Living on One Acre or Less

How to produce all the fruit, veg, meat, fish and eggs your family needs

Sally Morgan

• Publisher: Green Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780857843319
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Agricoltura sostenibile

You don't need a huge parcel of land to start your own mini-farm and live more self-sufficiently. With an acre, or even a half-acre, you can juggle a job, family, and still grow fruit and veg and even have some chickens, pigs or sheep. Sally Morgan takes the reader through the basics of a starting your own smallholding, including planning and setting up, growing your own fruit and vegetables, keeping chickens, pigs and sheep - all while making use of sustainable and organic principles. This inspirational book is perfect for anyone who aspires to take control of their food supply, or who wants to do more with the land they've got.

PART ONE

DESIGN & GROUNDWORK

Chapter ONE

Planning your plot

Farming on a small plot is intensive, but in a good way. On even less than an acre you can keep poultry, a couple of pigs, some bees and fish. If you have enough grass, you can raise some lambs or keep goats. And there will still be room for fruit and vegetable plots, sheds and polytunnels.

Our walled garden is just two-thirds of an acre, but there is plenty of space to squeeze in a small orchard.

Many people are surprised when they stand on our one-acre plot and see its extent: when asked, they estimate it to be much larger. They realize that an acre is a lot of space and that even a slightly smaller plot will keep them busy! In this chapter, I’ll take you through the first steps in setting up your plot: of planning and design, erecting fences and building paths, and putting up polytunnels (which are essential for productivity in a temperate climate). I’ll also tackle the topic of pest control.

The good thing about having a small plot is that it ensures that you make use of all the available space, through methods such as growing under cover, using raised beds and growing vertically. However, success is dependent on a good-quality soil that is rich in organic matter and nutrients, to supply plants with all their needs, and this must be backed up by an effective composting system. With good soil fertility, it is possible to really boost crop yields. For example, as much as 50kg (110lb) of carrots can be harvested from as little as 3m² (32 sq ft) if the plants are closely planted in a raised bed filled with fertile soil – a yield many times that which is possible in a commercial situation. But care has to be taken that the system doesn’t become too intensive, as it is very easy to plant too many crops, and that is simply not sustainable. You have to keep to a reasonable level of production, or you will have to start relying on fertilizers and other chemicals because the balance has been lost.

Similarly, when working with a small plot of land, do not be tempted to keep too many animals. You need to make sure you have a good land-use rotation to maintain the quality of the soil and minimize the burden of parasites and disease organisms in your animals, and if you have too many animals this is not feasible. Wherever possible, your animals should be part of your crop rotation to make best use of the free supply of nutrients in their dung (see Chapter 3).

When planning your plot, it is critical to be realistic about just how much time you have to spend. If you are not living on-site and are unable to visit it on a daily basis, then opt for something that won’t take up much of your time. The vegetable area, for example, could occupy half the plot, but you would have to put in many hours a week just to keep control of it – and what will you do with all the produce? Sell it or give it away? Realistically, you could manage with much less for your own veg supply, and have an orchard for fruit or a small paddock for pigs or lamb.

Running a business

An acre can be enough to set up a viable small commercial enterprise.

For example, you could run a niche business such as an organic vegetable box scheme, supplying seasonal vegetables, fruit, eggs and honey to as many as 60 to 70 customers. You could have a small orchard, soft fruit and a herb garden, and make seasonal preserves and fruit juices. A good-sized area under polytunnels would allow you to grow chillies and other exotics.

With a polytunnel you could focus on niche crops such as chillies.

Planning on paper

Whether you have acquired a greenfield plot or taken over an existing smallholding, it is almost certain that you will need to make changes. It’s always best to construct a plan on paper before tackling any work on the site, so you can make decisions on the position of fences, paths and structures such as polytunnels. First, make a scale drawing of your plot showing the boundaries and any existing buildings, and key features such as hedgerows, trees, fences, and water and electric points. Add a compass ‘rose’ and delineate the shady areas, and indicate the direction of prevailing winds.

Make accurate measurements of the plot before you start. You can do this on the ground, but nowadays it’s quicker and easier from the comfort of your desk by using a GPS area measurement app on your smartphone that makes use of Google Earth maps. I checked the accuracy of one of these apps and found it to be accurate to within 0.5m (1'8"), which is perfectly adequate for a plan. There are apps that will measure the height of objects – another useful feature if you have trees, buildings or a tall hedge nearby. It is useful to know the height of objects such as trees, as you can then work out the shelter effect. A windbreak is effective for up to six times its height, so a 3m (10') hedge on the prevailing wind side of your plot will give 18m (about 60') of shelter. Drones, too, can be useful: you can use one to take an aerial photo of the site, as shown in the photos below.

A drone fitted with a camera can provide a new perspective of your plot.

An overhead of our one-acre plot, with polytunnel, vegetable beds and livestock pens.

Planning checklist

The following are key points to consider when making your plan.

Decide on an access point if there is not an obvious one already (check the planning regulations); the size of gates and whether you need a hard-standing or turning area.

Decide on the type of boundary you need (fence or hedge), and whether you will need windbreaks (rows of willow, poplar or Jerusalem artichokes, for example).

A slope will restrict what you can do, and you’ll need to plan carefully to avoid soil erosion, with terraces across the slope rather than exposed areas on the slope. You may want to dig swales (ditches) along the contour lines to slow down and capture water run-off. Before you do anything, go out during heavy rain and observe how the water runs off your land.

Think about the size and position of the more permanent structures such as sheds and polytunnels, which will need good access, will create shade and will generate some water run-off.

Consider security carefully, especially if your site is visible from a road or footpath.

Where will be your main routes through the plot? These will be formed between the various points that you need to access, and the type of route may depend on the frequency of use (see also ‘Zoning’, below). How many paths will you need and how wide do they have to be?

Where will your water come from? Are you going to have pipes and taps or will you collect water from roofs? Do you need a dipping pond or a water tank?

Where will you build your vegetable beds? They will need an open, sunny location, which should be flat if possible. The best orientation for the beds is north–south, so all plants get the same amount of sunlight and do not shade each other. If the orientation is east–west, then there will be some shading.

Mark out the area that you will use for permanent crops, including fruit trees and soft fruits. Do you want an orchard, or will you plant fruit and nut trees across the plot? Do you have space for a fruit cage?

Where will you build your compost bins? You will need space to wheel in the green waste and turn the compost. Don’t forget that you will be barrowing the finished compost on to the vegetable beds, so it needs to be close to them and not down a slope!

Do you want to grow willow or poplar for fuel or to include a forest garden?

Make a list of all the animals you want to keep, and work out the area of land you need for them. Remember that you may need trailer access for transporting pigs, bringing in chicken houses or moving fencing materials, etc. Read the advice in Part Three before making these decisions.

Once you have a rough plan, check that you have made best use of all the space. Can you add an edible hedgerow, or plant cordon or espalier fruit trees along the boundaries? Have you collected all the water that may be available to you? Do you have enough space for animals and options for rotating their pasture?

Before you get carried away and start planting trees and buying livestock, it is absolutely critical to get the site layout right, because paths, fences and buildings are expensive to put in and can’t be moved easily. The first step is to plan your boundary fencing if there is none in place or if what is there is unsuitable; this is particularly important if you want to keep livestock. You’ll need to decide what type of paths you want and their routes, and the location and type of any large enclosures and any structures such as polytunnels and sheds, before going on to site smaller things such as your planting areas and compost heaps. Check the local planning rules regarding sheds and polytunnels.

Zoning

When designing your plot, it is useful to th...