What would you do with ONLY one acre?
 

It is a common misconception among those just starting out that they need lots of land to homestead and/or practice self-sufficiency. Several years ago there was a fascinating discussion on the Simple Living Network titled "What would you do with only one acre". It had probably gotten up to about 9 or 10 pages when I saw it. I could have sworn that I saved a word.doc copy of the thread but I can't find it anywhere. I'd like to start a similar thread here with the intent of sharing it with my DD and SIL. They are just now coming to realization that they aren't ever going to own a 500 acre horse ranch in MT. I'd like them to get a picture of what can be accomplished on just a one acre homestead.

I plan to record the production of our tiny little 200 sq ft raised bed garden this summer. When we add this to our 30 hens and their eggs it's a nice little start for a 1/4 acre. I want to add another 200 sq ft or so in the front yard ("grow it, don't mow it") and maybe put in four or five dwarf fruit trees in the hen yard.

Thanks for the help.

I would recommend these 2 books if they like to read

The Backyard Homestead

The Backyard Homestead Guide To raising Animals

Here is a sample layout from the book, both books have a great amount of information

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We own 1.22 acres in Montana and there is A LOT you can do in that space. We have a large garden, fruit trees, hops vines for brewing, a canning shed & smokehouse, an outbuilding for tools and equipment, compost bins, a wooded area, large play area for the kids, and a fire pit with horseshoe pit for adult recreation. It is all about land management. I recommend the book "Living on an Acre". This is a great resource for crop rotation and livestock management on a small space.

i would definately put in a food forest garden to get the most out of it..might I suggest a book called Gaia's GArden by toby Hemenway

Square foot gardening and bees! If you eat meat I'd add rabbits and chickens for eggs.

I totally agree! I use my Backyard Homestead book daily! Also, I believe it is critical to have animals in movable pens to be able to rotate areas. Our chickens and goats are in movable pens made of cattle panels, as will the Asian Heritage Hogs when they get here. Also, outside of poultry, use of mini livestock is important. Not expensive ND goats that are bred for flashyness but ones from good milking lines or maybe even a Dexter heifer. Its all about maximum usage of what you have.

I used to work in a small machine shop. One thing I learned was to think verticlly as they didn't have much room after they brought in all the machines. There is one good thing. They made more money persquare foot than any other business I've been around. I believe this line of thinking applies here also.
The type of plants that you put in will greatly effect the amount that you can produce. Using plants like pole beans, fruit trees, grapes on the perimiter fence and trellising squash. Small watermelons will even work well on a trellis.
Along with your chickens you might look into a couple of hogs each year. They don't take up much space and if built right can be moved over each year to churn up the next spot. Are great for transforming compost and don't have to be wintered over. (They go to freezer camp in 6 or 7 months.)
I hope that these ideas help.

They also need to get over any ideas of having a huge expansive lawn and think about edible landscaping. We have 3 acres and DH still gets nervous when I get out the tiller. He didn't want any beds of edibles in the front. LOL. Oh well, I already have beds of strawberries, herbs, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes right outside my front door. I just tell him it's not my fault the front lawn is south facing and full sun.

LOVE the use of the front yard for gardening. There are so many homes with wasted space. I am considering top hats for the front door entry.

All great ideas! Please, keep'm comin'.

I have considered adding that Backyard Homestead book to my own library but didn't know if it was worth the money. Sounds like I'll be hitting Amazon for a copy.

I'd love to add a feeder piglet or two to the backyard, but my neighbors would NEVER let me get away with it. I just barely won the argument over my chickens. It seems they are considered "small animals" and thus legal in the village. Pigs, however, are livestock and thus are not legal.

Now meat rabbits ,,,,,, a distinct possibility.:goodjob:

Thanks! I am going to look these up tomorrow.

My husband and I have an acre. It came with a 990 sf house and a small shop. We added a chicken house/run and have started off with 53 chicks, will butcher then pair down to 20 -25 layers/meat including roosters. The birds will be encouraged to go broody to continue the layer/meat bird production naturally over time.

We have a small flock of Guineas for bug control and (dark) meat. They also help with the snakes and rodents. Three or four will be kept in the rabbitry for bug control and predator control (so I can hatch out the keets.) Since our area is an acre and the birds roam, we have spoken to the neighbors and gotten their buy in since the birds roam.

Attached to the chicken run we have planted a 22 x 30 fenced garden. It is dug, instead of raised beds. Our soil is clay and we've dug out the clay and added soil mix instead of taking years to ammend/work the existing soil. Last year we planted two blueberry bushes. This year a peach and apricot tree. We will continue to plant fruit trees (smaller varieties). We have some old pecan trees that we will utilize more this year as well as nurture the pecan start that I unearthed a few days ago. We also have a couple black walnut trees and will begin to utilize them as well. On the back of the shop we have attached a dog kennel and fenced in the top. My husband is working on a roof as I type. This is our rabbitry. My husband built the cages and we will put our three female New Zeland rabbits out there and breed them with a male Californian when they're old enough. So there's chicken meat, rabbit meat, rabbit manure for the garden, compost from the chickens. To this we will add a few turkeys each year. Two dairy goat does and a boar billy for milk and meat production. We are collecting pallets to build a goat house when our spring projects are complete and fencing in.

In our area everything must be built predator proof, so it takes quite awhile on the startup side.

I have a few more garden plots outside the fenced area and we can expand the fenced garden as needed. Also we use chicken and rabbit tractors because we cannot free-range our livestock safely here.

We make solitary bee housing because we are not set up for honey bees but desperately need the pollinators. ...and they are simple to make.

Black soldier fly larvae for a protein source for birds and fish.

Someday, an outdoor kitchen for summer canning...

Would like to dig an old freezer into the ground to use as a small root cellar. Rain barrels to collect water for the livestock and the garden. And my husband has "off-grid" ideas for electricity, heat and heated water, etc.

I would like to plant a sugar maple one day for maple syrup. Sugar beets for making sugar. Quinoa for simple grain production for our pantry and livestock feed. Etc. There is more to do than I can keep up with... On just an acre...

Allow me to add another vote for The Backyard Homestead! That little book is full of information and points you in the right direction for lots more reading.

I wish I had that book available to me when we started our place 5 years ago. We have just over a 1/3rd of a acre fenced in and we have 12 fruit trees, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, 12 chickens, we raise 2 pigs a year and have 12 4x16 foot raised beds, the chicken coop and pig pen we have outside our fenced in area, a huge part of our yard is taken up by our pond, if we didn't have that the chickens and pigs would be inside the fenced in area, it can be done

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7246/6...37136018_b.jpg

We use the fencing as a growing medium with our grapes, brambles and such planted along the fence and use the fence as support, our strawberries we planted in between the boulder retaining wall. We try and utilize every space we can and keep adding stuff each year

Dig a one acre hole. Fill it with water, buy a houseboat and go fishing.

Hmmm... how about Asian Heritage Hogs (AKA potbelly pigs)? Most places consider them pets, not livestock. Of course, when the time came, butchering would have to be done offsite or in an enclosed garage. When the neighbors ask where "Dear Wilbur" went, get all teary eyed about his unfortunate accident...

Anything extra is just = more hours on the tractor mowing, unless you live in the woods.

loving all the great ideas and inspiration and photos! one note--beware of black walnut trees anywhere near your garden. their roots, leaves, and nuts are toxic to a wide variety of plants including most annual vegetables. we are having two removed this year because they have been poisoning the garden for a long time and we just couldn't take it anymore...

It's very possible to have a beautifully landscaped front yard that produces food.

Use fruit trees for the trees; many of them are beautiful. Inter-plant cabbage and tomatoes with flowers in the flower beds. Carrots are beautifully ferny. Pepper plants are attractive and well mannered. Lots of veggies look like landscaping if they are planted in the landscaping and not in orderly rows.

Even that lawn can be used to produce food for the chickens and rabbits.

we have many more acres in pasture, but for the house itself, I am aiming for almost no 'yard' in the traditional way. the front is just gravel, and past that is a large grassy spot we fence for horses, and someday it'll be a round pen. the backyard is where I'm doing all the gardening. I have just never understood doing all that work to get a lawn growing just to complain all summer long that you now must mow it?!! and the noise of a mower, eww.

my backyard is maybe 1/4 or so acre, and its got lots planted like others said. in the end, I aim to be able to use a few passes with either a small push or even a reel mower. the rest will be on my plate.

the barnyard pens are built in a 'wheel' type idea--the barn and water is in the hub. so to feed and water its just a matter of a hose and a bucket. the pens go long, a hutch in each, and feed pans etc. at the top/hub.

last summer I went to visit mom in iowa. took a different, more scenic route. I was totally amazed at the size of some 'lawns'. I'm talking several acres to mow???? they plant a few bushes or flowers around the house, I seen NO gardens to speak of. buildings (new) were placed at such far out spacings, that it left tons of land just to mow. and it was all obviouslly seeded and groomed, looked like a golf course. that doesn't just happen, they had t put sooo much effort/money/time into....lawn. I do not get that??!!!

you can have them watch this

Sell it, go to a cheaper area and buy 5 acres.

this is a larger spread at 4 acres, but gives good ideas and suggestions

My youngest brother used to live in this "estate development" in Stafford VA. He owned the smallest lot and the smallest house permitted in the place; 3500 sq ft (not including the basement) on 3 acres. Everything else was larger and some of those manicured properties were 10 acres. And you are right, not more than one shrub or tree per half acre. Truly sad. They probably spend more on lawn care than I spend on electricity each month. Where is the logic in that?

i think people get caught up in having enough acreage to raise cows, horses etc. In reality your first farm is PROBABLY not going to go in that direction. you can get anything on an acre.
I have more than an acre but IF I had one acre it would look similar to the diagram posted earlier. i'd have fruit trees but more than a dozen chickens, a very large garden, some rabbits, but no bees, i'd also only plant certain herbs for a little organic pest prevention but growing herbs for myself really iisnt my thing as of yet.

We have 1 acre, 3 pygora goats, 3-5 chickens, 2 rabbit does and a buck and 20 pigeon pairs. Large garden, raised beds and a small 6'x8' aquaponic greenhouse with yellow perch. Yard is very small, I only hand mow a 12'x20' area with a lot of clover but the rabbits keep most of that nibbled down. I make my hay by hand from the meadow with a walking scycle mower. I glean a lot from the forest land behind us, hunt, fish. We buy very little....James

The problem for me with just one acre is the likelihood of neighbors. Usually a one acre lot is surrounded by other lots and neighbors. This really limits what you can do. The example illustration of beehives and pigs on the back property line would probably have your neighbor behind you in a tizzy in about 15 minutes.

If you get more rural and have more land, you can still intensively use and manage your "core" one acre around your home but also have a buffer zone between you and any neighbors.

Yes neighbors could be an issue, as could zoning regs with that small of a lot. But it is doable and the books previously mentioned are a good place to start for ideas. My major gripe with those books is that they barely mention Nigerian Dwarf goats.

Many cities are now allowing Pygmy or Nigerians goats. Pygmy's are a meat breed, Nigerians are a dairy breed. And if you get goats from a breeder that is breeding for milk production there is no reason you can't be getting a 1/2 gallon or more a day from a 20" tall doe. Of course in that small of a space you may not be able to have a buck, so its best to have a buck lined up for breeding before you buy does.

The goats and chickens can share the same pen, IF you set up separate housing and a way for the chickens to be fed without the goats being able to get into it. The chickens will scratch around and distribute the goat manure, keeping down parasites and the few flies that might develop. (Goat poop does not draw flies like cow poop does.)

I got my start in goats from folks that have less than an acre and have a single buck & his wether companion in a small pen. Nigerian bucks generally are not as smelly as their larger counterparts mostly because the does cycle year round so there isn't one big rut season - although fall does bring stronger heats and a little more smell. All that to say, if the neighbors can't see the buck pen, and it isn't bordering their property and there isn't zoning to prevent his being there you could get away with a buck. Or get a young buck (less than a yr old) every year to bred your does and then sell or butcher him once you have bred your does so that you don't have one year round.

So on one acre - 1/4 acre for your house/garage, 1/4 acre paddock for Nigerians & chickens, 1/2 acre for garden/orchard. Some of what is grown in the garden/orchard can also be used to feed the goats/chickens. Or if you don't want as big of garden you could give the goats/chickens more room. And you can plant fruit trees in the "pasture" providing you give then adequate protection from the goats. (5' no-climb horse fence works for us.)

you can buy the grafted fruit trees that have branches of pears, say on an apple tree to save space in the yard. terr gardening too.

I would be ecstatic with an acre LOL. I have far less than that and have half a dozen blueberry bushes, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, kiwis, strawberries, and a decent garden in a city lot. I use the front yard a little with edible landscapes. There's a lot you can do if you get creative.

7/8 of an acre is what my friend grows on. They have 23 acres. He got 20 grand off his farm last year. Yep that is his selling crops. He has a garden to feed his family.

You could also purchase columnar apple trees.

We have 9/10ths of an acre. I have ALOT of raised beds for veggies and strawberries. Rasberries along a fence line. Chickens (hens only) and ducks. We do raise a batch of the mutant cornish and we are trying meat ducks (Pekins) this year as well. We have about 20 breeder rabbits as well. I have also planted mulberry and apple trees and hope to get a nectarine or pear this spring yet. And we have 3 grape vines as well. I want to try hops at some point and hope to put in some type of nut tree, probably hazelnuts. I will be putting in more raised beds to increase the amount of pumpkins and winter squash I can grow for the animals winter feed. I also grow several long rows of sunflowers but it is a race to see who gets them first - us or the goldfinches! This is ALL in our back yard as we are in a pretty restrictive township that unfortunately I don't see us getting away from any time in the near future. I figured, I would just do as much as I could, where we are right now, rather than waiting in frustration until we could move.

I'm going to be moving to a very small 0.12 acre yard with a tiny house on it this summer. I plan to do raised beds, have chickens and rabbits and eventually try to have a few goats. I also want to try to build a small hoop house for winter gardening/aquaponics system, not sure if there's going to be room for that, but it's in the plans. The Dervaes are a huge inspiration and I would really like to be as productive as them; although it will be harder since it's only me and my 6 yr old. I will try to do as much vertical gardening as possible and utilize as much of what little space that I will have. I am pretty excited about moving and can't wait to get started :D

I'm glad you can have chickens. Any limit as to how many? I recently found out that in our little town we may have up to three as long as we keep them no less than 15 away from the fence.

By the way...Williamsport, lovely town. Hope you like it there. (:

They haven't been hungry yet, or got sick with e-coli, salmonella, mrsa or listeria from their store bought food, but once people start realizing how much contaminants are in their store bought food they might start growing their own.

Sell it and buy more acreage! As long as it doesn't have a pond or creek on it, you could do a lot with 1 acre, however, CCR's, Zoning Restrictions, even City/County can get involved in restricting use. Then, add neighbors, ouch! We had 1 acre, had 20 fruit trees (semi-dwarf mostly), 12 Blueberry Bushes, Grapevines, massive Kiwi Vines, 20 ft Raspberry Row, Strawberries, Currants, and a very nice garden. We also had lots of noise, couldn't have chickens there (zoning...), couldn't have pigs (zoning & CCR's), but we could have had a few rabbits.

Now, if you had an acre, out in the country, bordering forest or other undeveloped property, that is a different story. It would still be too small for our purposes. Out of 6.68 acres, we cleared almost 2, which is all in use, and the remaining property is in forest (we heat with firewood). In fact, we have 2nd growth bordering all 4 sides of our property, for added privacy. We can see one neighbor's home through the trees on the N side, also peaks of the Hood Canal. If the neighbors cut down their trees, we would have a nice view and higher taxes (no thanks). Here, no CCR's, more than 2.5 acres, so we can do a lot with our property. After research on zoning restrictions (County specific), I wouldn't be on less than 5 acres!

I could care less about grass and eventually want it all gone. DH doesn't care if I turn our backyard into a Permaculture garden. When I have the funds available, I will be doing that. We currently have 9,000 sq ft devoted to garden areas and our orchard. Another 1/2 acre will be set aside for raising pigs (2 1/4 acre fenced areas for rotation). Another 1/4 acre will be fenced for 2 mini-goats (for milking). Also, I am deciding where the future greenhouse will be built... We currrently have (2) 10' X 20' garden cabins, a little greenhouse, a chicken house, and a pighouse.

My orchard and garden are each about a quarter acre. I have a couple of chicken lots though, both small. I let the chickens out in the day to roam around, so I don't have to feed them. I have 23 chickens right now, I grow more than enough fruit and vegetables. Not much of a meat eater, but I obviously eat a lot of eggs!! Other than spices, flour, and sugar, I'm self sufficient using just a half acre. I do have a half acre front yard, which I once set about to plant in fruit trees. I just don't need any more fruit trees. The rest of it is just a buffer, I guess. I DO have another garden which I'm no longer using simply because I grow more than I need already.

Stef, no such considerations here. And my neighbor, bless him, actually went to the town board when I got a rooster claiming a "noise nuisance". Board said there wasn't anything wrong with it. The breeding hasn't worked out anyway, so I think Bullwinkle might be headed for the freezer this fall. Some parts of Williamsport are pretty, but if you read our local paper you wouldn't want to live in the city. And I can pretty much guarantee I'd never get away with chickens inside the limits. I live a few miles out.

Sanza, I write a chicken column for a monthly newspaper which focuses on independence doing as much fr yourself as you can. (The Valley Newspaper can be viewed online) I have made several references to that very situation in the last 18 months that I've been writing it.