Sunday, March 11, 2012

Thinking again. Trouble afoot.

According to John Jeavon's research. A vegan can feed themselves on 4000 SF of cultivated earth. There is 43,560SF in an acre. Even with a 2 foot path between the rows it would come to a total of 5600SF. That is 5 beds of 4'by200'. An acre being nearly 210'x210'. This is both a large area and a small area in how you approach it.

If we designed out cities to where all houses were placed on the very northern edge of our city plot, we would have ample southern exposure for everyone of us to grow most of our food.

I am currently thinking of where to find an acre dirt cheap so I can build my tiny solar house with rain water catchment.

The nice bit is, while I have no idea what the actual cost involved is for the land.... I am happy to see that you don't actually need an acre to sustain yourself on.

With a plot 80 feet by 200 (A 1/3 acre) you could have your two story 20x40 foot (1600SF) home and your personal farm. Along with enough extra space to leave wild growing a cover crop like alfalfa to produce enough compost. :) If you did manage to get your acre then you would have a huge plot of wild green to compost.


So many thoughts. Now to find money to do it.

12 comments:

  1. You might want to try your local co-op or CSA groups to see if you can rent plot from them - in return for part of your harvest. I did that last year and loved it!

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    1. It didn't cost me anything in moneywise. We had agreement that I would give her 1/2 of everything I grew which was perfect for me :)

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  2. Your very right, it does not take that much space to be able to grow your own food. I just cringe when I look around at all the spacious back yards people have and they never plant a thing. Just think what the country would be like if more people took responsibility for feeding themselves rather than leaving it to Big Ag. Sigh. I hope you get your acre very soon :)

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    1. Me too! Most people cringe about the loss of a backyard for children to run around in circles or something. I personally believe they can pace through the walkways if needed or find a park, or go play hockey in the culdesac like everyone else. :)

      Last night I used some graph paper to mark down what a square acre actually looks like. Then fit in a modest house and the 4000SF of food. That leaves a ton of space left for cover crop for composting etc or just open air, or a permaculture tree garden. Plenty of ideas.

      It was reassuring to see that at the basics, you could manipulate the garden to fit in an even smaller foot print. Instead of 200 foot long beds, cut them in half and move it over. So now you have a 80' x 100 foot area. That is a simple parcel of land. Nearly what I have already (65x112) if only the house was butted right against the north side and trees placed more strategically.

      It would also leave heaps of room for that solar array. ;)

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  3. I love your thought process and hope to watch it come to fruition. Then, we can follow your lead, find our own patch of dirt and start anew :-)

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    1. :) Graph paper has so many visual abilities. From it I can see that even our .17acre plot is practically acceptable. Only drawback is how they placed the house. It creates inefficient shading. If you could put all homes on the northern edge of their plot then we all would have adequate sun. :)

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  4. I've thought often about how many people we could feed as a community with those huge wasted spaces in front of churches. I'm not a religous person but how wonderfully would feeding the community fit in with most religions' teachings? Instead, the churches I drive by have sometimes ACRES of grass around them. And NO ONE ever steps foot on it! Except for maybe an annual Easter egg hunt, the grass is just to look at.

    I love this posting because you are reminding us that no matter how big or small our yard is, we can really contribute to feeding ourselves and possibly others.

    Great posting!

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    1. Thank you. Always a pleasure to have your insight. I do agree. Think of if we had a societal change. parents would give their kids a cheap acre or half of raw land. When they were 16-17 you would help them to build their own tiny house. This way when they moved out, they would be debt free and secure in always having a roof over head. You wouldn't have to worry about them being on the street no matter how many poor choices they might make.

      Perhaps a society like that would have a vastly different outlook for homelessness.

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    2. There are a few churches near me that do actually garden on their green space. Several are in partnership with local food banks and soup kitchens. I have found that the churches who do that sort of thing have one or more very motivated persons to get the garden idea moving. Sometimes, the church has to deal with zoning rules, too. But I agree, churches (and schools) have lots of green space to grow a few greens!

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  5. Would have emailed you but can't find an email address for you. Is everything ok? Haven't heard from you in awhile. Just wanted to check on a fellow blogger!!

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    1. Hang in there buddy! Im still around. Things on my side, however, have recently been shuffled around etc. Had to go to Arizona for several weeks. Now that Im back in Michigan again.. Im happy to see most things have survived although a few things not terribly happy. ;) With the warmer weather shall come some impressive growth no doubt.

      I picked up some plant nutrition yesterday. They will either get it today or tomorrow. Force them to get up off their wintery butts and get to producing! :)

      At the moment I am staring at our Sunroom. (10x10 area), the bare concrete floor, and the stack of inexpensive 3/4" bamboo flooring we found out of the blue yesterday evening. Working out how those ideas culminate together into something enjoyable and nice.

      Thanks for the concern!

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