Nancy Young wrote:
>Gary wrote:
>> notbob wrote:
>>> John Kuthe wrote:
>>>
>>>> And moreover, what did you harvest off of that which you can eat?
>>>
>>> An even better point. He could feed a hundred ppl off that acreage.
>>> Could open it up to communal gardening.
>>
>> LMAO! And just how many people do you know that rent out space in their
>> front yards so neighbors can grow vegetables? LOL!
>
>It's a farming community, it's not as if he's got the only open
>lot in a city neighborhood.

Yes, plenty of farming, but mostly hay and livestock, some corn (much
never makes it to maturity), and at higher/dryer elevations fruit
orchards (the NYS apple crop failed this year - no Big Apple).

The areas I mow are primarily wetlands, not suitable for farming much
more than hay. The portions I mow are not lawn grass, it's composed
of hundreds of different plants plus the remnants of hay that is
slowly disappearing as I try not to let it go to seed... hay is
extremely invasive and strangles other plant growth necessary for
critter habitat. The only fertilizer applied comes from critters. The
soil in this section of the Hudson Valley is some of the most fertile
on the planet, only between the spring and fall rains the growing
season is too short for commercial field crop farming, most of the
fields are in hay... unfortunately with the price of diesel it doesn't
pay to harvest hay these days. And raising livestock contaminates the
water table, lakes, and streams. I practice good land management by
maintaining ideal proportions of forest, meadow, field, and water. My
main goal is to support the critters. And I do maintain a home
vegetable garden, as do most folks around here, there is no shortage
of home gardens - were I to suggest to my neighbors to grow veggies on
my land they'd ship me off to the loony bin. My kind of land use is
what helps keep the planet clean. Most of the comments I've read in
this thread are indicative of imbecile IQs and extreme avarice.
http://www.cnycentral.com/weather/story.aspx?id=761585
http://thedailynewsonline.com/news/a...9bb2963f4.html