Episode-2152- Food Production on Small Properties
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Our Urban Garden in 2010
Today we look at homesteading and mainly producing your own food on small lots. I would define this as 1/20th to 1/4th of an acre. The average home being built in America today is sitting on about .11-.16 of an acre, or about in the range of 50-60 feet wide by about 100-120 feet deep.
Lot’s of people dream of owning more land at some point, but the truth is more land is more work. Even with three acres I am mostly focused on about 3/4ths of an acres on my property adn put 80% of my effort into about a quarter of an acre total.
I also grew up for a time in rural Pennsylvania. We had a garden of about 1/20th of an acre on about a one acre property. I always saw the farmers as having so much more land then us, most were 40-120 acre holdings. But those we knew as family friends when I visited them I noticed, that they had about an acre around their homes, and a garden about the same size as our own. Those 40 acre tracts grew corn and beans. This was the 80s by the way.
This has always been the way, the majority of what you produce for your own use, doesn’t really require much land.
Join Me Today to Discuss….
- Two big announcements
- Why everyone should intensely manage a small piece of property
- What to look for if you “settle” for a small lot
- The primary techniques for small land production
- Rabbits/chickens/quail/etc.
- Raised bed gardens / square foot gardens
- Edible landscaping
- Use the edges and value the marginal
- Back yard orchards
- Aquaponics
- Sprouting and microgreens
- Container gardening
- Plant propagtion
- Small green houses
- Wild foraging
- Hunting and fishing
- The way to think about all these techniques
- Think in layers
- Bring nutrients to the plants
- Succession planting
- Function stacking
- Productive livestock not pets
- Some Great Resources
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- Join Our Forum
- The Year 94
- Walking To Freedom
- TSP Gear
- PermaEthos.com
- TspAz.com – support TSP when you shop on Online
- Grandaddy’s Gun Club
- Bullhead Fishing Information
Sponsor of the Day
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I always have a hard time with your website. There are videos and links and advertising and content everywhere but where is the CLICK HERE or PLAY PODCAST button? Seems to me if that is primary the purpose then you’d put access up front and and center. Would love to listen to a podcast sometime if I could only figure out how!
I don’t even know what to say there is a play button, a down load link and a play in pop up link in every entry for an episode. You are the first person in 9.5 years to say they can’t figure out how to play an episode.
Just a heads up for Nicole – Play Now and Play in Pop Up do not work on my phone. I don’t see the old “play button” either but not sure if that is a design change. Running the latest version of Android using Chrome browser. The download link worked, though.
Today the play now nor play in popup work on my android phone, sometimes awkward before, today impossible
Download link works on android phone, do not have to download, gives me a workable Google play music option
Right click the download and select “save as” from the context menu. Playing doesn’t work for me with poor internet in E. Africa or SW Asia for instance; but this save as process in other words downloading and listening offline is reliable.
Jack…
Is the the backyard permaculture video you were looking for from a dude named Josh?
https://youtu.be/gB9lJpIi7zQ
Yep thanks.
“Where am I??”
“Boom, you’re inside a chicken bitch, that’s where you are!”
Hahaha, classic!
I didn’t have that planned but the second I said it I realized it was one of those special on air moments.
Sitting in waiting room at the dentist and I laughed out loud. I pointed at my phone and said “Jack Spirko, hilarious!… Ah, you wouldn’t get it.”
I loved the segment on blueberries because it just emphasized how one region’s “dead simple” is another region’s pain in the ass. Things like peppers and watermelons and sweet potatoes up here in the maritime Pac NW can be a serious challenge and require lots of extra babying but blueberries I just stick in my naturally acidic soil and they produce loads with hardly any effort from me. Maybe that’s another good lesson for small space gardeners: decide how much you want to bang your head against the wall fighting your natural climate and soil type. I just buy sweet potatoes, maybe in Texas I would just buy my blueberries. 🙂
The new site format works great on my andriod. The play, play in popup and download links all work fine on my phone, and the layout is easier to navigate.
If anyone wants the Urban Permaculture video try these links.
nofile: https://tinyurl.com/ycwuo54c
IPFS: https://tinyurl.com/yc369clo
Had to use tinyurl because one or both of the links is triggering the spam filter.
Any post with two or more links gets held for approval, thanks for posting this.
In regards to your song talk… about the tide thing ma bobs… just thought I’d point out that there is a Dead Milkmen song about drinking bleach copyright 1988.. ;]
I certainly don’t remember being any smarter back then.. lol. age 43 now…
Thanks for the great episode Jack. You helped to remind me how lucky I am to be doing alot of what you mentioned, and also motivate me to move into different directions for food.
I raise Rabbits and Chickens. I have to say to any of you out there that are considering raising them… Don’t name your animals!
It makes it much harder to graduate them to the cooking pot.