I never had much land, so I would be worried about taking care of it, like mowing. I don’t like to be a slave to the land. But maybe 10 acres would be good for me if money was not an issue. I just need some land for a greenhouse for figs and to plant as may fruit trees as I like. (Maybe 80 - 100)
I don’t want to have to ever think again about…‘where will I plant a tree…I’m all jammed up.’ Plus, I’d like some land for a (possible) dog to roam around on. So, I don’t have to walk it.
No garden plans. I gave up gardening after 12 years. You have to be a slave to the garden. Well…maybe I would take up gardening again with a 2nd greenhouse that had auto watering and robot to weed it!
How much land would you want if money was not an issue…and what would you do with it?
i would like to get at least 100 acres, build a house in the middle with a pond and grow a 3-5 acre orchard around it. 100 arces gives you enough of a buffer from the outside world. id put cameras and motion detectors around the perimeter.
We have 4.5 acres now. I grew up in the city, so this is already a big improvement for me. I am used to having 0.02 acres. But I would definitely like to have at least 10 or 20 times as much.
I am building a community, campsite, swimming pool, sauna, fruit orchard, vegetable garden, cactus greenhouse, and a tree nursery. Half of our land is mixed oak and pine forest, so that is taking up a lot of space already. Unless we cut some trees. We already have a pizzaria, cocktail bar and chicken coop, other plans are work in progress.
If we had more land, it would be way less difficult finding room for all our plans. And I would make the cactus greenhouse and the fruit orchard a lot bigger, and also have some goats and some cows.
I have more land than I have ambition to plant things on. About 10 acres would be all that I care to tend to and work on. I currently have pecan, apple, pear, persimmon, muscadines, etc on about 5 acres. I am clearing another acre to plant more pear trees.
It’s fun to talk about and as someone who always lived in a subdivision and wanted land do not regret purchasing 13 acres for a hobby farm when I retired in 2010. I almost bought a bigger parcel of acreage before 2010 so glad I did not do it.
There’s some things I wasn’t thinking about ,age, health and did I have any interest from family members with helping me with the upkeep. It’s worked out well for me. I take long trips during the summer and I hire people to take care of it for me.
I want to enjoy my land, not be a slave to it.
I’m on 160, considering buying a few hundred surrounding acres so my view will not change.
If money wasn’t an object, I would purchase a pretty substantial buffer. There would be no need for it to be actively used land, as there would be no value that the land must generate. It would likely all be under conservation contract to remain in a native state.
Currently, I can’t just go plant a fruit tree anywhere. The land doesn’t have a high dry land ag capability rating, and has many ephemeral wetlands. I only need a handful of usable acres. The remainder is currently left in a natural state.
At this point Id just be happy with a backyard that didnt turn out to be contaminated with all manner of garbage after giving up the orchard at my previous place that was just coming into its own.
Even if there were no issue with funds, we are at the point of our lives the two acres we have is daunting. Every year it is more difficult to care for and every year we are returning a portion back to the wild state. Now if a Time Machine was available I would take five acres and make it into a showplace of flowers, fruit orchards and vegetable gardens.
My Grandfather bought 1427 acres in 1976 for 75.00 per acre. It had excellent timber on it… 3 ft thick red and white oaks.
He had me (a teenager at the time) help the surveyors … complete a survey so the property lines could be painted.
We pulled a 100 ft chain… around a 1427 acre tract of land… and marked the trees on the property line with ribbon.
My younger brother and I then blazed the trees and painted all that property line.
We hunted on it… squirrel, turkey, deer… ginseng.
The timber was harvested … select cut 14" or larger… they started in 79 and finished in 81.
I have no idea what they got for it… but sure it was a nice chunk.
My father inherited it with his brother… and his brother sold his half to a friend of my fathers…
About 10 years later my fathers friend sold his portion.
In 2004… I inherited 800 acres… with my 3 siblings and we continued to hunt on it until 2016… when it was sold. My sisters had no intrest in keeping it… needed the cash. My oldest sister was retirement age.
It sold for a nice chunk in 2016… which we split 4 ways.
I have had my own 30 acre tract of land since 1997. My home and orchard are there.
That big tract of land was sort of our own family hunting preserve for so many years.
I would have liked to keep it… but my sisters had no use for it.
I have plenty of deer squirrels turkeys on my own place now.
When I was younger and brim full of ambition, I wanted at least 10 acres to call my own. But as I got older, I became sharply aware that I was not going to be a strong, healthy young man forever, and needed to be pragmatic about what I was able to maintain without it being burdensome. I had no desire to be in a nursery business, which seemed to be the only reason to have lots of land, so long as I could have my love of open space around me accommodated. Now in my 70s, I hire out the mowing of my one acre to a local lawn care business, have only ten trees I and my family truly enjoy the fruit of for not too much work, and enjoy the fact that all of the land in sight from my front door to the nearby mountain is locked out of development by agricultural easements. I have no need to downsize, as many others at my stage in life have had to, so unless there is a major life-change, I can anticipate growing old(er) here gracefully.
.3 of an acre for habitation and gardening, within the city limits. I prefer living within 2 miles of a hospital, and a mile of a fire dept. Yards are a necessary evil. I’m not into mowing or bushhogging. I’m not into cleaning chickens, ducks. Maybe a deer if someone gave be one.
I really need to downsize. I would like 800 sq ft. of heated space and 800 sq ft. of unfinished storage. Perhaps a cottage with basement.
The perimeter of the house would be lined with beds that include asparagus, blueberries, strawberries embedded in the asparagus. I would have a 30x50 vegetable garden. I would have 10 apple trees on G43s, a- couple peach trees, a plum tree over-gafted with apricots. I would have a couple rows of black raspberries, blackberries, and red raspberries. Flowers and herbs would be planted along the street sidewalk for the pubic to enjoy. Hopefully this would arouse some curiosity among the passing children and young adults.
I would then purchase 1000-3000 acres of sensitive land and have it bequeathed to a land conservancy, a portion of which would be used for American Chestnut restoration.
I want 5-10 acres. Realistically, 1 makes more sense at this stage of my life and would be a huge improvement over 1/6. I would turn it entirely into native gardens/natural spaces with fruit plants and vegetable gardens dispersed around and between, winding paths, lots of trellises/archways to meander under and life buzzing everywhere. I can see it…that’s the 6-10 year plan. I would love much more for the sake of conservation and buffers, to echo many sentiments above. I doubt that will ever happen, since it conflicts with family and work necessities of being close to a major city, airport and the outdoor arenas where I prefer to spend most of my free time. Plus, once I get closer to those outdoor playgrounds, I won’t be as “bored” and will spend significantly less time gardening. At least, that’s what I tell my partner…if my moving plans get derailed, I will need much more land.
How much land would I own? A couple square miles.
Own 95 now which is great, but nowhere near enough to be distant from others. 1000-3000 acres would be awesome
If I owned 1000 acres or more I wouldn’t care at all about timber value. Don’t care now with less than 1/10th that amount, sure wouldn’t care with a whole bunch more
A couple hundred to a couple thousand lol. I would buy out random parts all over the would too and keep it just for wildlife. Only have 10 cleared out for myself. Keep the rest for wildlife.
Nah, we feel lucky and blessed. Our home is in the middle of about 12 acres of forest. The yard and the ~1/2 acre I’ve made into a home orchard are all that were cleared. I am glad that I can walk out my door and be in the midst of my fruit trees in about a minute. Wouldn’t mind if it were a little less steep though…
But I would definitely like to have at least 10 or 20 times as much.