The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: Fun Farmer on August 09, 2012, 12:06:38 pm
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:wave: :sunshine:
;D need advice really
is half an acre big enough for a mainly veg smallholding? :farmer:
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Fun farmer Welcome to the forum for a very sunny Wales. :wave:
I am not much of a veg grower so will let someone else respond on your question
Sally
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:wave: Hi and welcome from sunny Shropshire. Half an acrea is much biger than an allotment so I would say yes. Depends whether you want to be self sufficient or make a living though.
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Think of it in terms of walled gardens in large country houses, half an acre woud be more than adequate for producing all your own veg and keeping a few chickens.
Oh, and welcome from a sunny :sunshine: Powys :wave:
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Hello and welcome from Shetland :wave:
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Hi :wave: i'm no good with veg, but Hi anyway
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Hi :wave: from a very :sunshine: Yorkshire. Good luck with the veg growing. You have plenty space to produce. We use our old fold yard space and it provides for our family and friends.(http://www.picgifs.com/smileys/smileys-and-emoticons/gardening/smileys-gardening-770106.gif) (http://www.picgifs.com/smileys/)
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Hello, and welcome from Durham.
Half an acre can grow loads , especially with a polytunnel added for all year growing :yum: :carrot: :brocolli: :tomato: :peas: not forgetting some fruit trees and bushes :blackberry: :rasp: :pear: ,along with :chook: :chook:
Good luck with it.
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Hi FF and welcome to the forum :wave:
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Half an acre should produce all you need for the year but have you free water, shade, shelter from the wind and decent soil. You will need to feed the ground so maybe invest in some livestock or poultry to produce muck that you can chuck on the compost. Oh - by the way I found the growing the easy part. It's the processing or storrage that takes time, money and space. We have a cellar for spuds, freezers and preserve what we can - any surplus can be traded.
Good luck ! There are some very very experienced and knowledgable veg growers on this site who can help with specific questions.
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Been having issues with internet and stuff, just managed to read all the lovely comments and hints,thank you all.
The muck will not be a problem as many stables nearby and they just want you to take the stuff ...puleeeese!!.
The land has to be Agri use so nothing that a farm wouldnt produce, but that still leaves a stack of stuff we can grow.
Orchard 20 trees
Tater patch
teeny chicken run :chook:
should be good :fc:
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Will be good.. Enjoy and welcome
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Hello from Worcestershire :wave: You could grow masses of veg on half and acre, more than enough to be self-sufficient in veg and eggs plus some chicken to eat. And if you grow salads or herbs or veg/flower plants for sale then you may make it into a small business
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Sounds great.
If you have 20 trees producing fruit and a large veg plot then you have a lot of processing and storing to do. Maybe think of a large shed/outdoor kitchen with freezers. I'm thinking chutney, jam, veg freezing here and how our kitchen used to get swamped when I dragged 10 parsnips in or plonked 15 pounds of sprouts on the table. An oudoor kitchen or large shed etc could be worthwhile - it will save on buckets etc and all that carrying too.
Anyone else discovered solutions for bringing in the "harvest"?
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oh and almost forgot i got myself a Dinky tractor for ploughing and a trailer for haulage ,here is a piccie of my pride and joy :thumbsup:
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Hi Fun Farmer and welcome to the forum. We had half an acre at the last place. On it we had two lambs and 76 chickens. It was mainly Orchard so all the fruit went to the chickens and lambs, except the 50Kg of Cherries we sold. Had a polytunnel which we never needed to use so it never went up. A greenhouse and a large veggie plot which mainly grew stuff for the chickens, like sweetcorn and cabbage. Sold our eggs and ate surplus cockerels and lamb. Half an acre is plenty big enough.
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Hi FF :wave: don't do veg here (too cold and wet) but do have chooks :chook: Nice little tractor ;D
Whereabouts are you?
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Hi FF :wave: don't do veg here (too cold and wet) but do have chooks :chook: Nice little tractor ;D
Whereabouts are you?
Hi Jaykay,
She is a beut isn't she?
I am based here on the Wirral,Nice Place mostly green but v v wet so wish me luck with the spuds.
where are you based?
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Hi there,
I'm back again,
the land is now ours have double dug a small patch for spuds and carrots and stuff
and hedged a section with blackthorn as a wind break and to produce sloes for gin
mmmmmmmmm
we struggled at the start with waterlogged clay but stabbing with a fork worked quite well
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Good news. How about some piccies? Hope your tractor is doing you proud.
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Good news. How about some piccies? Hope your tractor is doing you proud.
Weeeell we havn't got the tractor onto the land just yet, the farmer with the access has failed, despite many promises, to come up with a key for the gate. So back breaking spade work will have to do.
piccies will be forthcoming when i can get them together.
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:wave: Love that dinky tractor!! I grow nothing at the moment, have done in the past and not very well, advise wise, you can make your acre more by growing stuff in towers too and hanging baskets etc, a flat bit of land for spuds and roots then a varitey of containers for other stuff, there are some brilliant ideas for salad growing, may give some ago myself, I tend to forget to water things!!
Sounds like you have plenty to keep you going! :thumbsup:
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:wave: Love that dinky tractor!! I grow nothing at the moment, have done in the past and not very well, advise wise, you can make your acre more by growing stuff in towers too and hanging baskets etc, a flat bit of land for spuds and roots then a varitey of containers for other stuff, there are some brilliant ideas for salad growing, may give some ago myself, I tend to forget to water things!!
Sounds like you have plenty to keep you going! :thumbsup:
Underwatering is not a prob for me, as previously mentioned.I'll give Towers and containers a go and see what happens.
Maybe even hanging baskets are worth a shake