Notes & Queries response: How big a garden would you need to be self-sufficient for a family of four?
How big a garden would you need to be self-sufficient for a family of four? image generated by Craiyon Behind a wooden garden fence, on the east side of the house where my parents used to live, there was a screen of mature trees. It was actually more of a small, well-organised wood, modelled on the layout of a commercial forest, but on a greatly reduced scale. The trees were planted in an orderly, four-by-four grid, well-spaced from one another, but with their leaf canopies merging together to form a single mass. I remember them always being there when I was growing up. They were still there when my parents sold the house. My father did not like the trees. He said that they cast an unfavourable shadow over our home and garden. They cut off the morning light entirely during the gloomy winter months, when the sun remained low in the sky. During the Summer, the treetops delayed the arrival of the sunshine through our east-facing windows, and in our garden, by several hours. My father want...