# Backyard Water, Blackout & Garden Starter Gear List > The exact water, blackout and garden gear our free checklist and planner name — each with an honest, tracked link and a plain note on what it's for. Canonical: https://www.backyardfreedomlab.com/blog/backyard-water-garden-starter-gear/ Published: 2026-07-15 --- If you downloaded our free [Emergency Water & Preparedness Checklist](/free-checklist/) or the [Year-Round Backyard Garden Planner](/free-garden-plan/), you noticed something on purpose: those PDFs name the gear but never link it. That keeps them clean, printable, and honest — a checklist should tell you *what* to have, not sell you a cart of it. This is the companion page where those items get a link. Every product below is something the checklist or planner actually names, matched to the specific model or category we'd buy ourselves. Nothing here is a spec sheet — it's a plain note on what each thing does and why it earns a spot, so you can decide before you click. ## Water & Blackout Essentials This is the gear from the **Emergency Water & Preparedness Checklist**. Work top to bottom: water first, then a way to treat it, then power and the small things that make a grid outage an inconvenience instead of a scramble. Our full [how to store emergency water at home](/blog/how-to-store-emergency-water-at-home/) guide covers the sanitizing-and-rotation routine these containers assume. Stackable, carryable BPA-free jugs you can sanitize between rotations — the practical unit for storing the one-gallon-per-person-per-day the checklist calls for. Skip used milk jugs; they're hard to clean thoroughly. Drop-in tablets that make questionable water safe to drink in about 30 minutes ([Aquatabs](https://www.aquatabs.com/)). Tiny, shelf-stable, and cheap — the compact chemical backup that belongs in every kit alongside a filter, because tablets add a kill step for viruses a basic filter can miss. The "LifeStraw or Sawyer" line on the checklist. A hollow-fiber straw that removes bacteria and protozoa as you drink from a stream, rain barrel, or stored jug ([LifeStraw](https://lifestraw.com/products/lifestraw)). One per person in the kit; the Sawyer Squeeze is the equally good alternative if you'd rather fill a pouch. A gravity filter for the whole household without electricity — hangs and fills its own clean-water bag, turning rain-barrel or questionable tap water into drinking water when the grid is down. The personal filter is for on-the-move; this is for staying put. Tests stored or collected water for common contaminants; what each kit covers varies, so check the box. The honest first step before you trust any source you didn't buy sealed — and the right move before drinking from a new rain barrel or well. The "portable power bank," scaled up to real outage duty. Runs phones, a fan, a CPAP, and keeps a fridge cold — silently and safely indoors, which a gas generator cannot do. Its LiFePO4 battery is rated for 3,500+ cycles to 80% capacity ([BLUETTI](https://www.bluettipower.com/products/ac180)). For sizing one to your own appliances, our [best power stations for a heat-wave blackout](/blog/best-power-stations-heat-wave-blackout/) comparison does the math. The "solar charger panel" from the list. Folds flat, unfolds in the yard, and turns the long clear days of a heat wave into a recharge source for your power station — the piece that changes an outage from a countdown into something you can ride out. The Mylar thermal blankets from the Heat & Shelter section — pocket-size, reflect body heat, one per person. A few dollars of cheap insurance against a cold night when the power and the furnace are both off. Pulls in NOAA weather and local emergency broadcasts when the cell network is down or overwhelmed. Hand-crank and solar so it never depends on the batteries you forgot to buy — many also charge a phone in a pinch. The "complete first aid kit" the checklist flags as critical. Buy one already stocked to a real standard, then personalize it: add your family's medications, a printed manual, and anything your household specifically needs. A kit you've opened once beats a sealed one you've never checked. For the bigger water picture — pulling drinking water from humid air or from your roof — we looked at those systems in the [Water Freedom System review](/reviews/water-freedom-system-review/) and the [Smart Water Box review](/reviews/smart-water-box-review/), and a backyard [rain barrel system](/blog/diy-rain-barrel-system/) is the cheapest renewable source of all. ## Garden Starter Gear This is the gear behind the **Year-Round Backyard Garden Planner**. You don't need all of it to start — a single raised bed, compost, and seeds will grow real food this season. The rest makes the planner's watering and season-extension advice easier to actually follow. The fastest path to a food-producing garden. A raised bed solves drainage, gives you clean soil you control, and sidesteps the fight with your yard's native dirt — the planner's "build or repair raised beds" task, handled in an afternoon. Prefer to build from scrap? See our [raised bed from pallets](/blog/raised-bed-garden/) guide. Turns kitchen scraps and pulled plants into the free soil amendment every month of the planner leans on. A closed bin or tumbler helps keep pests out and holds in heat. Our [backyard compost system](/blog/backyard-compost-system/) guide covers the greens-to-browns ratio that keeps it from going sour. The planner's July note says it plainly: soaker hoses or drip are best for tomatoes. A soaker hose waters at the roots instead of the leaves, which keeps foliage drier and helps avoid the uneven watering behind cracked fruit and blossom-end rot ([UGA Extension](https://site.extension.uga.edu/madison/2020/06/tomato-troubleshooting/)). The lowest-effort upgrade to consistent watering — or step up to a full [drip irrigation system](/blog/diy-drip-irrigation-system/). Open-pollinated seeds you can plant, save, and replant — the input that turns a one-time planting into a self-renewing food supply, season after season. This is the difference between buying a garden every spring and owning one. Lightweight fabric that buys you extra time at both ends of the season — frost protection in spring and fall, pest exclusion in summer. The cheapest way to act on the planner's cold-frame and season-extension advice before you build anything. The planner's very first March task is "test and amend soil pH (target 6.0–7.0)." A simple kit tells you whether your beds are in range before you waste a season wondering why plants sulk — most backyard soil is fixable once you know which way it's off. Newer to all this? Our [first projects for a self-sufficient backyard](/blog/first-projects-self-sufficient-backyard/) walks through the order to tackle things, and the [Self-Sufficient Backyard review](/reviews/self-sufficient-backyard-review/) covers the blueprint book many readers start from. ## How to Use This List Don't buy the whole list at once. Cover the two anchors first — **stored, treatable water** and, if you grow food, **one raised bed with compost and seeds** — then fill in power, season-extension, and the small comfort items as budget allows. That order matches the free downloads for a reason: it front-loads the needs that get costly or dangerous when you skip them, and leaves the nice-to-haves for later. Print the [checklist](/free-checklist/) and [planner](/free-garden-plan/), keep them on the wall, and come back to this page when it's time to link an item.