Mini Farming, Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 acre

[HunkieDorie23]

I just finished reading Mini Farming, Self Sufficiency on 1/4 by Brett L Markham. It is awesome, very informative and looks at several types of gardening methods, compares them then tells you what he does and you have to decide what you are going to do. Uses raised beds and similar methods to SFG. Anyone else read this book?

 

[i_am2bz]

Yes, I have this book too, it's good! (altho I can't imagine how anyone can actually do all the things the author suggests)

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Yes, I have this book too, it's good! (altho I can't imagine how anyone can actually do all the things the author suggests)

OMG I looked up the author and he has a full time job as an engineer and he also give lectures etc. on self sufficiency. He must never sleep.

 

[StupidBird]

I've been reading hours and hours the last few days on the internet about this and bio-intensive gardening methods. I'm willing to convert! However, I'm finding nothing on real hard data on what to spend your days doing; ie., what is the typical workday and how do I focus on the most important things to do.

I am often ambushed by surprise flare-ups of health problems that make planning work loads difficult. Right now I'm in the squeezes of asthma "with hyper-reactive airway" blah blah blah. Double digging? If I did 4 feet of a wide row every day (the max I can do with my back), I'd get my garden ready sometime in Fall...next year.

Has anyone run across the facts to back up the statement that "one person working 40-45 hours a week can grow all the food for" either 4 people or elsewhere, 25 people! On land 1/4 to one acre...
So just what is it you do for 8 hours every day to manage that much STUFF? I'm quite a scatter brain, very nice scores on the ADD tests.

 

[rebbetzin]

Yes, I have this book too, it's good! (altho I can't imagine how anyone can actually do all the things the author suggests)

OMG I looked up the author and he has a full time job as an engineer and he also give lectures etc. on self sufficiency. He must never sleep.

I am married to one of those engineers! He has a day job as a design engineer, he is a congregational rabbi, and restores vintage audio equipment when he should be sleeping. He is losing his engineer job this year, after 30 years (he didn't want to move to SC) so now he is going back to school for the next two years to be a paralegal!

He is just a very busy boy!

 

[HunkieDorie23]

My son is an engineer also but he is still in school. He is starting his PhD in March and he isn't a workahloloic like some of them yet, but I think it's that they tinker with everything. I know when he comes here and I have him help me with things he starts in when I have a garden..... which is how it starts and then they are tinker with everthing to make it work better or faster or easier.... you know. When he was little it was the greatest thing when something in the kitchen broke (ie mixer or toaster) because then he got to claim it and tear it apart.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I've been reading hours and hours the last few days on the internet about this and bio-intensive gardening methods. I'm willing to convert! However, I'm finding nothing on real hard data on what to spend your days doing; ie., what is the typical workday and how do I focus on the most important things to do.

I am often ambushed by surprise flare-ups of health problems that make planning work loads difficult. Right now I'm in the squeezes of asthma "with hyper-reactive airway" blah blah blah. Double digging? If I did 4 feet of a wide row every day (the max I can do with my back), I'd get my garden ready sometime in Fall...next year.

Has anyone run across the facts to back up the statement that "one person working 40-45 hours a week can grow all the food for" either 4 people or elsewhere, 25 people! On land 1/4 to one acre...
So just what is it you do for 8 hours every day to manage that much STUFF? I'm quite a scatter brain, very nice scores on the ADD tests.

I can't see my husband double digging our entire garden either. What I do see is my husband doing is, tiller our garden area, building many raised bed frames, placing them where they are going to go, then we are going to fill the beds with part soil from the garden as well as compost and peat moss. Once the beds are made and ready we will never have to walk on them and there for preparing them next year will not be as labor intensive and we could double dig if necessary. Then I would make a list of what I needed to do the rest of the week or month or however you wanted to do it and check off things to keep yourself on track. The awesome part about gardening is that it is flexible and you can make it suit your needs so really just enjoy it and don't get to over stressed about I have to do this exactly how this resource says. I am also planning to use untreated wood mulch to help keep down the weeds a bit. I am working full time and I am not spending all my free time weeding. In the book he is also keeping 3 journals which also takes time. The only time I have ever work 40 hours a week on my garden was during canning season. That's where the real work is.