Roughly speaking, gardens can be ordered by a hierarchy of size. And, a natural consequence of their size and the law of diminishing returns is what is likely to be grown in those gardens.
The very smallest urban gardens might be just a few pots or buckets on a balcony. The plants are likely to be high-flavor herbs, spices and maybe some enhancements to a daily salad. Chives, rosemary, sage, mint, cherry tomatoes, green onions, garlic, hot peppers are likely to be found in these gardens.
Those needs become saturated for most families somewhere between 32 and 100 square-feet and other foods start being grown. Maybe a zucchini or cucumbers. Perhaps full-sized tomatoes or radishes. Some greens like lettuce or maybe green beans.
The typical "hobby" suburban garden might be about 400 square-feet. Things like pumpkins and winter squash start to sneak in. Maybe sweet corn or potatoes. Perhaps enough tomatoes are planted so the gardener can preserve them for the winter soup-pot.
According to Steve Solomon, author of Gardening when it Counts, the next step is approximately 2000 square-feet. This depends on the climate but this is probably a good number for England, Tasmania, the Hudson Valley, Columbus Ohio and the Pacific Northwest. This size is large enough to mostly decouple from supply-chain shocks.
The back-yards in this suburban neighborhood in central Michigan are almost exactly 4000 square-feet. |
Then, if you are the kind of person who plans, you might plant berry bushes beside the paths between the garden and the hen-house and put a few small fruit trees along your poleward property line (north if you are the northern hemisphere and south if you are in the southern hemisphere). Or, if you are in the deep south, maybe you plant them to so that they provide partial shade during the hottest parts of the year.
Scale
So, while the word "land as an investment" might create images of hundreds of acres in the minds of most rural, North Americans...having authority to be lord-of-the-manor of as little as 4000 square-feet of garden can be pivotal to enabling autonomy for a family of two. Point-being that 4000 square-feet is 1/10th of an acre.
If the 2000 square-feet that is being cultivated was planted entirely to maize, then it could produce enough calories to supply two people with 1200 Calories each per day for a year. Not enough to survive but a huge boost to any diet under austere conditions. If planted entirely to potatoes, 2000 square-feet could produce 2.7 pounds of potatoes for two people each per day for a year.
These calcs assume 150 bu/acre yields for the corn and 40,000 lb potatoes (all grades combined) per acre. For reference, the average corn yield in Indiana was 203 bushels/acre last year and the US average potato yield was about 45,000 lb per acre.
Income
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A random village east of Kyiv, Ukraine. Look at the gardens! |
It gets trickier to put a value on it when it is an option or an insurance policy. But it is still a legitimate form of income when circumstances force you to activate those options.
Under conditions like a civil war, it is almost impossible to put a value on the investment because you would bid your last dollar to feed your granddaughter if she was crying from hunger.
The devil is in the details
Decent soil of sufficient depth. Either reliable rains or infrastructure to irrigate or subsoil moisture within easy reach of the roots.
The plot not shaded by buildings or shade trees for any significant number of hours a day.
No HOA or Zoning busybodies poking their noses into your business.
A frost-free growing season that is nearly always more than 120 days.
Excellent weed control (many are edible).
Varieties that are good fits for the growing conditions. That will likely mean planting some hybrids, at least while getting your feet wet.
Enough gardening savvy to know when to plant and harvest. A willingness to use fertilizers, at least to get started. A willingness to put in the hours every day to make the garden work.
My land is best described as a hillside of soiled rocks. Bushes thrive, trees do okay, but the garden needs raised beds with real soil to work. So, making those bushes into mulch and compost.
ReplyDeleteEveryone who has the means to have a garden should have one. It's good for the environment, it's good for the economy and it's good for their health. Even if you live in the high desert like I do you can grow herbs and things in pots...which we do.
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