in to..going up the spout I guess as when I emptied the container out, it was full of dead earwigs and floating in Roundup. I've googled Roundup and earwigs and can't find anything about it but I just did it just now and can take a picture of my ball jar, filled with Roundup and floating earwigs. Looks like there is a dozen of them. No other bug in there. I guess I'll contact the company. Perhaps you can make a Roundup trap for them, so they can climb in and get killed by it. The Roundup container had a tiny hole in the bottom and was dripping out slightly, so I got a ball jar and poured the Roundup in that. Now I am going to wash and dry bottom and put duct tape over tiny hole and pour this back in minus the earwigs because I hate to throw pesticide or herbicides away. We have enough deadly chemicals in our environment to be wasteful of it.

Hi Frances, Glad some of the tomatoes are working out for you. It has been a tasting adventure over here as I eagerly await those that have been ripe enough to sample. As for the food processor, mine also has a hand crank, I just pulled off the top green at the end of the stem and quartered the larger ones, so they would fit through the processor. Popped the cherries through whole. We did use the Villaware outdoors, which turned out to be beneficial to my kitchen walls and floors. Just pop those washed tomatoes in the hopper and push down gently with a small mallet type tool. The beautiful juice and pulp come out on one side and the skins, cores, seeds push out through another tube. Seems it would be a good idea to clean that part out about half way through processing if it seems to be stopping up. It is recommended that any fruits that are not perfectly ripe should be parboiled before running them through the food mill, which I failed to do, thus the waste was cramming up a bit. I love not having to remove the peels and squashing the tomatoes through a sieve for juice, soup or sauce. It cuts the work time down considerably. You would not believe the number of questions that I voiced on the Harvest Forum last year about processors before buying the least expensive one I could find. Same product was $79. and $69. Got mine from Amazon.com for $39. Adding hardware to process berries took some searching though. Hope your mater's and roses are surviving well. Jan_Hobbs, it took 18 to 24 hours in the crockpots to reduce to a thick enough sauce, so not certain it is the best method. I just didn't want to keep having to stir it frequently for hours. I have heard people say they reduce theirs in a low oven setting. I added fresh garlic and lots of lemon basil in a cheesecloth sack. I'm considering cheating and buying a can of store bought tomato paste to see if that won't improve the thickening next time. Big_Orange_Vol, will have to try the Golden Queen. This wasn't a great crop and though we got them prepared and froze quickly, I fear they were actually picked the day before...drats. Of the 10 dozen, three ended up being waste. Is this a bad year for corn?? We have too many racoons to try and grow it ourselves without erecting another huge fence. Actually, we used new garden space this year that wasn't worked up as well and improved as much as it should have been. Not getting the best production out of that acre. Lots needs to be done. Remodeling? Ouch! That's worse than building. Hi Regina, Yes, I would believe that the plants that came up as volunteers in your compost pile and pleased that they proved true to the original. Yum on those little bitty "coyote" yellow tomatoes, indeed a surprise. All of my plants are doing something different it seems. Some are dying, others simply yellowing leaves and some are turning gray. This is true of the heirlooms as well as the determinate hybrids. The Rideau, I think is pear shaped and the other cherry is round, the round ones coming on first over here. I am in tomato heaven. One of the Box Car Willies was ripe enough to take up to my Mom's last week. It is full bodied and tasty with a little tang to it. To be honest, we both decided that her Better Boy actually tasted better. Glad you and I are both receiving an education on heirloom vegetables. Was that purple cherokee that I got from you, do you recall? Thanks. Pat