[bennettvm]

I have 1/3 acre yard and I have converted as much as possible to grow fruits/veggies. As of today, I have at least 15 different things growing, with plans to plant another dozen or so veggies.

My favorite thing to grow are potatoes in 5 gallon buckets. 1 to 2 small spuds can produce up to 5lbs of potatoes in a bucket. Last year I grew 60lbs worth.

I also raise rabbits for sale as pets/meat. I use the rabbit droppings in the garden and it makes the veggies grow like crazy.

I have no doubt that I could grow/raise plenty of food for my family in a serious crisis.

I was wondering what and/or if anyone else does any serious gardening on here.

 

[PaulS]

It is not difficult to have a year 'round harvest but you will have trouble growing everything you need with 1/3 acre. Even utilizing the year round approach you will have a lot of somethings for short periods and you can preserve most of what you grow but sit down sometime and figure out how much of what you grow would be necessary to have all of what you grow be the only vegies that you eat.
Now think about the staples like Wheat, beans, nuts that you need to fill your dietary needs. Consider the meat you need and what you would need to feed that food to bring it to harvest.
The easiest way is to form partnerships with others who can use what you have in excess and are willing to trade for what you need that you can't support.

 

[Ripon]

1/3rd an acre is 14,520 square feet. In good arable soil, some space for a home, and other needs you would have enough ground for one person to sustain continously. It takes 8,000 to 10,000 square feet for one person as I understand it in good soil. I'm lucky that I have many acres available.

You can explore aquaponics - I am exploring it - but not yet doing it. Since I have serious acerage I don't need to save the space but I only get one solid growth a year on my property due to weather conditions. Places like CA where I reside (not where my farmland is) can get 3 growths in quite easily. I'm not sure about where you live - I would assume 2 growths would be possible.

With aquaponics and some indoor seed prep in a green house I understand its quite feasible to provide for one person on literally 40 square feet of pond space? That is quite a claim but I have not tried it so I don't know if its feasible. It seems far fetched to me, but hey if they are off a 100% then it means 80 square feet - right? Hell's bells if I could grow all I needed in 200 square feet it sure as heck beats 8,000.

 

[LunaticFringeInc]

I dont have nearly as much as you have space wise but I am growing in it pretty intensively and have much more planned for the future. For more info check out "Cant stand the waiting..." on LFI's BYFPC (Back Yard Food Production Complex). Its not nearly enough but I do generally grow the more expensive things to buy that I use all of the time and eat a lot of to cut my food cost at the store considerably. Like you I am also raising Rabbits too.

Its far from enough though. I have resorted to doing a good bit of guerrilla gardening to try and make us some of the difference. I am planning to expand this effort considerably next year. I think one of the best preps in the world is increasing ones ability to provide a sustainable food supply and gardening to me seems to be the way to go. No matter how small a space you have to work with there is a surprising amount you can to to that end.

 

[Prepadoodle]

With aquaponics and some indoor seed prep in a green house I understand its quite feasible to provide for one person on literally 40 square feet of pond space?

A lot of aquaponics systems use fish densities as high as 1 "plate sized" fish per gallon. Such systems are very compact. Of course, you also need enough planting beds to "filter" the water (it's actually a biological process), and the more fish per unit volume, the more beds you would need.

High density systems are a little finicky though. For one thing, they require constant aeration, and an air system failure of even an hour can be enough to kill all your fish, which would eventually starve all your plants too. High density systems are also harder to keep in balance. If I were doing an aquaponics setup, I would plan for much lower fish densities and look at a solar/battery set up with redundancy in aeration and pumps.

As I said in another post, I grow in raised beds and use the principals developed by Mel Bartholomew and published in his book, "Square Foot Gardening." With this system, it's possible to grow a given amount of food in 30% of the space required by more traditional methods. If you aren't familiar with this system, it's certainly worth a look.

 

[Go2ndAmend]

I live on a family farm where we commercially grow wine grapes. We also have a small garden which my wife is in charge of. With our kids getting older, we decided to move the location of the garden and greatly expand it next year. We currently grow tomatos, corn, melons, beans, squash and some herbs. We also have a small orchard with apples, plums and peaches. My wife and I both also have off-farm jobs so our time is pretty limited but we feel it is so important that we are committed to the expansion.

 

[Denton]

In the process of building an aquaponics system, now. I am laboring under no false illusion that this is a good EOTWAWKI means of providing food. It isn't. As -doodle said, lose power, you lose aeration and circulation. You then lose food.

Still, I am finding this project a lot better than reading current events and hanging around message boards. ::clapping::

 

[pastornator]

Might I remind the good folks posting that rows became the norm when row crop farm equipment became the norm. Nature tends to grow more collectively and intensely, with intertwined root systems and better pollination from close contact of plants and flowers. Much more can be grown than many think by simply taking advantage of more natural plant spacing.

 

[Denton]

Might I remind the good folks posting that rows became the norm when row crop farm equipment became the norm. Nature tends to grow more collectively and intensely, with intertwined root systems and better pollination from close contact of plants and flowers. Much more can be grown than many think by simply taking advantage of more natural plant spacing.

OK, now I am understanding why my beans are growing as they are. The ones that are closer together are healthier and the two that are farther away from the rest are little runts.