Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre.

Bout a year ago, while looking for different irrigation methods, I ran upon a blog(?) of some people who grow most of their own food on a city lot in California. I doubt they grow all of their own food on that lot but they clain about 99%.

Link goes to urbanhomestead website blog-type thing.
Link:
Urbanhomesteading stated facts&stats

Hope this helps. One reason they may be able to do this is because they are all mainly vegetarians.

Even if it doesn't they have some good information on different things. Most of it is written in a way to not put people to sleep. Clay pot irrigation is what got me into reading their site some.

This is from 2009? I should really pay more attention. =0)

Anyway, yes, Terri. I was just doing research on how I might have to change my diet to be really sustainable here. I have this idea for an edible perennial garden done in a romantic english garden style. There are lots of edible perennial things that grow here... not just herbs, artichokes, fruits etc... but flowers and fiddleheads from ferns etc... rosehips and mints for teas... Some tubers the local reservations have used to make flours, cause I don't think I'm going to want to alot enough space for grains. I haven't looked at medicinals yet. Just an idea I am toying with, so my food supply doesn't require so many seeds... but then I hope to have a little more than a fourth of an acre to play with. I hope it will be beautiful too. Might as well feed the soul if you're gonna eat. =0)

Sorry for the thread drift. But I think even people in nighborhoods with resistant neighbors could do something like that since it would be lovely and not get any flack for it.

K. FWIW.

Cindyc.

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"Relish your reading. Make note of the melody of the phrases, the architecture of the page. Let the joy of discovery soak right down to your bones!" Dr. George Grant (paraphrased)

Supplement your acreage with hunting,fishing and gathering and it can be done.

It would involve a significant diet change for most people.

FarmBoyBill, to answer your question about both size and weeds: size would measure slightly less than 60' x 200', that's about the size of my 0.27 acre yard where admittedly I don't grow near all we eat but right now it's not being used to it's fullest potential. The weed problem is resolved with generous and frequent mulch applications. Producing your own mulch means either growing a fast growing grass or other groundcover which needs frequent mowing. Having access to cardboard or lots of newspaper would help significantly. White dutch clover is an excellent ground cover, great mulch and provides food for bees.

However one must always fight with weather and critters, at least in this area. I had a wonderful bumper crop of black raspberries. The bushes were loaded. But the mulberry blooms got frozen and there are no mulberries to satisfy all the birds. Between the birds and the raccoons I will be lucky to get 2 cups of black raspberries. I will be facing the same problem when the blackberries get ripe. I've already lost several pints of strawberries. And the squirrels are constantly knocking the peaches off the peach tree. Because of the wacky weather I will have no almonds (Hall's Hardy Almond) which the squirrels also like. The apples also got frosted so there are less than a dozen on my trees. I've already lost the early blueberries and part of my currants to the birds. What is covered isn't much but as long as the raccoons don't pull the covers off the birds have left stuff alone. Even the garlic has been under attack, the mice have been tasting it.

I could get most of my meat just by hunting this property. If I was hungry enough I would have skinned and cooked the young raccoons I've shot this year. If I get a young groundhog I'll try to clean and cook it.

It takes lots of time to build up 1/4 acre for maximum production. Trees and shrubs need time to mature so they can bear fruit. Perennials need time to get established and bear crops. The soil needs to be worked and rocks removed. It can't be done overnight but it is possible.

U cook the GHOG. Ill eat the coon lol

Shoulda sent them to you. Felt bad enough shooting them but to waste the meat is worse. Maybe one of these days I'll get up enough nerve to try it.

If I planted a quarter acre of sweet potatoes I could probably swap enough venison for all the groceries I wanted.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Jimmy Dean has made a fortune selling ground hog. He calls it sausage and city folks buy it by the truckload!

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

A neighbor of ours used to have sausage every Feb 2. It was his tradition.

Of course that gives me an idea, get a hand crank meat grinder and turn the raccoons and groundhogs into critter burgers. Might be able to get the family (and myself) to eat them that way.

yup. Sounds good. IFFN u do that, you might want to throw a possum in for the fat, Takes some fat to make good sausage.

my lot is about 11,700sqft. of that my home is 1,400sqft, my shop is about 160sqft.
I do not grow wheat as i have a celiac in the fam. we buy rice and lentils, corn for meal, ect. our grocery budget for my family of 5 year round is only 200 a month including any meat we buy from my da, or local farms.
i have 10 10x4 raised beds, a 20x20 area of squashes/corn/beans both shelling and fresh.
another 10 4x6 beds in another area. my flower beds are full of tea/medicine flowers and plants.



i trellis kiwi and grapes. my front yard is mostly pine needle trees so all my blueberries an huckles are out there.

i think intensive gardening i more work in the beginning than a 5 acre farm. making sure your crop has the right nutrients, rotations is right, and getting a system down. but once you have it is easy as walking through your yard for piece of mind. oh look a weed bend and pluck. the tomatoes are ripe i will grab a basket, kids grab the harvest bag time to pick maters.......every thing is close and therefore easier imo. lunch water kids ect. i would hate an 1cre sized garden to care for.

i think if i left my yard to another non gardener or mainstreamer tho it would be overgrown chaos in a year. it takes alot of care and attention to beautifully manage my small plot.

The square foot gardening books are really good. I learned about them on HT, checked them out from our library, and they changed the way I think about gardening.

It really is amazing how much a person can grow in very small areas. I wish someone had taught me about SFG years ago.

My area to plant and use will be 50 by 100 so lilke 1/8 acre. Rest of the town lot is house and lawn. This space is bigger or as big as some town lots. I plan the storage shed on one end and if I can get like 3 hens and two "pet" rabbits there also. This is a small town. They have rules and such. Hens should be okay. No roos and rabbits are quiet. But the price of feed has to be thought out. This would be next to the sheds next door. Behind them really. Acrossed the alley is a church no one there. Others have a 6 foot board fence along the alley. I figure I can get in 20 4 x 8 beds and my little greenhouse moved in. Also along fence some grapes. Down on corner the guy uses as a hedge in front of his place. From lawn for few feet is a slope and can not garden it really and I think okay for small type fruit trees. That is 100 ft long row. I am trying to plan it on paper first. First 4 raised beds are in and measured for a 2 foot bed along the fence and between that and other beds will be green house. I did not want it to shed snow in next door. His is lawn now and little water over will not hurt him or me. His dog puddles along his side of the fence. We are close together and he does no garden any. Greenhouse has to be on other side place as to get sun good. Snow and ice stay on the south side of the place behind those sheds. I watched this from Jan to see where would be the best location. Stuff will have to be fit in close but still have things enough room.

I do not have those books but I have on on suburban living. I can not remember the title but I think it call for more land but not sure. It was a 5 year plan or so I think to getting it all set and being able to care for it. Start out small and work up.

Check out UrbanHomestead.org, they grow all they need for a family of four PLUS sell to others on 1/10 of an acre! I think you'll find them quite interesting

The biggest proplem your going to come up with is if you have any fruit trees in that small of area. The roots from the trees suck the moisture from the soil if you have veggie beds over them.

I suppose you could, but you'd have to sacrifice tropical goods. But i guess if you subsituted dandelion root for coffee if you weren't able to grow it. Dwarf banana trees are now common so you could grow them, as per pineapples. But other than that, prepare to eat a lot of vegetables........ I mean LOTS.

I wouldn't want to try to feed a family on a 1/4 acre. However, on my grandfather's farm he had a two acre plot that was his garden every year. He rotated his crops regularly. My grandmother taught school and spent the summers helping with the garden and canning, drying and freezing. She fed a family of 6 and shared with elderly shut-in neighbors out of that garden. After she passed away it took ten years for her four grown children and families to eat up what she had stored away in a cool dark closet under the stairs and other such places. Almost none of the canned goods went bad. I really miss her jam and preserves--best I've ever had.

Grandpa had more land that two acres and sold a bunch of steers every year and put at least one in the freezer, along with a pig and a lamb from time to time. But those two acres fed lots of people.

Whether you can get all food from small plot is less important than growing something, and using your space well. Over the years in my excitement I've planted stuff all over, and then tend to neglect it. Now I'm trying to shrink the garden and take better care of it.

Weeding, composting, etc. And after planting, any space not sprouted gets reseeded right away with something. Smaller plants in between bigger ones. I'm always looking for wasted space that I'm watering anyway in which I can sneak something in. This year I'm growing potatoes in the compost pile - we'll see how that goes.

I was at my brothers and it was somewhat painful to watch him plant some garden. He planted a single furrow of carrots about 3 feet from the next row, and waters it all with sprinklers covering all the ground. I try to have several rows together around my drip pipes. Of course my brother can waste water since he gets it out of an irrigation canal.

I've got 5 acres, but I've lately wondered if it wouldn't be funner living in town for the challenge of maximizing use of space. The biggest benefit of acreage is separation from neighbors.

theory and practice are 2 different things. Lets look at some numbers. for 1/4 acre. Corn 200bu/acre=50bu=2800lb=7.6lb of corn/day. Probably more than you could eat.

Wheat 60bu/acre=15bu=900lb=2.5lb/day over 3 loaves of bread a day.
Turnips 6 ton/acre=4000=11lb/day that is a lot of turnip but then it is mostly water, but you also have the greens.
In theory easily grow enough to survive. Being able to have a varied, satisfying, nutritious diet would be more difficult.

Bruce, I think your way of breaking it down, is what they did when they wrote the book. Break it down, get the figures, then tell how to plant the crops to get a varied amount of veggies/grains.