Your bug-out site can be a lot of things. It can be an emergency location to shelter you during a crisis. It can be a favorite hunting and trapping spot that you know well and can return to when things fall apart.

This site can also be a self-sustaining “garden,” if you plant the right trees, shrubs, and perennial plants there long before you need them. The following long-lived plants and trees can look after themselves once they are established on a piece of property.

Fruits
An assortment of apple, cherry, pear, peach, and plum trees, along with raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, can provide you with fruit across the summer and fall seasons and enhance any property. Add a few varieties of grape vines to give you more fruit in the late summer and early fall. Roses, barberries, and goji berries can persist into the late fall and early winter.

Medicinals
Yarrow, mints, comfrey, Echinacea, and other perennial plants will keep coming back year after year to provide you with emergency medicines, should your first-aid kit run empty.

Nut Trees
Chestnut, pecan, heartnut, and walnut trees are a major calorie payoff. These trees may take up to a decade to start producing, but the high fat content of these tree nuts make them a worthy investment. For a quicker turnaround from planting the tree to cracking the nuts, plant hazelnuts, which can begin to bear nuts in as soon as 6 years from the time of planting saplings.

Other Useful Plants
Fiber plants and vines can make useful additions to the permanent garden. Dogbane can provide very strong fiber for string and weaving, while wisteria is a perennial vine that makes excellent basketry material.

Do you have a bug-out-site? How about multiple sites? Have you planted useful trees, shrubs, herbs, or vines at the site? Please share your thoughts in the comments so we can educate each other about this ultimate “victory garden.”

CC image from Flickr