GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

16-05-2006, 10:06 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible

wrote:
Howdy!

My wife and I are embarking on a "semi-retirement homesteading"
adventure on 13 acres on the central Texas Gulf Coast.

do you want to farm for profit, or garden for subsistence? Subsistence
can be done easily on a well tended half acre. Subsistence is done by
hand, farming by tractor. Some issues as they come to mind:

- make a list of the relatively few plants that will grow well in sheer
sand. If you are thinking subsistence, I think chickpeas and millet
grow well in semiarid regions.

- mixed plantings go well beyond corn and beans. Besides, corn and
beans don't really go together. As you harvest one, you are always
damaging the other, and beans really don't like getting bruises. My
favorite corn companion is corn salad (mache), which will reseed itself
and come back year after year. Another is favas and fruit trees, or
favas and anything that needs a N boost the next season. Your region is
good for winter favas.

- how many fruit trees, and which types?

- if you want to be organic, how do you plan to build the soil? Looks
like a tough, multiyear project requiring innumerable truckloads of
anything organic.

- Further, do you want chicken, lambs, or other protein-rich edibles?
Free range or corn-fed? If you are not too far from a large city, you
can make a living with free range, grass-fed animals sold directly to
the consumer. How about heirloom pigs and turkeys? Lots of people
jumping in that business. If you have oaks, they will take care of
themselves.