You have probably heard of energy efficiency, but what about land efficiency. Are you really using what you have in the most efficient way. Or do you ever dream of selling up and moving to the country to settle down on a few acres? Do you really need a house cow or goat to live a sustainable lifestyle?
I never have. Sure I may have dreamed about it for an odd minute or two, but never seriously and I just don't have the room for livestock. At an early stage of my greening, my family and I decided that we would do the best we could with the space we had available. Our space is a 779 sqm or 8385 square feet or 0.19 of an acre. More than most around my area where the houses are getting bigger and the land getting smaller. McMansions abound because property developers have gotten greedy! To some this may sound like a lot of land. It is all relative I suppose.
Anyway, I have managed to squeeze a lot of things into my normal sized suburban block of land. Click to enlarge.
Here is an aerial shot of the house which I sourced from www.nearmap.com. Near map have detailed aerial photos of most Australian urban centres. North is at the top of the picture and I have marked our boundary in red, with some of the stand-out features labelled and circled. Hopefully it has put all the other outdoor photos of my garden that I have taken for my blog into context for those who are regular readers.
There is not one bit of land that is unused except for the most of the pool space where I store extra water when the tank overflows and the new citrus trees are against the back fence. However, before I had to fork out a small fortune for dental work a few months back, I was going to put another 5000 litre water tank in this area, but I will have to wait until I save up a bit more cash before I reconsider my options.
There is room for improvement in the front yard, as I am planning on planting in some fruiting shrubs and putting some drip irrigation in for the existing fruit trees. I have 11 fruit trees in the front yard with the tallest being 2 metres (7 ft) and the shortest only 30 cm (1 ft). Only a lack of potable water is holding me back at this stage, which seems like a funny statement considering the size of the pool. Unfortunately, it is a salt water pool, so not much good on plants! If worst came to worst, I would convert it back to fresh and just use it as aquaponics and water storage.
We also have no lawn. That's right, not a blade of grass to be seen except for the nature strips which I just mow and don't water. I ripped up the rest years ago. Such a waste of space and water.
However, all in all, I wouldn't have it any bigger and certainly not much smaller and I find that I can manage it in the spare time that I have available. I am happy with what we have and couldn't want for any more land.
12 comments:
We started off with a 1/5th of an acre. We were not allowed any livestock and the growing season was very short.
We traded up for 4 acres in a warmer zone. We're hoping to add the 3 acres next door. That is plenty for us.
Love it. I am in a similar situation as you -- a .20 acre city lot here in the northern U.S. My goal is to eventually have something like what you've got. Working towards it every year...
My only issue is we have some large, beautiful shade trees that limit the number of edibles we can grow. One is an American Elm, and is it wrong that part of me wants it to die so I can replace it with a more useful tree?
Aah, urban conundrums.
weve had the same thought, make do with what we have, a small town section. a lot of "lifestyle" properties do seem to be just another status symbol "how much lawn can i grow" waste of space. we came to the conclusion that if we could ever afford it, a couple of acres would be enough. fill it with fruit trees, vege garden, and firewood. selling off the surplus to pay rates etc. i have friends with 20 acres, 22 different fruit tree varieties, avocado plantation, cattle, apart from selling the cattle and using veges from a small plot at the back door, the rest is just for show, they dont do anything with it. it keeps them busy but what a waste!
Does your council have rules about planting on nature strips? Love what you've done with the yard, but there's a lot more space for growing on that grass! You could ditch the lawnmower for good! :)
Cath
You have exactly what I have here on the Pacific Northwest. We dont have the pool, but the placing of the house on the plot is otherwise pretty much identical, though we are on a bit of a slope. We have to leave a 6ft strip from the kerb too, so frustrating. This is our first year in the house, but feeling even more motivated now I see what you have done with the same plot. No livestock allowed here, my only regret is that means no chickens, but I think a bigger plot would have been wasted grass.
I love what you've done too - but I want to know about the beer!
@ Limette,
I hope you have all the space you need.
@ Jennifer,
Thanks. You could always grow celery and salad greens in the shade. At least they will be slow to bolt to seed.
@ Brendie,
At least if you made do, you don't have worry about moving.
@ Cath,
Yes, I have looked into it, but the council only allows native trees to be planted on the nature strip. Not being one to stick to the rules, I have a few Loquat trees growing in pots that I will plant there soon.
@ QoS
I thought that most towns in the Pacific Northwest were quite eco-aware. Chickens would have been the first thing on the list!
@ SE
Check out my post titled, Beer Tasting. It should explain it all.
Gav
I started with a small city lot, 50x100 feet. I grew potatoes on the roof of my garage in 5 gallon buckets that I gleaned from restaurants. I also bought restaurant shelves and placed them in my sun-drenched driveway, and grew tomatoes and peppers in more buckets.
Alas, my neighbors hated my chickens. I traded houses. Now I have 2.5 acres and have plenty of land for a few flocks of chickens, dairy goats, a pig, etc.
The whole world are facing the global warming problem. We should be very aware from this. Every one should take care of our earth. I tell you to every one live green life. Thanks so much.............
I think your attitude is the right one. I read of all these people dreaming of acreage, upon which they will stick a few chooks and a house cow. What a waste; it's much better to make use of existing land in cities than cut up good arable land into tiny Pitt-Street-farmer blocks.
Very true, we're this way with so many things, home size, car size, cell phone, etc. So often we upgrade when we don't need to.
Sometimes however, the plot you're not is not conducive to what you want to do. We have a small lot and try to use as much as possible, but because we're surrounded on three sides by enormous trees we have trouble growing a lot of stuff both because of the tree roots and the shade. We've been growing a lot of shade loving things and building up raised beds, but it's still a huge challenge.
We're making do, using what we have in the most efficient way, but we're saving to buy more land someday, not necessarily to farm, but to preserve some nice wooded land from development. We also want some woods to surround us to protect us from the toxins everyone else sprays so heavily on their lawns & gardens.
i suppose you could think of lawns as a waste of space unless you have a small child desperate to run about on one! mine loves to garden as well... but there's nothing quite like playing in the grass for little ones...
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