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So many times when I lived in CA on a tiny city lot I wished for enough room in a sunny location to be able to grow veggies, not just a pretty flower bed or two.
They say: Be careful what you wish for. Now I have 28 acres, mostly it's open pasture land but the area around the house is probably close to two acres and even subtracting the space that the house, garage, equipment shed and the 40 x 90 fenced off dog run area take up there's still lots of space to grow whatever I can manage.
It's amazing what money can buy outside of CA city !
A friend who lives much further into the woods (a dirt road off of a dirt road off of a dirt road sort of place) refers to his garden plot as a "Wild life salad bar" since the deer and the bears and who knows what else often get the best part of it. He finally resorted to a 10 ft. high enclosure and it's helped but not completely stopped the critters.
Between hiring the guy with the tractor and power auger to dig the deep post holes, the heavy duty posts, the fencing, the gate and oh yeah, may as well build a small shed at one end - he's got some very expensive lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, etc.
The locavore food movement is very big here in Floyd.
It's amazing what money can buy outside of CA city !
Yeah, especially if you sell at the peak of the market (Dec 2005). What I paid for this place was about 70% of what I sold that little bungalow for. Land here continues to hold it's value for the most part. A year ago I did see my old place listed briefly as a pre-forclosure and the asking price was just 56% of the the folks who bought had paid me for it. Ouch.
On the down side the nearest Chinese food is 30 miles away and it's not very good. One needs a walk behind mower for small areas, a ride on mower for larger sections, a big tow-behind mower for the pasture along with the ATV to tow it, and an equipment shed to store it all through the winter. Also a chain saw and a log splitter to deal with downed limbs and dead trees on the other side of the creek that requires a big four wheel drive vehicle to drive through it since there is no bridge.
Still when I happen to glance out the window and see the neighbors new calves frolicking like oversize puppies it's more than worth the tradeoffs.
Yeah, especially if you sell at the peak of the market (Dec 2005). What I paid for this place was about 70% of what I sold that little bungalow for. Land here continues to hold it's value for the most part. A year ago I did see my old place listed briefly as a pre-forclosure and the asking price was just 56% of the the folks who bought had paid me for it. Ouch.
On the down side the nearest Chinese food is 30 miles away and it's not very good. One needs a walk behind mower for small areas, a ride on mower for larger sections, a big tow-behind mower for the pasture along with the ATV to tow it, and an equipment shed to store it all through the winter. Also a chain saw and a log splitter to deal with downed limbs and dead trees on the other side of the creek that requires a big four wheel drive vehicle to drive through it since there is no bridge.
Still when I happen to glance out the window and see the neighbors new calves frolicking like oversize puppies it's more than worth the tradeoffs.
Yeah, especially if you sell at the peak of the market (Dec 2005). What I paid for this place was about 70% of what I sold that little bungalow for. Land here continues to hold it's value for the most part. A year ago I did see my old place listed briefly as a pre-forclosure and the asking price was just 56% of the the folks who bought had paid me for it. Ouch.
On the down side the nearest Chinese food is 30 miles away and it's not very good. One needs a walk behind mower for small areas, a ride on mower for larger sections, a big tow-behind mower for the pasture along with the ATV to tow it, and an equipment shed to store it all through the winter. Also a chain saw and a log splitter to deal with downed limbs and dead trees on the other side of the creek that requires a big four wheel drive vehicle to drive through it since there is no bridge.
Still when I happen to glance out the window and see the neighbors new calves frolicking like oversize puppies it's more than worth the tradeoffs.
I know what you mean about the pros and cons. We certainly do not live in a rural area like yours, but we do live in a forest setting, in a small NWA town. We can get decent food about 1/2 hour away and yet, we watch the new fawns walk in front of our house and have lost count of the number of birds varieties we have.
Give me this life over any city life in Ca anytime.
I think (and hope) you meant 6000 square feet (100' x 60').
6000 ft square (6000' x 6000') would be 36,000,000 square feet, or quite a bit over one square mile!
I sit corrected, Thanks!! I would need a lot bigger tiller than I have and the cost of fertilizer and seed would be prohibitive. My little garden produces more than we can eat and can or freeze and keeps me busy all season long. So far, this year, all I have in the ground are cabbage family stuff, Onions and Garlic, they can take a light freeze, tomatos (Celebrity & Better Boys, Cherokee Purple, Black Prince) can't, neither can watermelon (sugar baby) or cantaloupe (Hales best).
This a really good Thread, I am inspired by all of you. I know it's a little late but I still can start my SFG. Please keep this Thread going and post your pics and your thought on what works best in the SFG. I have seen a few videos on youtube where the gardner forced squach to climb, did anyone try that? I am really new to all this and I feel that if I keep researching I won't plant anything, what would the best plants for a beginner?
Thank you, this is a great link. It's cold and rainy here today, so no work could be done. Tomorrow I am meeting with the guy who is going to build my box for me, hope he will be reasonable. I will post a pic once I have it in place.
Thank you, this is a great link. It's cold and rainy here today, so no work could be done. Tomorrow I am meeting with the guy who is going to build my box for me, hope he will be reasonable. I will post a pic once I have it in place.
Pretty easy to build the box yourself too. Lowes and Home Depot will often cut the wood for you if you ask. Two 8' long 2X6 boards cut in half will make a nice 4'x4' box when screwed together with deck screws. That's what I did. I know it'll eventually rot, but by then perhaps I'll have picked up enough cinder blocks people dump on the roadsides to build my boxes with them!
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