How much is just right?

[Mikey]

Following on from Nog's thread on land, how much land would be just right for you guys and gals. I think about 2 1/2 acres would be sufficent for me, a few chicks, some pigs, two goats and my plot. That should just about be all I could manage and need.

[phil the shed]

hi MW
my BIL and i put a bid on a 7.5 acre piece last month
he has a couple of longhorn cattle and we want to give them about 4 acres.
room for two pig arks killing pen and breeding pen allotment style plot and chicken runs. this land is in very green belt soley agricultural area road access and water available.
we bid £2000 per acre £15000 plus costs and it went for
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£57500


well over £7600 per acre and there's only two bl@@dy horses on it

[Winged one]

I think I'd like about 4-5 acres -if I had the chance.
Large vegetable garden (big enough to be really self-sufficient and have a decent greenhouse as well, and an asparagus patch).

A reasonable orchard (apples, plums and pears) and fruit bushes too (blueberries, raspberries, black and red currants, gooseberries), and a large rhubarb patch as well.

Ordinary wooded area - where I could coppice wood for the woodburning stove and heating system type system.

Running water - for water (obviously - and hopefully for house use as well as garden - in fact, I'd be trying to get garden water from gutters etc if I could) but also to get some power from a wheel.

Area for chickens, ducks, geese, couple of pigs and lambs, maybe a cow (that would be the last of the livestock I'd try to get).

Working area - workshop for tools, outdoor work indoors etc. Storage shed(s) for wood, and a large chest freezer and other stuff (including the fruit/veg stores for winter like spuds, onions, apples etc). And a covered area with no walls for keeping car but really so I could dry washing all year round regardless of actual weather outdoors. Possibly a decent shed that is suitable for food to do preserving, making cheese, butter etc.

But that would be assuming that I am no longer working but actually doing the smallholder "thing". So not very likely in the next 20 years or so......

(Might eventually get MIL's house with half acre out back - which would probably be wooded over by us and the garden transformed into veg plot. Very little chance of getting my own parents house as I am the only one of 6 properly "settled" yet. Not being mercenary about it - realistic).

[OverWyreGrower]

We already have 1/3 of an acre with our house, and I think that, realistically, I'd like (altogether) an acre and a half.

I'd like a couple of pigs (and maybe a cow?), more chickens and a larger orchard (plus a purpose built kennel block!). Don't think I could manage more than that in terms of land management (upkeep, maintenance, cost etc) since we both work full time. Now, if we dind't have to do office jobs, it would be a different matter!

[di]

My mum & dad used to have a gorgeous huge garden(sorry not very good with my acres!).that would have done me just fine but they sold it(to a friend I now hate!!LOL)&now live in a house with a poxy garden.
if money were no object I'd want to keep goats & chooks & have room to expand if the fancy took me,lots of space for veggies,more space to play in&a nice big orchard~so however much space that would take would be all i'd want!(ooh & a bit of room to park my car!!)

[Kristen]

"but also to get some power from a wheel"

I believe that needs quite a fall (several meters) or a large volume of water so not all that easy to find.

"more chickens"

Naive question: what does one do with more chickens? or is that Chickens-for-meat rather than for eggs?

[OverWyreGrower]

"more chickens"

Naive question: what does one do with more chickens? or is that Chickens-for-meat rather than for eggs?

Yup, I'd like the opportunity to keep a larger flock of a couple of different breeds. We've currently got 4 Warrens (hybrids) as layers, but if I had the room, I'd like to get some birds for the table as well.

Also, Mr OWG seems obsessed with having some Quail not sure why though....

[HeyWayne]

I have no idea - honestly.

The plot is the biggest bit of land I've ever really had any dealings with. Gardens have only ever been multiples of metres/feet - my current garden at 15-10 metres is the biggest garden I've ever had (including parents). I have no idea how big an acre or hectare is (it's no good saying it's "X" football pitches as I've never been to a proper football pitch only ever 5-a-side or local park pitches).

If we ever moved house I'd want more land - but just how more I've no idea. If it said "X" acre plot I'd still be none the wiser, I'd need to go see it.

[Starchild]

In the John Seymour self-sufficency guide he says that half an acre would be suitable for the average family, but total self-sufficinecy would require 5 acres. There you are getting into the relms of smallholding and all the paperwork that goes with it.

[Winged one]

Um ...paperwork??? What kind of paperwork?

[Mikey]

I have no idea - honestly.

The plot is the biggest bit of land I've ever really had any dealings with. Gardens have only ever been multiples of metres/feet - my current garden at 15-10 metres is the biggest garden I've ever had (including parents). I have no idea how big an acre or hectare is (it's no good saying it's "X" football pitches as I've never been to a proper football pitch only ever 5-a-side or local park pitches).

If we ever moved house I'd want more land - but just how more I've no idea. If it said "X" acre plot I'd still be none the wiser, I'd need to go see it.

An acre is 4048 sqm, or 43560sqft, to put it into some idea of understandable scale, my veg plot is currently 30ft x 70ft, but think that 50ft x 100ft would be plenty to make me self sufficent for veg, this equates very roughly to 10% of a acre. So it depends on your plot size, but if its the same as mine then an acre is about 20 plots.

[Winged one]

Kristen, I had thought that before, but when the guy who did really well on scrapheap challenge left the army and tried the self-sufficient (or nearly) thing in Cornwall/Dorset direction, and did it for BBC I think, he had a small little stream which he diverted by by running it around a (not that large) wheel, got electricity from it. I cannot for the life of me recall his name now, but the family ended up with a couple of series at one stage (something like "Life ain't easy" or "It isn't easy being green").

I know the OH used to dam up the stream running around the edge of their garden when he was young, which could get reasonable flow in it most of the time.

Even if I had my parent's garden (1/3 of an acre), I'd be a heck of a lot better than now, as i could grow almost all my veggies, have my polytunnel and probably do the chickens as well.

[HeyWayne]

Kristen, I had thought that before, but when the guy who did really well on scrapheap challenge left the army and tried the self-sufficient (or nearly) thing in Cornwall/Dorset direction, and did it for BBC I think, he had a small little stream which he diverted by by running it around a (not that large) wheel, got electricity from it. I cannot for the life of me recall his name now, but the family ended up with a couple of series at one stage (something like "Life ain't easy" or "It isn't easy being green").

I know the OH used to dam up the stream running around the edge of their garden when he was young, which could get reasonable flow in it most of the time.

Even if I had my parent's garden (1/3 of an acre), I'd be a heck of a lot better than now, as i could grow almost all my veggies, have my polytunnel and probably do the chickens as well.

Dick Strawbridge rings a bell...

[Mikey]

Dick Strawbridge rings a bell...

Now there's a man with a proper tush.

Its not easy being green

[HeyWayne]

An acre is 4048 sqm, or 43560sqft, to put it into some idea of understandable scale, my veg plot is currently 30ft x 70ft, but think that 50ft x 100ft would be plenty to make me self sufficent for veg, this equates very roughly to 10% of a acre. So it depends on your plot size, but if its the same as mine then an acre is about 20 plots.

Cheers dude, but you know how it is. I know how long "a metre" is because I've seen it, I know how big "a bus" is because I've seen it. I've never seen "an acre" though. Or "a hectare" for that matter.