postage stamp homestead

MELOC · #1 04/21/06, 01:31 PM

i own a 3 room cottage on aout a third of an acre. the lot is about 100 x 110 feet. awhile back, on the barter board, someone was criticized for having a tiny lot and house for sale. i started thinking about how much i could do with that small place.

i can add 8 feet of sunroom on the south side and build a second story and effectively suppliment the heating with solar air and solar water. i can grow winter crops in the "greenhouse/solarium". i have room for @ 400 feet of edible hedges like bluebaerries or sand cherries etc. i still have room for a 90 ft. x 30 ft. garden. there is still room left for about 6-8 dwarf fruit trees. i can plant herbs and root veggies and asparagus and rhubard and horseradish around the other three sides of the house. i think i can keep the shed and convert it to a rabbit coop. i can keep the outhouse. that still leaves a strip of grass in the front yard for pretty stuff.

it is not what you have it is how you use it.

swamp man · #2 04/21/06, 01:50 PM

You're absolutely right,Meloc.With good sun exposure,you can do an awful lot in a small area.I have 10 acres,but grow almost all my veggies in four 16'x4' raised beds.Blueberries do really give you alot for the small space they take up.

cathyharrell · #3 04/21/06, 01:51 PM

How true. That sounds really nice.

#4 04/21/06, 01:55 PM

In all fairness, I believe that the comments were drawn by the title of the listing:
"House with Land for sale". A 1/4 acre is indeed "land" yet even to me it was misleading (I'm not saying at ALL that it was done intentionally).
I look at quite a few properties for sale and never have seen a 1/4 acre one listed under a section "houses with acreage" or "houses with land". When I opened up the thread, I thought it would be at least a few acres or more.

I've owned houses without so much as a driveway, never mind a yard, and we grew a bunch of veggies out on the fire escape..

I agree that a person can, with the right state of mind, make do with very little.

Mid Tn Mama · #5 04/21/06, 02:10 PM

You can do quite a lot with 1/4 acre. Here is a website I like to read that inspires me:
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/about/urbanhomestead.shtml

Also, I suggest getting a hold of the Integral Urban House (out of print book) for ideas:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/libra...al_Urban_House

I think the biggest challenge on 1/4 acre lot would be to get enough sunshine. Meloc, do you intend to have chickens, rabbits etc. for fertilizer?

MELOC · #6 04/21/06, 05:54 PM

actually, i live on 30 acres and i inherited the small house. i will most likely stay where i am. i do plan for the future of the other property. i may need that place someday. until then, i plan on testing everything i have learned from this and other alternative living sites. solar collectors and a sun room and maybe solar panels someday.

my uncle was legally blind and could only see enough to get around. he lived there most of his life and heated the place with a small woodstove and a trailer furnace for the extreme weather. he always grew about half of his food. i guess my point is that he did not maximize his efforts there and he still got by ok.

the chickens and rabbits would help for fertilizer. i choose to mention rabbits because the neighbors may not like noisy chickens. i would feel better about having rabbits in a cage 24/7 as opposed to chickens. chickens need to scratch and forage bugs IMHO. there is not much room for chickens and a garden there.

#7 04/21/06, 06:07 PM

I'd be happy as the proverbial pig to have my own place again..postage stamp piece of land is still dirt. !

I saw a great website not too long ago where the fellow had planted terrific super-dwarf fruit trees, as well as berry bushes all along the perimeter of his TINY yard and then planted a raised garden bed right in the middle, THEN had a small greenhouse attached to his garage. God bless him. He did had more than adequate sunshine for all of that..I admired his efforts so much.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

jnap31 · #8 04/22/06, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bostonlesley

In all fairness, I believe that the comments were drawn by the title of the listing:
"House with Land for sale". A 1/4 acre is indeed "land" yet even to me it was misleading (I'm not saying at ALL that it was done intentionally).
I look at quite a few properties for sale and never have seen a 1/4 acre one listed under a section "houses with acreage" or "houses with land". When I opened up the thread, I thought it would be at least a few acres or more.

I've owned houses without so much as a driveway, never mind a yard, and we grew a bunch of veggies out on the fire escape..

I agree that a person can, with the right state of mind, make do with very little.

That is exactly why I said something I am very aware that you can do a lot on a fourth of an acre that is how big my place was in the marshall islands and I turned it into a little eden. However you would be hard put to raise a family and be 90% food self sufficient on that amount of land and that is my goal on a bigger acreage.

**Shrek** · #9 04/22/06, 01:17 AM

MELOC,

You can grow a 60 "rows" of produce in a 35 by 55 ft garden area by usinf SFG BISF raised bed technique.

menollyrj · #10 04/22/06, 07:19 AM

SFG BISF? Translation? I'm new to the gardening lingo...

Thanks.

-Joy

**Shrek** · #11 04/22/06, 09:23 AM

Joy,
Square Foot Gardening Bio Intestive Small Farming

and if you see me use TAGS thats The Andy Griffith Show

www.squarefootgardening.com for more on SFG BISF

kitaye · #12 04/22/06, 09:32 AM

I agree it is what you do not where you live.

Wolf mom · #13 04/22/06, 09:40 AM

That's why, at 62, I'm planning on keeping larger parcel of land for my retirement & live where I am on the smaller parcel.

Sure was hard to decide. Especially with all the posts of people who maintain "more is better".

Like has been said, it's what you do with what you've got!!!!!

MELOC · #14 04/22/06, 10:23 AM

imagine how easy it would be to maintain beds of low maintenence things like rhubarb and asparagus. if the property was a whole acre, there could be a decent cash crop every year.

Beeman · #15 04/22/06, 10:34 AM

My parents did more on a 60x100 lot with a 900 sq. ft. house than I do on 7 acres. We raised animals and processed them, had a large garden and canned a lot. On top of that my parents entertained a lot in our large backyard with a patio.
This board is just a reflection of our society, we have to have more or it isn't good.

jnap31 · #16 04/22/06, 10:35 AM

I think you need atleast 5 acres to have a modicum of self sufficiency on if you plan on keeping a milk cow or milk goats in addition to poultry and other critters/ gardens and orchards. Sure you could do it all on a poatage stamp lot but you would be buying all your animals food and that would get expensive not to mention it sounds as though you will have to be "registered" to buy feed soon.No I want enough space to be able to provide milk and 90% of our food.

LagoVistaFarm · #17 04/22/06, 12:04 PM

We spent significant time over the past seven years looking at small farms and what does and doesn’t work. I’m not one bit closer to defining the perfect farm. We know what we want so that’s the direction we’re going. After visiting many farms all we know is who was the happiest. She has a one-acre farm CSA and delivers her goods on a bicycle.

jnap31 · #18 04/22/06, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LagoVistaFarm

We spent significant time over the past seven years looking at small farms and what does and doesn’t work. I’m not one bit closer to defining the perfect farm. We know what we want so that’s the direction we’re going. After visiting many farms all we know is who was the happiest. She has a one-acre farm CSA and delivers her goods on a bicycle.

I will bet she is a vegetarian to or at least does not raise any animals for milk. How did you measure peoples happiness?

swamp man · #19 04/22/06, 01:41 PM

When it comes to acreage,give me quality over quantity any day of the week.Huge acreage is great,but if it's riddled with problems,it aint much good to me,agriculturally,at least.I see way too many people try to manage their small gardens/orchards as if they were a small-scale version of a large commercial operation.As Shrek pointed out,using bio-intensive methods makes a tremendous difference.With some knowledge and creativity,I think it would be very possible to "do for yourself" on a plot this size,depending on planting zone and sunlight exposure.As far as meat,I currently have no livestock,but keep the freezer full of game.I can swap veggies for milk and eggs.I have 9 acres of timber I can open up for other stuff anytime I want,but so far,just haven't found it necessary.Also,a small homestead pretty much eliminates the near-necessity of heavy equiptment,which is awfully expensive.

jnap31 · #20 04/22/06, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swamp man

When it comes to acreage,give me quality over quantity any day of the week.Huge acreage is great,but if it's riddled with problems,it aint much good to me,agriculturally,at least.I see way too many people try to manage their small gardens/orchards as if they were a small-scale version of a large commercial operation.As Shrek pointed out,using bio-intensive methods makes a tremendous difference.With some knowledge and creativity,I think it would be very possible to "do for yourself" on a plot this size,depending on planting zone and sunlight exposure.As far as meat,I currently have no livestock,but keep the freezer full of game.I can swap veggies for milk and eggs.I have 9 acres of timber I can open up for other stuff anytime I want,but so far,just haven't found it necessary.Also,a small homestead pretty much eliminates the near-necessity of heavy equiptment,which is awfully expensive.

Good points. Still like I said if you want to raise your own animals to feed a family and provide their food yourself I think you need more than an acre Of course can make a great place and do a lot tawrds self sufficiency on a postage stamp size lot and if their is no other choice than this would be far preferable to living in a "gasp" city or area that zones animals other than dogs and cats out. Still I think that 5 to 10 acres for a young man that is planning on raising food for market full time inaddition to feeding his own family and animals homegrown food is preferable. Unless you are willing to and can depend on a neighbor to barter your milk and eggs with as swampman does. I always think how nice and easy it would be to just get some forest land and live off the wild animals/what I grow on an acre but then I think about how much i enjoy watching poultry and drinking fresh real milk and the importance of keeping the endangered livestock/poultry breeds going and so I guess the domesticated homestead wins out with me.p.s I sent you another letter the other day swampman.