HOMEGROWN Fantasies: What would you do with one acre of land? Five acres?

[Cornelia]

How would you use your space? You choose the climate / location - it's a fantasy!

[Cassandra]

On one acre I'd have a small off the grid house maybe a "tiny house", chickens, veggie and herb gardens, orchard and a pygmy goat or two. Right now that's all I can imagine me handling.

[Sherri]

The "Open Barn" Celebration at Celebrity Dairy

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/farmphotofeb1107.html

sounds like a wonderful idea for all the Pfanns!
Open barns are something I'd love to replicate ... including poetry climbing routes available to all!!!

[Sherri]

Cassandra said:

On one acre I'd have a small off the grid house maybe a "tiny house", chickens, veggie and herb gardens, orchard and a pygmy goat or two. Right now that's all I can imagine me handling.

Precious Handling!

[Jim McNeely]

I have 10 acres in north western WA state, and a about half of it is forest or mountain with trees. About 20 years ago it was clear cut on the mountain - very sad. However, it has grown back very nicely and has a lot of alder and birch and maple, and some wonderful grand firs and douglas firs and sitka spruces starting back up. I must say that I love the trees, just love them. We also have a good number of young western redcedars. A neighbor down the way is a tree farmer, which is very interesting. A GREAT book you will love along these lines is called Some Branch Against the Sky. Man I love that book. Trees are actually essential wind and weather guards, and although they take a long time to come to the point of harvest, and it is a hard decision to responsibly cut down a tree, it is a good thing in its right time. If you care I have a blog about my experiences here: http://marginalgarden.blogspot.com/

Tom Donaldson said:

I've always had a thing for trees... amazing things these trees.

I been researching the idea of forest gardens. Sounds like a neat idea for sustainable food production. I first read about this in a book called "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus ". It discussed a bit about how the Native Americans managed the forests for food production. And check out "Geoff Lawton's Permaculture Food Forest" on YouTube.

If I had an acre I'd like to see what I could do with it.

With 5 acres I'd try it on a larger scale.

[Peter Thomason]

how about 1/10th of an acre in a downtown neighborhood? http://thomasonfamilyfarm.blogspot.com

[Rachel Drinkard]

Ideally, I will have a transition where I first have an acre to work with and learn to utilize fully, and then five acres to try everything else I've ever wanted to do!

I'm really fascinated with heritage breeds of livestock and livestock conservation. I'm also into utilizing existing green and recycled materials for building and various "alternative" housing and renewable energy. I'm applying for a grant this spring to build a studio out of up-cycled wine bottles (of which our town produces plenty and there is no recycling for them here.) The studio will have a traditional sod roof and will house equipment and materials to experiment with utilizing other recycled materials in art and useful day-to-day items.

If I were in a different location (Not Alaska) I'd be really interested in trying cob and straw bale building. From what I've read, both work here, but when you have to have the straw shipped in from Alberta, it makes me wonder how sustainable it REALLY is....

I'm realizing most of my garden fantasies are mostly in a practical "would it work" kind of thing. I love experimenting with different techniques, both traditional and new. I like relationship plantings and permaculture. Because of where I live now, I'm really interested in figuring out how to make a greenhouse a cost effective and sustainable venture year-round. Heating and lighting becomes so enormously expensive in the winter. I kind of miss the kind of climate things can't help but grow in!

I'm interested in fostering traditional symbiotic relationships between livestock species, which is really the traditional way of farming. Agriculture was never meant to mean someone raised one thing. I like the idea of raising a versatile large breed of Angora rabbit (probably the German Angora) for fiber and meat, having worm bins beneath the cages, and free ranging chickens throughout the rabbit barn, for example. Another thing I've been considering for this climate is raising the animals around the periphery of a green house with chicken wire keeping the birds out of the plants growing in the center. Obviously the worm castings and the chicken/rabbit manure would help keep the plants going, and the garden waste would help keep the animals going. I was also kind of hoping the animals and methane (yeah, kind of icky, but useful) would also partially decrease the demands of heating the whole thing.

So yeah. Five acres would totally be an experiment in every agriculturally sustainable practice I could think of, with wildlife, trail and forestry management going on on any other land and maybe be a base camp for llama or alpaca hikes. I'm thinking maybe all the experimental green structures I would want to build could become some kind of hostel or green retreat and work the eco-tourism angle as well.

And of course over all of this, harvests of all kinds would be utilized for value-added products or sold directly to conscientious consumers, and I would be writing about (and hopefully selling) stories from the experimental farm.

Yes, I have very involved farm fantasies. It's a family tradition, my mom showed me diagrams of her dream gardens that she drew when she was 12. :)

[Bill Velek]

My garden is 5,600 square feet -- not counting my 20 hops plants that are grown on the other side of my house. My kids used to take produce down to the produce store and made pretty good money each summer -- several hundred dollars. They're all grown now except my youngest who will graduate this year and go on to college, so I've got to find something to do with much of my garden or else let it go back to grass. I'm a homebrewer, and as I said, I grow my own hops. Since you mention that you grow barley, that might be something for me to consider. Can you provide any details such as how you keep the weeds out of a field of grain, how you harvest, how you dry that much grain, any equipment you use for malting, etc.

As for what I would do with one acre, or five acres -- with one acre, I'd consider planting those special trees (can't recall what type, but I think they might be a form of poplar) that you cut down for firewood and another tree sprouts from the old trunk, and you can get maybe six or eight cuttings from them. The established root system helps the new tree grow faster. With five acres, I'd consider livestock of some sort.

Thanks.

Bill Velek

[Sherri]

... or ... Club ZENyatta !!! :-D

http://www.youtube.com/user/sweetredredwine#p/f/0/gt-88DTxeYs


Sherri said:

There's a rock climbing shop in Seneca Rocks (it's near Almost Heaven!) West Virginia that I'd love to replicate ... everyone remembers the friendly atmosphere there, how a pot of bean soup was always ready - steaming and delicious - for hungry patrons. I'd add a small open area for stretching, a few walls with climbing holds marked with haiku-poem-routes ("Physical Graffiti"!) of all difficulty levels so everybody could "warm up" together, space to silently meditate, and space for music makers too ... :-)

Outside there'd be a nice garden and greenhouse, fruit and nut trees, chickens, rabbits, goats, etc ... :-)

Plus there'd be room for an occasional musical concert ... :-)

AND ... the name of this "Homegrown Fantasy" would be ...

CLUB CHERRY BOMB !!!

:-D

[Karen King]

Oh my gosh. Five acres I would have a little community housing area for family and an organic community garden. I've traveled a bit but always come home to Oregon. Good farmland. It would have a trout pond on it and a half acre of christmas trees for the tax write off. I would upgrade the digs for my seventeen hens (who already have a pretty nice home). There would be a community kitchen where canning and jamming and shared meal preparation would occur. I've got two thirds of an acre now, so have to go for the five acres. lol. Thanks for the fantasy flight.