What would you do with ONLY one acre?

We currently have a quarter acre urban farm - 10 raised beds and 3 chickens - that I can't wait to get away from. Not the farm, but the neighbors. We also own 1.5 acres in the mountains surrounded by timber company land and bordered by a river. We are currently planning the lot and this info has been great we just built the cabin "shell" and will be building raised beds up there this weekend. You can do a lot with an acre - the question, like others have posed, is whether the acre is worth it. We are not without neighbors in our mountain property but they are certainly farther away!

We have a really small garden. I am amazed by the amount of produce we grow each year.

The book, Square Foot Gardening, radically changed my thinking about gardening and the need for space.

We have 1 acre. About 1/3 of it is fenced in as permanent pasture. We have a fairly large garden, along with meat rabbits, 25 chickens, 4 goats, and 5 sheep. I rotatational graze the ruminants, and sometimes use part of the lot next door to us (no house on it, owner never maintains the lot, so I offer free lawn services ). We've also had turkeys, guineas, and pigs. We have a LOT of space that we don't use, so I imagine we could do a LOT more if we had the time/money. It takes careful planning, but there is a LOT that can be done on an acre!

Let me ask another question ...

If you could only come up with a limited amount of money, enough to buy 1 acre in the country somewhere and build a small, very humble house, on it.

Would the fact that it's only 1 acre prevent you from doing so?

I don't think so. That's room for a big garden, some animals (the right animals), fruit trees, bee hives, etc.

AND, if you were able to pay cash for it then you could live there while you continued to work your city job for awhile, and be out from under the heavy hand of a mortgage or rent ... allowing you to save up money for a bigger place one day.

think up not out and get things that have more than one use. my 'shade' trees are fruit and nut trees and anything that will climb goes around the fence instead of sprawling and taking up more space. my chickens are for both eggs and meat. when they are too old to lay they get butchered. I don't feed anything that's not producing. my landscaping is all herbs and pretty veggies. if it don't have a use it gets dug out of the flower bed and something edible goes in. my property lines are planted with hazelnut, grapes, etc that form a windbreak and a barrier to trespassers. surprising how hard it is for the neighbor kids to run wild thru a six foot tall hedge of blackberries and raspberries LOL. I have raised beds everywhere there is enough sun to grow something (yes even in the front yard) my front porch that I never got time to sit on got closed in with salvaged windows and thats where I start my plants in the spring. I'm doing great with just half an acre. I grow enough fruit and veggies to keep my grocery bill down to less than $50 a month and have extra to barter to hunters in the community for deer and turkey to add to the chicken I raise. they especially like to barter for homemade wine from my less than perfect fruit and berries. the main thing is to think outside the box. for instance instead of sitting pots of flowers on top the gate posts I have pots with a sweet potato in them. the vines are beautiful and I will have several potatoes in the pots later on.

I have 3/4 of an acre just outside of the city limits. Pigs and cows are a no no here. I do raise chickens, ducks, rabbits and have about 600 square feet of garden. 150'x150' is the front lawn and is just grass and lines of pines. The animals and garden occupy an equal amount of space behind the house.

Really considering cutting down the pines and planting fruiting trees. Most of the pine trees are old and dying at this point. Not sure what to plant or how long until will see fruit... or if they will prosper. Pines do serve some purpose in providing a wind break and a microclimate.

More than half of the land is woods. Unfortunately I am bordered on both sides by neighbors. The land is underutilized but I'm slowly expanding both garden and flock. It's either money, time or weather hampering plans. Almost a month strait of rain is killing me... I long for last years drought.

Neighbors are a concern... On one side my neighbor insists he loves to hear crowing and insists my hens free range. The other neighbor... I can't stand him. He freaks out if my son even looks at his property but he's sees it as fine if he can ride his four wheeler on my land.

Can't stand mowing and grass is worthless. Mow my front lawn to make it look ok but don't bother with the back yard. Like to see he flowers bloom. Do let ducks and chickens range in movable fences and they do a great job of keeping the grass and bugs in check.

Can see a person having a pretty successful homestead on an acre or less of land depending on goals and local laws.
I say go slow and work with what you have. Find what you like and what your successful with and expand. Make it a hobby and not a chore.

Love some of the ideas I see/hear of here

I am in the process of digging out my flowers and planting vegies, herb and fruit. it is hard digging out some flowers. most of the trees are fruit trees. last year I planted elderberries and native roses ( rose hip jam). I would like to get meat rabbits. I can't have chicken in my area.
vegie garden is in the back of the property. strawberries are in the front flower beds. cukes and squash and in the flower bed on the side of the house as are blueberries. I am getting ready to rip out a evergreen bush and plant several more blueberries.

herbs are in all my flowerbeds. would like to plant more grapes on the fence.

I would think, IF I only had an acre of BARE LAND, and was contemplating what kind of house id build, Id think id be considering a barn/house like they have in Europe, combined.. There could be a car port/porch/cook shed/canning shed between the 2. ESPECIALLY IF I wasn't going to have cows or horses or hogs. BUT, Even they could be accomaidated, to a degree, by a lean to shed at the far end of the barn, with stuff like grainery, tools, wood shed, ect in between.
Id have a celler underneith as much of the house/barn as I thought I needed for , canning doing laundry, who knows what. id use the dirt Id excavated to either level around the house/barn, or make raised beds with it. Id also put in a Cistern on 2 the short ends of the house/barn, and do as said before with the dug dirt.

We have just under 1.5 acres in Indianapolis. We currently are raising 36 meat birds, 12 layers, 3 dairy goats for milk, and a couple bee hives for honey. We have two gardens, one 25x15 bed with 65 tomato plants in it and another larger area with raised beds. We tapped 6 of our maples this past year and got 1.5 gallons of finished syrup.

We raise about 3 batches of meat birds each spring/summer and they last us through the year. We hope to plant a small orchard with 2 apple, 2 cherry, and 2 peach trees next spring. Also looking at setting up a small tilapia operation within the next 1-2 years.

There is a LOT that can actually be done on an acre.

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1.5 acres in the city

We have 1 acre in West Va. Its in a community that sits on a hilltop over looking a valley. We knew that our homesteading plans were going to happen when we did a drive by before we bought the place last April. We saw neighbors with Goats, Horses and Lots of Chickens.

We have a Pie like yard with the house near the street. Its very narrow at the front and wide in the back. Our back yard goes down gently in the back. We have mostly woods but we have a nice open area behind the house in the shape of a rectangle. In the back we have a fenced area that is about 50ft deep by 60ft wide.

The first thing we did in April was start our gardens. We planted a little of everything. Corn, Onions, Herbs, Lettuce, Broccoli, Cucumbers, Ocra, Beans...

We did alright but already have a much better idea of whats happening next year. We fixed up a shed in the fenced area and ordered 20 chickens from McMurry Hatchery. We just recently brought home 2 Nigerian Dwarf Goats.

Next year I plan on figuring out a water system to utilize rain water for the garden and animals. We plan on clearing some shady trees and gardening far more compact. We are looking forward to adding 20 more meat chickens and the birth of the baby goats. Looking forward to another human birth too.

We have been learning as we go. We have no idea what we are doing with the goats. I had to really go crazy on the old fencing by adding some new fencing and then adding solar powered electric fencing to keep them from jumping the fence. Its been a learning process.

We want to add more blueberries. Maybe Bee's. There are so many projects to do in our yard, while I think about how nice 5-20 acres would be... I would not be able to keep up on it. There is always something to fix, add, or do on our 1 acre homestead.

I forgot to mention that Nigerian Dwarf goats can jump. Our one escape artist was witnessed jumping a 4 foot fence. Remember that these goats are smaller than normal goats. They are 22 inches tall. They are great jumpers. Since I have added 3 wires of electric I haven't seen her attempt a jump. If she does there will be some barbwire strands going up. I held off on adding that for now being as I really don't like the prison look to their area.

I'd get me a bred heifer lowline or a mini herford and an AGH boar and two sows. I like the idea of living over the barn. Good fencing and call it good. Raised beds and bucket gardening. The bucket gardens I had on my front and back porches years ago worked great and here in Alaska where the weather is unpredictable I could carry the buckets inside when winter decided to come back suddenly. A day or two inside until the good weather came back. Some of my best gardening years happened that way. Safe from moose, hares, etc also.

Nice old thread to reopen.
With a small amount of land I'd look for a farmer to buy things like corn , wheat , hay and wood from.
I could then feed a few more animals than the property would support and heavily manure rotating areas to develope great tilth for more valuable crops.

I agree this is a good topic to bring back up. We just moved and now have 3 1/4 acres, but I came from the city (40'x175' lot). We had honeybees and two chickens although we did not meet the set back requirements for the chickens. The key was a moveable chicken tractor to spread out the droppings thus keeping to nearly no smell and neighbors on both sides that thought it was neat I had both. Also acting like you are allowed to have them. Confidence and a friendly smile can win some over. I was also prepared to butcher if the city ever did come 'round.