0.8 of an acre .... what are are the possibilities

[mbcagle]

We have a wonderful home just outside the city limits in a neighborhood with no covenant. We got a good deal on the house because of its clay tennis court. It was not taken care of so it was somewhat of a mess. I have dug it up over the past 7 years. Because there was a 5 to 6 in layer of gravel underneath, I have dug out bed 4' x 56' for vegies. There are lots of flower beds too! I planted several fruit trees but have not had great success (consistently anyway). I may put them out to regain the 8' x 8' beds they are in. I have a chicken coop with about 12 hens. I also have one muscovy duck that is currently housed with the chickens. I will move her out when I find a protected enclosure for her. I have a few quail .... need to order more eggs to hatch. We had pet rabbits but they dug out one night and something got them.

Now ..... what are my options????? I want to become as self sufficient as possible. Did I mention that we have 7 wonderful biological children and are currently undergoing training to become a foster parent. We hope to add one more to our family. With food prices escalating and college quickly approaching ... not to mention braces .... I want to make the most of the land we have. I have about 24 2-year old blueberry bushes in the second half of my yard. I still have quite a bit of room. What can I add to my micro-homestead? I would love to raise meat some how. How much space would I need? I am new to this mind-set!

Thanks!
Michele

[nobrabbit]

Our actual "backyard" is a little under an acre also. On it we have chickens, a very large garden, herb garden, grapevine, apple trees, cherry trees, plum trees, peach trees, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. There's a dog kennel, chicken house, and garden shed which we use the front part as an animal nursery for orphan calves. We have also run temporary fencing to pasture bottle calves and at times have overwintered a cow or two in the garden area. At one point we had 2 ewes, 3 lambs and a calf in there for about 2 months.

[mbcagle]

Our apple and pear trees have fire blight ... so I am wondering if we should just cut them down. Also, we do not spray so the peaches rarely, if ever produce much! (beautiful blooms for my bees though). Have you ever had trouble with fire blight?

Calves. I am surprised! How neat.

[shanzone2001]

Hi Michelle!
I would love to see pictures of the tennis court turned garden! Sounds nice.
There is a book out there and I can't remember the exact title (maybe someone can help me out here- I am not at home to check the title) but is is something like Homesteading on Half an Acre. It has an illustration of a house on the cover....
You would be surprised how much you can do with an acre. I have a large garden, fruit trees, berry bushes, 25 chickens, 3 goats, and many rabbits.

[CJ]

Those of you with small yards, I would LOVE to see pictures of how you set things up. We've gone from 100 acres to 5, and I know we can do better and squeeze more in. Of course we're only using 2 acres of it, as we've kept the remainder wooded for privacy.

[Terri]

A couple of dairy goats, perhaps? I bet your milk bill is high!

[beaglebiz]

I'd get some bunnies and turkeys. My turkeys always roosted with my chickens (they were free range)..If you want more quail eggs, post a request on the poultry or barter board...every quail I have had has been a HT hatchling
Plant some thorny raspberries and blackberries on your border to keep out unwanted dogs and such. Do you have a compost pile in the far corner of your property?
My husband built a beautiful grape arbor, with a table under to have a shady summer supper...Plus we harvest the leaves(DH is Lebanese, stuffed grape leaves) and grapes...

[ronbre]

may I suggest that you get a copy of Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway which has a lot of great ideas for a plot of your size...also to help your fruit trees try going to a woodsy area and getting some buckets of duff and soil and put it as a mulch all around the fruit trees ..it will have beneficial fungal organisms that will help to feed the tree roots, also try planting some dynamic accumulators and nitrogen fixers under the trees to bring up some food..

you can google dynamic accumulators and nitrogen fixers if you don't have time to buy or borrow the book from the library..however you can also find references to them at

www.permies.com

[Belfrybat]

I live on 3/4 an acre. I have a large garden (all raised beds) and plenty of room for poultry, rabbits or goats if I wanted them. I sometimes borrow a few goats for a week to help keep the "back acre" trimmed down. Just be sure to have a sturdy goat-proof fence around the garden area.

You could be pretty much self-sufficient with that amount of land except for grain. Have fun!

[nobrabbit]

Originally Posted by mbcagle

Our apple and pear trees have fire blight ... so I am wondering if we should just cut them down. Also, we do not spray so the peaches rarely, if ever produce much! (beautiful blooms for my bees though). Have you ever had trouble with fire blight?

Calves. I am surprised! How neat.

Only problem we've had has been with leaf curl on the peach trees.

[stamphappy]

shanzone2001: the book is called the Backyard Homestead---Produce all the food you need on 1/4 acre. Here is a link from amazon if it will load properly:

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Homes.../dp/1603421386

I own the book and have read it. It has many diagrams in it to help you figure out your land. It does assume your land is all usable.

[shanzone2001]

Wow, only 1/4 an acre! I remember thinking that they did a LOT on a small piece of land!!!! I need to go dig it out again. Thanks for clarifying that!

[farmerDale]

One 1/4 acre to feed oneself. Impossible in entirety. 100 feet by 100 feet? The book talks about:

The Backyard Homestead is a comprehensive and accessible guide to starting a vegetable garden, raising chickens and cows

I may be wrong, but it is just silly.

[stamphappy]

farmerDale, I bought the book becuase we still live in town on a postage stamp and i'm trying to utilize as much of our property as possible.

I agree with you that I'm not sure it's a feasible concept but the book did have some interesting ideas---vertical gardening, I seem to remember something about the chickens and the rabbits being housed above/below or near one another with the rabbits being in little bunny condos??? Oh I think fruit trees around the property perimeter, maybe even bees in a corner and grapes on an arbor above shade loving plants??

Again, it's been awhile and it's fuzzy for me, but it was an interesting read. I think they even talked about a small, albiet very small, patch of grain...

[farmerDale]

No don't get me wrong! I read the reviews and they seemed sound mostly. I just think the author is unknowingly perhaps giving readers a false sense of hope. A 100 by 100 size area to raise enough food to live on is a very large stretch. You would need to buy nearly all of your livestock feed. A cow? Not a chance. A few chickens and rabbits sure. Our garden alone is bigger than that, and we produce very large crops off of it, but it is nowhere near enough to feed a family. Let alone cramming in a cow, chickens, wheat, etc... Maybe she grows happy weed, and sells it for a tidy profit then buys her food, lol.

I think a lot can be done on small land holdings, but to tell people you can raise enough food to live on for a year is a bit much...

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by mbcagle

We had pet rabbits but they dug out one night and something got them.

I would love to raise meat some how. How much space would I need? I am new to this mind-set!

Thanks!
Michele

There's your answer, if you can get over the idea that rabbits are pets......

geo

[FarmboyBill]

Give us a idea of the footage involved. I agree with the goats, but I dont think you have enough area for the amount of goats I think you should need for your size family. I would think you would need at least a 1/2 doz goats to keep yourself in milk year round. Sometimes you would float in milk, other times it would be somewhat slim.

Also, I would think you could use rabbits for meat. You would need at least 3 doz rabbits breeding to keep yourself in rabbit meat. That would include around 1/2 doz bucks, back to 4 or so.

Also, They have these 3 cages tired on top of each other. The top one isnt as high as the other 2. You put say 50 chicks in the top one. Keep them there a month, and then devide them between the other, and then butcher them after a month. Myself, I think I would devide them again between the three, say, put 20 in one big one , 20 in another, and 10 in the top one, and keep them another month. That would make them 3 mos old. You can raise a hog in an area 20ftsq. Get 3 pigs, in that area. Feed them up to 200lbs and butcher. They are also handy if you can fence in your garden, to put them in there, and let them tear it up for a minth, and then put them back to their pen. They will break up the ground, bring up any rock, branches, ect, and eat any grubs,ect. Manure the ground somewhat. You can keep a JERSEY milk cow on an area 50ft sq. I know, cause my dad did it for around 20yrs. Course, youll have to buy all its grain and hay, and have sufficent area to store it. You w3ill need to buy your hay in ther summertime, out of the hayfield, where and when its cheapest, and youll need to buy your feed in ton lots which, in some ffed stores, they give a 300lb bonus for buying in ton lots in bulk. Keeping a 1/2 doz goats in that area, and they will drive you nuts wanting to get out, and vocolozing about it all day long. A cow in that sizze area will be quiet about it, and not seem to mind it at all. Good luck

[jenangelcat]

The Backyard Homestead is a great book. You can easily provide all your own produce. You could also do rabbits and quail for meat. Use their manure for your garden.

I had 1/5th of an acre in zone 3 and we had 7 3x12 raised beds which provided a significant portion of our yearly veg and had plans to convert the entire space to food production. We had put in a dozen blueberry bushes, some sour cherries, raspberries and currents but unfortunately we couldn't have livestock so we ended up moving. Look up backyard orchard culture for fruit trees.

The key to getting the most food out of a small space is biointensive methods; wide rows, double dug raised beds, companion and succession planting.

There's a family in California that raises all their own food and for market on 1/5th of an acre (veg, fruit, ducks, chickens, goats) but I won't post their web site because of they're being asshats about trademarking the term "urban homestead". But it can be done despite the non-believers in this forum. Obviously grains, sugar, coffee and such you'll still have to buy but produce and some meat should be easey peasey.

[oregon woodsmok]

You can produce a lot of food on .8 acre. Probably not all you want, but probably enough to keep your family alive if there is no outside food available. If it's all you have, you eat what you have and you do without the rest.

With food available from outside sources, I suggest that you purchase all your grain. It's both space intensive and labor intensive to grow it, and it is cheap to buy (in spite of raising prices).

You'll want to buy sugar to use for canning. You'll want to buy salt and spices. For .8 acre, you will have to buy animal feed. Maybe you could grow enough to support rabbits, but still, you'll have to purchase their salt and minerals and they need a protein source. Maybe you can grow enough alfalfa for rabbits, but it would be easier and probably cheaper to buy it.

I've raised chickens and the meat and eggs are much better, but the store bought were cheaper. My rabbits were well worth it and provided economical and very delicious meat. They don't lay eggs, though.

[Sonshine]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

No don't get me wrong! I read the reviews and they seemed sound mostly. I just think the author is unknowingly perhaps giving readers a false sense of hope. A 100 by 100 size area to raise enough food to live on is a very large stretch. You would need to buy nearly all of your livestock feed. A cow? Not a chance. A few chickens and rabbits sure. Our garden alone is bigger than that, and we produce very large crops off of it, but it is nowhere near enough to feed a family. Let alone cramming in a cow, chickens, wheat, etc... Maybe she grows happy weed, and sells it for a tidy profit then buys her food, lol.

I think a lot can be done on small land holdings, but to tell people you can raise enough food to live on for a year is a bit much...

I think it may depend on where you live too. In the south we can get produce from our garden just about year round.