by PREPARE | Apr 5, 2025 | Coming Issue Updates, Preparedness planning
The inertia for the launch of PREPARE Magazine has been building, and building, and building…
It has been an amazing journey, and we are so thankful for the patience, encouragement, and support we have received. We couldn’t have gotten this far without the excellent support from our contributors, partners, advertisers, and subscribers. Your involvement has been a blessing – and truly an inspiration as we are developing our community together. Thank you!
As many people can testify… It is not easy to launch something new – especially something that has an important message to share and a mission to reach thousands. We do not take the task lightly, and we’re not about to turn back in the face of adversity. This is an important assignment – and we’re thankful for the opportunity to be on the journey with some awesome people.
You can always say… “I was there in the beginning – and saw the birth of something special”
Once we have delivered the inaugural print publication to our early-subscribers and partners, we will send out information on where you can signup for your subscription. We will let our digital subscribers know first, so if you have not subscribed to receive our digital subscription be sure to do that now. Go to: http://www.preparemag.com/subscribe
PREMIUM Membership Subscription
In addition to the print publication, we are launching the new Premium Membership Subscription. This is an exciting new service that will have some great resources and training.
This new Premium Membership offers training that takes things a little deeper than can be offered through a magazine. The Members will have access to live monthly webinars, books, special reports, and every issue of PREPARE Magazine. Our webinars will be exclusive to our Premium Members and we have already lined-up some experts in some important areas for preparedness. Our first Webinar is schedule for the second week in May – and is part of our anniversary celebration.
The Premium Membership will be a tremendous resource for people who are Preparing.
If you want additional information on what will be available, please visit: PrepareMember.com.
PREPARE Magazine Next issue
We will be releasing our May issue (digital) of PREPARE Magazine next week. If you have subscribed, watch your emails for the download information. This is a beautiful publication with some excellent resources.
by PREPARE | Apr 5, 2025 | Blog
2013 is here and we are very much looking forward to the Official Launch of PREPARE Magazine! It’s an exciting time for us and we are humbled and extremely grateful for the support and encouragement we’ve received along the way.
During our “pre-launch” period, one of our goals was to get a strong group of subscribers who would help us by offering feedback for improvements with our publication and support operations. We called our pre-launch subscribers our “Founding Subscribers” because we know the importance of constructing a strong foundation in preparing for exponential growth. We have been extremely pleased with the response and support, and have FAR-exceeded our initial (Founding Subscriber) projections.
We are now moving into our launch phase, and will soon discontinue taking registrations for our Founding Subscribers. We will, of course, continue offering a free subscription to PREPARE Magazine, but will no longer designate those registrations as Founding Subscribers.
CLICK HERE NOW to sign-up for a (free) Founding Subscriber Membership!
So, if you are interested in being a Founding Subscriber you need to take action immediately. There is still time to get the excellent perks and benefits we will be offering. Tell your friends and family. In less than one week, we will close the door for new Founding Subscriber registrations! Registration is still free, so it makes good sense to sign-up now. There are no hidden gotcha’s. It’s just our way of saying “Thank You” for joining with us during our pre-launch.
So, do not delay and miss out. Founding Subscribers will get a free Premium Subscription which will include:
- * Monthly Digital Issue of PREPARE Magazine
- * Premium and Mobile Digital Viewing format
- * Access to all Previously Released Digital Issues
- * PDF Download of all Digital Issues
- * Priority Notification of Events
- * Special Premium Preparedness Training Webinars (Monthly)
- * Special Report Digital Downloads (Monthly)
- * Participate in Affiliate Program
- * and much more!
by PREPARE | Apr 5, 2025 | Blog
The July issue of PREPARE Magazine has been released. If you are a subscriber, please check your email for the viewing link.
The July issue is focused on Water. Obviously, it is vital that we carefully plan for our water needs. This issue offers great information on ways to capture water, locate hidden springs on your property, and how to dig your own well.
Water is essential for survival, and likely will become an increasingly important concern during times of difficulty. Take the time to learn all that you can about storage, locating, and purifying your water supply.
by PREPARE | Apr 5, 2025 | Blog
The July Issue of PREPARE Magazine will be released this week! This issue will focus on the incredibly important topic of Water. With some of the difficulties facing our Country this week, it is certainly a very timely and important publication.
If you are currently subscribed, be sure to check your email for notification of the release and download instructions! It will likely be released just after the July 4th Holiday.
By the way, please accept our apologies for the slight delay in the July digital release. We have been working-out some final bugs in preparation for the launch of our hard-copy version.
Just a quick reminder….
The Hard-Copy version of PREPARE Magazine is Launching Soon!
We have seen our beta version of the hard-copy print version of PREPARE Magazine. It is absolutely stunning! The quality of the magazine is amazing, so we are obviously very excited to be launching the hard-copy publication.
We still have a few tactical issues to resolve, but we are very close! Will share more details in the next week.
by PREPARE | Apr 5, 2025 | preparedness
My Experiments With Modified Square Foot, Ruth Stout, Hugel-Something-or-Other Gardening
Shared by John Wesley Smith
I’m a fan of intensive, low maintenance gardening. The less work you do for the most food, the better. Over the years I’ve experimented with various gardening methods and have combined some as well. As with all experiments, some work better than others, but it’s always fun and exciting to see the outcome.
In addition to doing some container gardening this year, I’m doing square foot gardening with six beds. Three are 4′ x 4′, one is 4′ x 6′, and two are 4′ x 8′. My friend, Gerald, helped me get the materials and build each bed. All but two were built within the past few months.
Each bed contains at least six inches of soil. My preferred soil is ProMix for indoor plants because it contains vermiculite, whereas the outdoor mix doesn’t. A 44 lb bag costs about $15 and it takes seven bags to fill a 4′ x 8′ bed. That sounds costly, but it’s a lot cheaper than Mel Bartholomew’s recommended Mel’s Mix (Bartholomew is the founder/inventor of the Square Foot Gardening method). You can add any amendments you like to my soil blend.
Believing microbial life is a key to success, I’m adding various products to the soil to foster growth of beneficial fungi and bacteria. I plan to add more occasionally throughout the season, including diluted molasses, which provides food for the friendly microbes.
Bed #3 has gotten special treatment. It’s one of the 4′ x 4′ beds. When it was built in November, we added a bag of Gardener’s Pride, which contains beneficials. I stirred in a couple bags of cow manure, too. A few days later I added in soil from six 3-gallon buckets used for container gardening. This soil had been made mostly from compost and had become dense and compacted so it needed to be broken up, aired out and mixed in with better soil. A couple of days after this, Gerald and I added a little azomite (rock dust), bone meal, brown rice flour and Root Zone granules. Then I watered with a weak molasses solution.
Soon I started covering the bed with cardboard. It didn’t fully break down into compost. However, it protected the soil and rotted sufficiently to be added to a barrel of compost in the making. In mid March I started peeling back the cardboard and replaced it with a thick layer of hay. Around the same time, I planted five Goldrush Russet potatoes held over from last year’s crop. In early April I planted Burbank Russets to fill out the bed.
I’ve put hay on top of all six beds to incorporate the Ruth Stout method. This calls for a thick layer of several inches of hay mulch. So far, potatoes, onions and beans are doing well in their respective beds.
Bed #6 was built in early April and represents another experiment. Instead of seven bags of ProMix, we used six, along with a couple of bags of Buffaloam 
(manure), leaving room at one end for a mini Hugelkultur bed. Hugelkultur uses rotting wood for growing medium. We buried rotting branches with soil and wood mulch. It was then covered with hay like the other beds.
We gardeners thrive on experiments and anticipation. Naturally, I’m eager to harvest what I’m growing in my modified square foot beds. If you’ve got limited space or if you want to simplify your survival gardening, I highly recommend square foot gardening. Remember also to feed your soil since that will feed your plants, so they can feed you.
Photo captions:
01–Cardboard covers bed #3 in February.
02–One end of bed #6 contains the makings of a Hugelkultur bed.
03–Branches in bed #6 were covered with soil and wood mulch before a layer of hay covered the whole bed.
04–Potatoes grow well in bed #3 in early May, thanks to the addition of various products to foster growth of beneficial soil microbes.
Author Bio:
John Wesley Smith
John Wesley Smith is a former radio broadcaster who taught his children at home. He’s an avid reader, writer and gardener. He lives with his wife in central Missouri, where they work hard to get by like so many others these days. His goal is to help preppers at DestinySurvival.com as he continues along his own preparedness journey. John hosts DestinySurvival Radio on Thursday afternoons at 1:00 Central Time on the Preparedness Radio Network.
