BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?

Subject: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 10:48 AM

I went wheezing and coughing with my father today, to look at a little feild he's thinking of buying. It was just over an acre in size, in a very pretty area. We both liked the feild, it was nice and just a bike ride away from me.

He has the wish to invest around twenty thousand pounds in a piece of land locally, and hopefully (yes, it's this vague) "Do Something" with it.

But he doesn't really know what he'd actually *do* with it.
So we've been trying to randomly brainstorm ideas.

What would you *do* with a nice little feild near to you?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 10:53 AM

Is it between the salt water and the sea strand?

Here's what I'd do:

1. Put up a museum to display scale model ships and airplanes.

or...

2. Put up an amusement park for dachshunds, with slides, hydrants to pee on, free food, a chicken run, and other great stuff like that.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 10:54 AM

Grow fruit and veg, have a herb garden. Make a small area of it as a peaceful 'santuary', somewhere to go to relax away from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Or put horses in it, have a few jumps etc

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Teribus
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:08 AM

Plant different types of native deciduous and evergreen trees and bushes - Watch them grow.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:09 AM

A free-range piggery.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:17 AM

I have a half-acre with the house on it on which I garden, and if I had that extra half-acre, I'd have more trees (fruit) and a bigger garden.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: pdq
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:17 AM

Re-create the set of Green Acres?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:28 AM

I'd look into the investment possibilities before doing anything because if I thought I might sell it at some point, that would guide my next steps. For short term I'd put our camper there so we'd have a guaranteed getaway spot. From there I'd set awhile and think it all over, because that would be at least half of the fun.

Friends of ours did it like this-- while holding down good jobs in a big city, they bought a large, cheap parcel here. It became their weekend getaway, during which they built (all by themselves) a 2-story, year-round "cabin." When that was done enough to live in, they took jobs here. They hunt and garden that land, and are looking forward to a cozy retirement.

Since then the hubby has held the line on 9-5 work, while the wife has learned the real estate biz and gotten all her certifications. Now the real estate is starting to pay off, but she is smart and has also bought (cheap) a related small business for bread and butter income. Her overhead is nil. He'll hit retirement age before she does; they have planned all this well and with a very long view, BUT while having a good time "getting there."

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:35 AM

"AN ACRE OF LAND

My father left me an acre of land,
Ivy, sing Ivery,
My father left me an acre of land,
And a bunch of green holly and Ivery.

I ploughed it with a ram's horn;
Ivy, sing Ivery,
I sowed it with a thimble,
And a bunch of green holly and Ivery.

I harrowed it with a bramble bush;
Ivy, sing Ivery,
I reaped it with a penknife,
And a bunch of green holly and Ivery."


etc....

It really depends on the OTHER acres of land around it. Putting in a shooting range wouldn't be popular in some places....and a piggery wouldn't in others.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:38 AM

Assuming you are not a richly-funded developer, the best thing you could do with it is plant a landscape of trees and plantings using Japanese principles of landscaping to make the site as beautiful as you can using the least expensive materials you can. It can become an endless, absorbing, and worthwhile hobby, a retreat for poets and lovers, and a quiet proud secret of the locals.

When the next real estate boom occurs, you can sell the lot off to a developer for ten times cost and watch it turn into condos and a parking lot. Sigh....



A

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:42 AM

You obviously don't have the restrictive planning regulations there that we do in the UK Susan.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:48 AM

Get a horse, build a stable and barn, then small cabin or somesuch to live in.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 12:00 PM

Get a fortieth of a mule. Seriously, I'd love to have some land like that to grow more stuff especially fruit for winemaking.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Midchuck
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 12:05 PM

I have about that. I have a house on it. The rest I mow, and rake leaves, and cut down trees for firewood.

P.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 12:27 PM

It is sometimes not as simple as it sounds.

I have a little more than 2 acres of naturally terraced hillside. The house burnt down long before I acquired the property so I put a mobile home on it and lived there for about three years. I improved the only existing building on it for my daughter's pony (my daughter is now 46 years old!) and built a chicken house out of the other end of the building. I enjoyed it a lot. It has a great view of the valley below.

There are a lot of trees on it, mostly Douglas Fir but also oak and maple. I once dreamt that the place had been manicured within an inch of its life and the whole thing was gorgeous.

The reasons I don't live there now is

1) It is in Oregon; I am in Alaska
2) It is 25 miles out in the country and if I moved there I could probably not leave home after dark. I no longer drive at night.

The reasons I keep it is
1) My daughter thinks of it as her inheritance.
2) I figure if times get really bad I'll move onto it and plant a BIG garden.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 12:34 PM

I wish the romantic cabin plan would work, but I we're not allowed to pee here in the UK without planning permission.

I have thought growing some native trees might be nice, but once planted...?

I think he wants a little 'family project'. Ideally he would have liked to buy a little bit of coppiced woodland. But it turns out that the 'spare change' needed for him to do that simply isn't available.

Pigs are nice. I also dig goats and have thought a few of those might be good to rear, for milk and slaughter.

I also really like unusual plants and herbs... So there may be scope for further thought and research there.

Of course I could always bung a Tipi or two on it, invite the Mudcat and terrify the local landowners into thinking that 'undesirables' are moving in... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Gervase
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 12:57 PM

Much depends on the land. Is it level? Is it well-drained? Has it got good soil?
Teh fact is, you'd have to do somethingwith it, as an acre left untended would soon become a wilderness of brambles and worse. The easiest thing to do is rent out to someone else to graze. Or you could sell the haylage/silage rights to a local farmer. Either way, grass needs to be managed, which includes keeping docks and thistles at bay and dressing the field with muck or fertiliser once a year.
If you want to invest your own effort, you can run your own pigs (buy in weaners and fatten them rather than breed - and rotate their pasture so that the whole acre doesn't become a quagmire).
You could keep chickens there. You could have two or three sheep (with all the buggerance that comes from keeping sheep!) You could raise a couple of beef steers for early slaughter.
You could grow a considerable amount of vegetable, including some exotics in a polytunnel or two.
But whatever you do will involve serious amounts of hard work. And, if you keep livestock other than poultry, you will have to register the land with your local animal health department to get a CPH holding number, and abide by the tagging and movement restrictions, and essentially become your own vet, plus you would have to ensure that you could have someone on site at least twice a day, 365 days a year.
Coppicing is good - you can get several tonnes an acre of willow or hazel, while chestnut is always in demand.
Get hold of a copy of John Seymour's book on self-sufficiency. A lot of it is idealistic twaddle, but it should give you some ideas of what you can do with an acre.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:14 PM

Even thinking of buying a horse, cattle, or any livestock is stupid. It takes more land to support them. An acre of land is not much(unless you grew up in a city, and do not understand). If you have the funds, labor should be cheaper, if you want to build on it. An extra room, to rent, a studio, for the more dedicated...or just give yourself a little more room from your neighbors, a grow dome, are just a few ideas. You didn't specify, if you wanted it to generate income, or not..or just give you a little more room, than a lot. Oh well, good luck!

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:30 PM

Landscape it and then donate it, in perpetuity, as a park. Takes it off the tax rolls and annoys the hell out of the government, neighbors, and developers -- but not the kids.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: gnu
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:34 PM

Here, I would definitely make it into a veggie and fruit garden. If it is purely agricultural use, the taxes are squat.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:46 PM

From: Rapaire
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:30 PM

Landscape it and then donate it, in perpetuity, as a park. Takes it off the tax rolls and annoys the hell out of the government, neighbors, and developers -- but not the kids.

Hey Rap, donate your own land!...wink

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:52 PM

You obviously don't have the restrictive planning regulations there that we do in the UK Susan.

There are lots of places in ther States that do, and I've lived in many of those places. But in our rural area we aren't there yet.


SR, of course we were asked what WE would do, not what we thought someone-- a person we do not know-- might do.


Look, folks. You UKers are going to keep tripping over this US/UK disconnect about the scale of our country (and the differences that creates from your own experiences), till you come over here and do what Leadfingers did, but one can trip without being rude about it. :~) I value those that have taken the time to communicate effectively across that difference.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:57 PM

Start a falconry business. You'd eventually need more land for actual hawking, but it would be fine for a start-up doing experience days.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: kendall
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 02:05 PM

Talk him out of it.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: bobad
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:20 PM

Live off it:
One Acre And Security: How To live Off The Earth Without Ruining It by Bradford Angier

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:39 PM

You haven't told us about the essential three things about real estate:   First location, then location, and finally location!

How close is it to residential areas? To commercial areas?
What kind of roads come near it, to connect it to the above?
Is it within good television coverage?
Is it within a fire protection district?
Is it quite visible from the road, or screened enough to give privacy, if that's important?

And you call it "a field". From those words I envision a relatively flat, treeless expanse. What's the drainage? What's the soil like? Good loamy soil, or heavy clay that is hard to work and won't drain?

Without answers to these questions and others like them, I would have no idea what I could/would do with it, or even if I'd want to touch it.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:10 PM

We have 3-1/2 acres in the Sierra Nevada Foothills of California. In many ways, our claim to the property seems tenuous. We share the land with the forest and animals, and we feel it's our duty to protect the land for them. The lower, eastern half of our property is so thick with manzanita and Ponderosa pine, that we've never walked there. We have one path through that area that leads to the 150-year-old ditch that provides our irrigation.
Above the manzanita, we have a cleared area that serves as a leach field for our septic tank and a buffer area to protect our house from wildfire. Occasionally, people have found rattlesnakes in that area, but I haven't found one yet myself.

About a third to half of our property is taken up by the house and garden, shared with some very stately, tall Ponderosa pines. The land drops down quickly past our property line, and there's a one-square-mile wooded ravine to the west of us, owned by the Seventh-Day Adventists and preserved as a greenbelt. We can't see east or south at all, but we can see all the way to the Coast Range to the west.

We may own three and a half acres, but only about an acre of it is actually ours to use - but hey, we can see forever.

If you and your father buy that acre, Rosie, remember that you are only stewards. Take good, loving care of it.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:25 PM

Grow pot and hide a still in the middle. Just kidding.

Does it have road access, parking nearby? Maize maze? Sell tickets.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Comrac (troll alert contact max)
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:31 PM

Is it green belt ? Would you consider building on it ? what area ?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:34 PM

Brilliant Bobad! One of the very reasons I posted this question here. Ta for the link. Looks like exactly what he needs to get some more grounded ideas together.

As to more in depth questions. Nothing's settled yet. Today was just a scouting mission, which inspired a lot of unresolved pondering.
Hence the "what would you do" with a hypothetical acre question. (Whatever bit of land he eventually plumps for however, it *won't* have planning permission.)

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:40 PM

Awww - and I thought there for a minute you were gonna invite us to add to the Parsley Sage song, Rosie! before I opened the thread!

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:41 PM

"Grow pot and hide a still in the middle. Just kidding."

VTam, you obviously haven't met my father...

My semi-throwaway suggestion that we put a couple of Tipis on it, was actually much more his idea. Old hippy that he is.

If it were out of the way enough, and wouldn't cause too much disturbance, it'd be excellent to have a local friends gathering, camping, and music-making space.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:59 PM

But tell us more about the acre.   All we know is "a field" and "about an acre" and within bicycle range for you. Since we don't know what kind of area you are in, that last is very little help.

Wooded? Bare? Hilly? soggy? Rocky? Brushy? Flat? A view? A stream nearby?   What, if anything, is on the surrounding properties?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:13 PM

For inquiring minds ;-) Today's scouting mission revealed a charming little feild cum meadow, down a lovely little country lane, with direct access to the road. A couple of very expensive estates within ten minutes walk... (Hmm, not so good for noisy gatherings) Farmers feilds to the right. A small river that never floods (so told us the fisherman we spoke to) directly on the boundary. No public access through, though on the other side of the river there is a footpath used by local fishermen.
Well fenced off. Totally flat. Not boggy. All nice green grass.

And one tiny baby oak tree recently planted right in the middle. Which rather charmed me.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:25 PM

out of interest, what county is it in?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:27 PM

Essex innit?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: bfdk
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:53 PM

Me, I'd buy a sack of seeds for plants that appeal to butterflies and scatter them all over the place, except for the shallow little pond I'd also put in there. Then, on sunny summer's days, I'd sit there with my camera and shoot happily at the butterflies and dragonflies or any other interesting bugs that inhabited the area :-)

Bente

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: gnu
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:47 PM

Sorry if this was said before. No joke.

Buy land. Thay ain't makin any more.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Comrac (troll alert contact max)
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 08:27 PM

I have a couple of achers,the wife did it with her knee !

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: jimmyt
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 08:42 PM

plant blueberries, Easycropto grow, will produce a good $ crop in no time in most areas. ,^ feet apart, 12 foot rows can get a serious crop in one acre

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: pdq
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 08:52 PM

Just a word of caution: they ain't making anymore land, true enough, but there is still plenty to go around.

It is very very easy to buy land anytime you want, provided you have the money. It is quite another thing to sell it, especially if you need the money fast.

This does not seem to be a good time to buy property of any kind, much less undeveloped land. Better to buy rental property which generates money than raw land, which eats money. Then you can camp-out on someone else's "acre of paradise" for few days and go home happy.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 08:54 PM

Oh geeze... Just what I need... Another acre... I've got 17 of theem sumabiches right now and they are wearing me out...

The P-Vine ahs a 500X60 foot long semi-shade.wooded garden... Then there is the pond garden (2 aces) and then there is the veggie garden (1/4 acre) and then there is the....

No, you keep that acre an'...

...good luck with it...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 11:04 AM

In the UK you don't need planning permission for allotments -

Sections 55 (2) (e) and 336 Town and Country Planning Act 1990

I would mark out 15 standard allotments - that's ten pole allotments.

(300 square yards) each. Properly husbanded, a 10 pole plot should feed a family of four its fruit and veggie requirements for a twelvemonth.

And I would charge each allotmentier fifty quid a year. That's a quid a week.

(What do you mean, what's a pole ? It's the same as a perch, or a rod, or a pace, or a lug - the distance from the back of the plough to the nose of the ox what's pulling it, as any fule kno).

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 12:51 PM

Make it a haven for all the wildlife around. Put a 'hide' in the corner where you can watch nature going on, fill it with trees and bird feeders, places for hedgehogs, foxes and badgers, squirrels, bats, bird houses...

There are oodles of books in The National Trust shops about this sort of thing, as they're trying really hard to get people to look after the land and our wildlife..You can buy hedgehog dishes, bat boxes and logs for the bees from us now too.

just make it beautiful, Rosie, that's all.

Or....

You can give it to me! :0)   

I know someone who'd happily live on it, in a tent, for the rest of their lives, at peace to know it was simply 'theirs'...

You're very, very lucky and so is your Dad. I hope you both enjoy it very much.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 12:53 PM

Oops! lol....er don't fill the 'hide' with trees etc...this could play havoc with your sandwiches.

(I need my very own English teacher sitting beside me when I write!)

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 12:57 PM

I would create a many bed homeless shelter.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 01:53 PM

Yeah, I've thought similar stuff Lizzie. A proper little sanctuary with rare wild plants n stuff. I'm going to look into seeing what kind of grants are available for helping out with projects like that. Although he can afford the land, and between us there is enough human power to invest - including a couple of stong fellas, cash is still very limited.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 02:32 PM

What is missing from this thread is:
Location
Soil type
aspect

Given a plot that size I would put in some fruit trees and maybe some vines as well as native hedgerow plants.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: open mike
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 02:39 PM

is there water near? electricity? phone? septic?
what has its historic use been? (if used to pasture
animals is there manure there to enrich the soil?)

do you plan to "develop" it to live on?

where do you get tipis in the U.K.?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: pdq
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 03:10 PM

Both water and electricity are important and will help determine what you can do with the land.

Is the owner entitled to creek water for irrigation purposes?

If you need a well, how much will it cost? It will require eclectricity to run the pump. I doubt that water for domestic use can be taken from the creek, and if it can, some serious filtering and chemical treatment will be required.