Homesteader on one acre
Dorrit Marsh
I’m Dorrit. I live on one acre near Castlemaine, in central Victoria, and I sell planners, workbooks and two video courses on growing, keeping and preserving your own food.
My one acre
About 4,000 square metres, shared out by what each part is used for.
- Grow
- Animals
- House
- Orchard900 m²Pear, plum, apple, fig and quince
- Paddock810 m²Rough grass where the hens rest
- House and yard700 m²House, washing line and the year’s jobs
- Vegetable beds480 m²Raised beds on a four-year rotation
- Hen run450 m²The coop, the run and the nesting boxes
- Berry patch240 m²Raspberries and currants for the jam
- Tanks and shed220 m²Roof water for the beds and hens
- 2 small beds200 m²
My one acre
Measured on a plan, to the nearest ten
Area is the ground each use takes.
Downloads, a course and merch
Shop
Downloads arrive by email. Merch is printed to order and shipped by Printful.
Notes From the Acre
A short letter every Sunday from my kitchen table: what is growing, what the hens are doing and one job for the week. Join and get my free garden-planning toolkit.
About me
I’m 56 and I have lived on this acre since 2019. It came with an old weatherboard house, a tin shed and more couch grass than I thought one block could hold. I started with four raised beds and six hens, and I wrote down everything, because I could not trust myself to remember what I had sown and when.
Now the acre has fourteen beds, twenty-one fruit trees, a hen run, a paddock and three rain tanks. I share it as it happens: the sowing, the picking, the hens, the compost and the long days of putting food away. I do not sell plants, animals or land, and I do not teach farming for a living. I show what works on one acre, in a place with hot dry summers.
What I sell are the pages and lessons I use myself: a planner for the year, a sheet for each part of the acre, a workbook for the jars and freezer, and two video courses. You work through them on your own, at your own pace.