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[HAMMERMILL]

Two acres of land is about the most 1 person can work.

As for soil depletion, you could grow a nitrogen fixing crop like legumes. Large-scale farmers grow alfalpha in their crop rotation for that same reason, but that stuff is sold as animal feed, so beans would be better for your purposes, I guess.

The three-sisters thing might work if your soil and climate are adapted to it, and its a bit labor intensive compared to just monocropping.

I'd look up a decent guide on the subject. Most literature on the matter is for leisurely little tomato gardens and stuff, though. If you are serious about substiance farming you'd have to look around. I don't know much about it. I just know a bit about large scale mechanized farming, which doesn't translate well on smaller scales.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I grow a few bushy things with berries on, and we have an apple tree that grows a really weird old variety of apple. We think it's descended from the trees from the old orchard that was here before all the houses.

[Jude]

Do it Jude. Do ittttt.

Well, having 50 square feet of arable land would be a prerequisite...I'm thinking about this for when I'm older and have a house and family and shit, it's not feasible now...

Anyway, I doubt I'd feed myself (much less a family) off a personal garden, but it would be nice to have a lot of our produce grown right in the yard. As for the rest, I'll also presumably have enough money in the future to buy local from farmers in the area so I'll have the whole wholesome diet thing down pat.

It's a damn lot of effort though. A bunch of my friends from college are into the local food thing and they have to go like 20 or 30 miles to get their local organic meat in large supplies, and know what kind of food they want to get at the weekly farmer's market...I could never be bothered to make up menus for the week so I'd always end up zipping to the supermarket (on my bike...one eco-victory point) to get whatever I needed for the dish I was cooking at the moment.

[sonerohi]

Back from school and sleep. The 50 square feet are all of my vegetable diet. I still buy meats and drinks, bread, and fruits, because trees take forever to grow.

[DJ]

You need like 2000 square feet for wheat alone with 40 bushels per acre yield (Kansas average) and 140lb of wheat per year for one person (USA average).

[Cheddarius]

Daaaaaang

[DJ]

Well, 2000 square feet isn't all that much if you're anywhere remotely rural. To take Kansas as example again, it'd cost you like 20-30 $. 'Course, I seriously doubt anyone would sell such a small piece of farmland.

[Cheddarius]

But I don't want to live somewhere rural, that's the problem.

[HAMMERMILL]

But I don't want to live somewhere rural, that's the problem.

Er, well thats the only place where you can really grow anything. You can't grow vegetable gardens or crops in the suburbs, the HOA will forbid it and fine you like, 200$/ day untill you lay down sod over your garden.

In urban areas, you are surely joking.

Only place that isn't rural and isn't the suburbs might be some unincorporated neighborhood without zoning laws. You know, the places on the outskirts where junkyards, concrete factories, trailer homes and single family homes all co-exist in the same square mile.

[Cheddarius]

Oh well.

[JoshuaFH]

Subsistence farming is largely inefficient and painfully difficult, which is why it's streamlined by the specialized farmers. Though, it should be noted, that small farms are very nice, and can provide a supplement of fresh and healthy vegetables to your diet.

[Heron TSG]

Save money until you can buy out a city block. Wall it in with at least 5 feet of brick. Build a living shack in the corner and then grow 2000 square feet of wheat with the rest. Any leftover land can be used as a bread factory and mill. If the City wants you to remove the crops... get a restaurant license but sell bread for absurdly high prices. Then you're just running a pricey bread restaurant!

[Osmosis Jones]

Or just do this;  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming

[Cheddarius]

Yes, I will buy up a skyscraper right away. Good thing I have this vast fortune I found under my couch cushions, huh?

Anyway seems interesting, but not really feasible.

[Osmosis Jones]

I figured it was about as realistic as buying an entire city block to grow wheat