Homesteadiing on 1 acre or less -- roll call

We are on city ssize lots both in the city and at th lake. We have gardens at both places, mostly in containers. We get most of our vegies from the gardens. We can only grow traditional vegies in the fall-winter=spring/ Haave been looking to expand the tropic al vegtables for summer.
In the city we have 2 bearing jaboticasba (Takes 12-15 years to bear) a dovylis, atemoya, and carambola. At the lake, where we plan to retire, we have 6 blueberries, 2 thornless blackberries, an Everest crab, a young jaboticaba, and 2 mulberries, a 4 in 1 oriental plum and a low chill apricot. Plus we just got another golden dorset and anna apples. Our 3in 1 low chill, transparent, pettingill and tropicsweet apples have all died off.
Farm animals includimg poulty are forbidden by city statute. We plan to retire to the lake eventually. I would like to get a couple Khaki Campbell laying ducks. My brother and I actualluy had pekin drakes ffor pets as children. We also have had several house rabbits. GFB is not amenable to to the thought of meat rabbits, he probably kniows they would yurn into pets.

Forgive the typos. I had just gloved up to dig Irish potatoes when I saw this thread.

3/4 acre
in the suburbs-neighbors don't mind
raised bed gardens, mini la mancha goats, bees, ancona ducks, lots of chicken and a handful of new fruit trees.
My advise: bloom where you are planted. Don't wait until.....(fill in the blank with an excuse). Do the best you can with what you've got. It's a fun learning experience if nothing else. By the way we're in zone 5b Michigan. Good Luck!

1 - one is just over an acre, another is 1/4 of an acre, the smallest is about 1/10 of an acre.
2 - yes, most like the gardens. A couple people have complained but they believe in golf course style lawns with no weeds (useful plants) at all.
3 - we put in several fruit and nut bearing trees and shrubs, a butterfly garden is being established and I am in the process of making a medicinal plant garden along with regular annual crops
4 - like others have said, check your local regulations. Some places do not allow gardens in a front yard, some don't allow fences, some don't allow certain crops, etc.
5 - central Ohio, hoping to move back to farm country in west central Ohio.

Have you thought of rabbits? We're on a 1/4 acre town lot too. Also have the ordinance against farm animals in city limits, but rabbits are sort of a grey area because they could be pets. We looked into it, and there are no laws that would prevent us from raising some rabbits in the back yard. We figure we'll just be quiet about the fact that they are for food. The fertilizer will be nice for our garden, too.

We have a grape arbor, and I want to put in current bushes, too. The rugosa roses lining the driveway can be dried for tea, and I might experiment with rose hip jelly next year, too. The back yard is being taken over by raised beds. If we run out of room there, we'll do some in the front in a slightly more decorative style. Front yard is super shady due to two massive trees, so not as big as a priority. Fortunately our house is situated so most of the yard is in the back, and we have a nice big privacy fence. I only regret that we don't have enough room for fruit trees, though the maple tree in back doesn't look overly healthy, and if that has to go then I guess I can put in a pear tree or something. Apples are easy to come by around here so I'm not going to bother with those.

As far as neighbors, all of my neighbors garden, and don't seem to have any problems with me doing the same. Some of them have raised rabbits before. I figure so long as I keep my projects on my side of the fence, we won't have any problems.

Blynn, maybe you can tap that maple tree for syrup Love this thread. Will be following for more ideas

1 -- How big is your yard?- less than 1/14 of an acre.

2 -- Do you live in a neighborhood?- Urban turn of the century housing, lower to middle class working families. What do your neighbors think?- I try to keep the pretty factor upfront so most people just think I'm too deep into gardening. By pretty I mean that it's often all about being incognito to both neighbors & the code man so while I do grow food our other homesteading activities are on the QT even in plain sight.

3 -- what do you raise, grow, collect, recycle ?- hmm well easier to post what we don't - cattle, chickens, goats, we raise Giant Chinchillas.
Urban orchard; 7 Apple, 2 Peach, tiny but productive blackberry patch, and strawberries. Also off site foraging sites we don't let our lack of land hinder us.
If it's non-electric homesteading tool then chances are I own it & use it including sad irons, ice box, cider & cheese presses ...

4 -- What advice do you have for others? As GreenEarth wrote just do it. My second piece of advice is when faced with a homesteading type problem go old school but put a bit of a technology twist to it.

5 -- where are you located?- Western New York


~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/

No, I don't think I want to raise rabbits - don't really care for them as food. Plus I think they are too cute and would just end up keeping them as pets! Chickens, cows and pigs now that is another story but those are considered farm animals and not allowed, don't think I can hide them on my lot.

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Jana
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http://myurbanhomestead13.blogspot.com/

How shocking! I have never seen such "high" grass before

How big - not sure but it is a normal city lot for this area

Definitely in a neighborhood. Two neighbors couldn't care less but the two across the street are having a cow at the front yard gardening I am doing. They kinda got quiet when I threatened to get chickens

I recently cut down 3 large oak trees which totally opened up the front yard for gardening. So, the week after the trees came down 8 fruit trees went in and I covered about 1/3 of the grass with cardboard then straw. One nosy neighbor came over to inform me that he didn't think my grass would be able to come up through the straw. I said I sure hope you are right. He didn't know what to say to that!!

Have planted a lot of fruit trees front and back, made a strawberry bed, asparagus bed, planted blackberry, sun chokes, elderberry bushes, blueberry, and june berries.

working on putting in stuff for the butterflies and bees, and am on the list the next time my supplier gets his top bar hives in.

I just put 2 trellises up and tied up my black berries, and need trellises made for the kiwis and muscadines too.

No livestock as of yet but we are allowed 5 chicks in the city!! Maybe next year.

There is always something to do. I would advise folks to put in the things they think they and the kids will eat and go from there. GO SLOW. If you try to do to much at one time it will overwhelm you.

Location: southeast Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay

Y'know, that's not a bad idea. The two monster trees in the front yard are maples, too. I doubt we'd get a lot of syrup for our effort, but it'd be ours.

One or two as pets would be a great fertilizer factory.

Chickens are currently not allowed in our town, but a nearby town recently changed their laws to allow chickens, no roosters. I know some neighbors who would like to have chickens too. Hoping at some point we might be able to get together and get that law changed. If they followed guidelines similar to the nearby town, we could have 4 hens on our property, which is probably the right amount for just the two of us.

I am another one that would like to see pictures or drawings of Cornerstone acres place, sounds fascinating. We live on 12 acres now (and expanding) but spent 11 years on a little 1/5 of an acre lot in a neighborhood where we had a greenhouse, garden shed, berries, raisedbed gardens, flower gardens, and lots of outdoor living space. Do what you can with what you have is a good mantra and we have the greatest memories of our little 1/5th of an acre paradise. We so intensely gardened and managed that space that it was like a garden of eden and even though we had houses all around we created a quiet and secluded place where we thrived.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

There is an interesting lady on Youtube who posts about her "half acre homestead". She has goats, chickens, rabbits, bees, etc. and does frequent videos on subjects which would be of interest to many here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMrsVolfie?feature=watch

Thanks for the link hope to get some ideas.


~~ pelenaka ~~