Endless! We’re happy with what we have, but if we had found a nice home on a bigger lot we’d have bought that instead. I’m picky about housing and didn’t want to wait to build, so after a year of searching we took what was good enough to be near my family. We looked at houses on 2, 10, 20, 50 acre lots. A lot were just not nice homes compared to what we were living in at the time or the house was nice but the lot was too small. I’ve made peace with maybe never having a huge lot, like over 50 acres, but I’ve still got zillow alerts set for homes just in case that well maintained century home on 50 acres pops up.
If the question is truly how much land would I want if money were no issue, open ended use, want rather than need or be able to actually farm/garden/maintain in some level of domestication, I’d probably want a few thousand acres. At that level I could have plenty of land to hunt, hike, and for my kids, grandkids and maybe even great grandkids to inherit a large chunk each. Not sure of this is applicable since money isn’t an issue, (in the hypothetical, it is absolutely the issue in my real life😂) but at that scale you could also generate a good income through managing the forestry, having cattle on the open parts.
If you instead ask how much could I actually maintain in active fruit and vegetable cultivation, probably only a few acres if I still have to work full time. I haven’t even filled up a full acre at this point. If you ask how much do I “need” to be content, I’m content now. I have less than some, more than others, and enough for my family now. That said, if the opportunity arises to acquire more land in the future, I will take it. Land seems to be the most valuable earthly asset you can leave behind for your kids.
1776 acres. Its a patriotic number.
Realistically about 20 sounds like it would suffice. Depends on the character of the land. Enough mixed forest to harvest deadwood for heat. An acre or two of fruit. Another half of berries. An acre of mixed wildflowers, a few more for fallow and grazing. All sounds great but managing it would be another story.
Funny, I guess I did it backwards. I dropped out of the local university when I was 21 and took my money and put a down payment on 10 ac, $13,000 for the contract price. Then bought the 10 ac next door.
Sold and down sized to 2.5 ac on a lake lot, 25 years later. I do now have a neighbor I can see from our house, she is a retired woman and we invite her to all our holiday meals. we help/look after each other.
Kinda like being a bit closer to the city now. Get to see plenty of plays, concerts and go out to dinner.
I don’t need or want more orchard or garden. We really don’t like “canned vegies”, so why grow more than we can eat fresh? I love fresh peaches from our orchard, preserves are just OK. So 10 tomato plants and 3 peach tress keeps me busy enough!
We have maybe 1500 sq-ft of orchard/garden and 3500 sq-ft of woodshop/stone carving. Just about right!
When I was younger I thought this was what I wanted. Now I’m thinking… maybe I should downsize from my 0.8 acre view lot and try to find one of the 0.5ish acre ones in town. I’ll be working full time for at least 15-20 more years and have realized that I can’t do that and properly cultivate more land. My daughter could be closer to her friends, my wife could walk to work, and it would be easier to visit people. Moved to my current area 6 years ago and don’t really have close friends here. In a perfect ideal world I’d have 5-10 acres and be near town. There are a few properties like that but not many and they cost in the $2-3M range.
One thing that may be different about where I live, is that access to land and the outdoors is very open. 94% of BC is crown land, so that’s like 2 Californias worth of space you can access on forestry roads and camp wherever you want. You have to “share” it with yahoos who rip around on side-by-sides and throw beer cans in the woods. But for the most part you don’t see anybody once you walk off the main line roads. Eastern WA where I grew up was nice country too but most if it was private property, even up in the hills.
Near my house there’s about 100 acres next to a park that had some trails running through it where people would hike up to a view. A few years ago they put up no trespassing signs and have been trying to develop it. I’ve thought that if I had a couple million bucks I’d buy that lot and see about integrating it with the park so our neighborhood could have better walking trails… dunno about the paperwork to make that happen though.
I would like about 20 acres. I want to have a decent space for all of my family members to live and have them help me with all my numerous amounts of fruit trees: figs, pluots, pluerry, cherry, peach, plum and various citrus trees-about 50 trees in all. I would have a large vegetable garden as well. I am a senior and I dream of lots of land to roam around on and enjoy the space, nature, peace and creativity.
I’m a senior too, fruit trees/gardens are a hobby. The time and money we spend could buy a lot of fruit/veggies. I have no illusions my hobbies are my kids hobbies. One of our three kids will take a few 25 lb boxes of peaches. The other 45 boxes, we are on our own to find homes for them. My son will come over to spray for me if I will be gone on travel.
I told my wife, when I’m gone she should feel no obligation to keep the peach garden going. She said, “no problem, my next husband doesn’t like to get his hand dirty. More the golfing and beach resort kinda guy”!!
I’d also want a natural stream through it along with an area that has mountain/valley and a large flat area. Huge bulk of it would just be wild area for animals etc and buffer from. People
well , a friend bought into a 15 acre section bumping up against the olympic forest , then 10yrs after his son purchased another 10 right next door…follow this up just in the last 2 yrs both him and his boy purchased another 15 acres on the other side of the 10 acres , all these came with houses and sheds etc…yr around stream with salmon runs…springs flow underneath all over so a pond was made in a natural swale…recently he let go of the original 15 as like others here have said , it was a lot of more responsibility than he liked…originally had chickens and other animals , now not so much…he’s aging out…spent a large part of the covid situation staying purposely isolated here…I do not have any land as of now , though I grew up on 300+acrage dairy operation…miss that terribly
Hi Paddy, that was funny (the comment your wife made about a future husband) Yes, I really want to put my trees in the ground, although they are doing well in the containers. I know that “in ground,” they will do a lot better. If God gives me the time, I will acquire some acreage and I will set up a small fruit tree space with adequate fencing. Yes, I will have some help of course. And my grandsons always tell me, they know they are going to do some hard labor whenever they visit me. Lol PS. I have 4 peach trees: Elberta, Red Haven, O’Henry and Contender.
Yes Shineyandfree, my family and I would love to do something like that, but with smaller acreage. Yes, would love to get away from all the noise sometimes and just live a simpler life. I can deal with the animals better than some folks sometimes! But I do love people though.
if its people youre trying to detect, especially the state, it turns out the land much further than your front porch, or “curtilage”, itsnt private. regardless of size or markings. federally and most states dont recognize your land as private under the 4th amendment:
Which states are impacted by the Open Fields Doctrine?
Every state except New York, Montana, Vermont, Mississippi, Washington, and Oregon. And even in those states, the courts just held that their state constitutions prevent state officers from relying on the open fields doctrine. State constitutions don’t bind federal officials, though, so every federal official in the country can rely on the open fields doctrine in every state.
IJ did a good video on the issue and their current/past cases. you can watch the part about “curtilage” here but i would suggest watching the whole thing. pretty incredible:
I would really love to own a mountain and the surrounding valleys, with streams and hollows spread across the property. All would eventually lead to a small river. I would plant the whole property with all types of nuts, fruits, and beneficial plants to the wildlife. I would have 10-60 acres of clear land for my house, nursery business, and growing my main trees and vegetables. I also put trails and campsites scattered about that I could rent out.
Will this happen? Nope literally impossible unless I bought a state park.
I was messing around with the Fishery and Wildlife website and found their mapping tool. Turns out what I thought was a 3/4 acre pond is actually a 1.52 acre pond. And there is yet another end stage pond just beyond our barn on the adjoining property.
PS. I have 4 peach trees: Elberta, Red Haven, O’Henry and Contender.