If one of the main tips to control rodents is remove food sources what can you do when growing food?

There are owls about. I hear them often.

 

Yes, we have two male tawny owls who live in our cupressus trees. Surprisingly chatty in the daytime.

 

I just assumed you'd included the set of rats in the larger sets of things that are living.

 

Maybe post a photo of the faeces you see around for possible ID's ? "sausage shaped" can cover a few.
Whilst you need an overall plan for the whole area, I think your intention to sort out 1 manageable part at a time is the best idea .
There are various ways of covering crops as you have discovered - only you will know what you are growing and what " wildlife" you need to deter. You could also consider some form of raised beds which may prove easier to control for smaller edible crops.
Worth bearing in mind that if the land surrounding yours is pretty much left to itself, you will always be open to "visitors".
Nice to know that you have heard the Tawny owls in your vicinity

 

The land, which is south facing in a valley, I would say is in two distinct parts. Top part gets sun pretty much 100%. This was a pleasant surprise as it is bathed in sun even this early in the year as before, in winter, I didn't know it would be so propitious in that respect. Bottom part is mostly shaded by large old oaks which are along the roadside hedge.

Perhaps loosely 1 acres each for these. For the top part I am thinking 0.5 for the usual vegetable fare of allotments and small gardens. Other part a few fruit trees. So perhaps 0.25 fruit tress and what is left experiment with grains.

The bottom part, being shady I am thinking just grow willow on it as a fast growing crop for biomass but also for a woodland to give screening as there is no real cover right now as the hedge is none existent in large parts.

My overall long term goal is self-sufficiency. When I say this people seem to like to tell me it is a hopeless task as I will never be self sufficient. Not sure why there is this all or nothing attitude. So if you can't do something 100% you shouldn't try at all? I see it like reducing carbon footprint or other positive lifestyle choice. You don't have to be 100% for it to be a positive or rewarding thing.

Oh and the land on two sides are sheep fields. On the other it is indeed left to itself, which is just woodland of mostly oak I think.

Raised beds would be expensive for the area I have. Maybe once I had some mass from the willow I would use that. I plan to do just lazy beds for the drainage benefits without the cost outlay. It is yet to be seen how much of an issue rodents will be so no point spending loads on anything before I know the extent of the problem if indeed there will be one at all.

 

Will you be doing this on your own, Gentle-touch? Self-sufficiency was my intention too when we first arrived here and it worked well when there were two of us participating. Over the years, though, OH became less and less interested and even a lot younger and fitter, and with plenty of equipment, I simply couldn't cope with a 50m x 25m veg plot, big polytunnel, orchard and soft-fruit garden. Not just the growing but the harvesting, cooking, conserving etc. If I can offer any advice, it would be to find a partner equally enthusiastic () and to source a hefty supply of ground cover materials. Straw (not hay!), cardboard, old wool carpets, manure as long as it's not riddled with couch and bindweed, woodchip, shreddings, weed-suppressing membrane if you've got deep pockets....anything to cover the soil and improve water retention.

 

Raised beds need not have infrastructure such as boards etc. It can simply be a 'relatively' raised bed, so as to have deeper soil depth and moderated drainage (by gravity-its free !) In fact , in a ,'non tidy police ' area it is to be commended because less habitat for slugs (and mice).
I recommend you have a look at this, for there are fundamentals that seem appropriate to you.

 

I use the slight mounding technique for "raised beds" at our allotment site and it is so much better than building slug hideouts into the design.

I'm also trying to be as self sufficient as possible and there are many crops that I am completely self sufficient in. It's just the way I like to live and many crops are less effort than going to the shops.

Huw richards is a nice guy with youtube channel that might interest you. He has a large market garden type setup in older videos and a more cosy, fenced off normal garden, now.

 

That is the same idea as lazy beds I mentioned earlier.

Lazy bed - Wikipedia

I like this auld fella's simple demonstration.

 

Good to know.

I had not considered that it would be less work than going to the shops. I am certainly not going into it with that in mind. I am going to try full time cultivation.

I also have a fancy for victorian literature lately. The language was so much richer back then.

What do you folks think? Is it a 'waste' of the shadier portion to grow trees on it? 1 acre should be more than enough for me alone to tend to eh? and then grow trees on the other acre?

Looking out now it isn't that shady at all really but the oaks do caste a shadow through the day depending on the time so patches will be shaded for some hours before coming into sunlight.

Woodland does give a more cosy feel to it as a buffer to the rest of the world.

I have loosely made a band of willow around the whole perimeter of the land, north and south but thinking make the southside acre almostly exclusively woodland.

 

1 acre should be more than enough, I would have thought?

I suppose it depends how many you have to feed and how self sufficient you want to be.

Have you worked out how much fruit and veg you want/need to produce? It might not be as much as you think, certainly for some crops anyway. Liz Zorab (Byther Farm) is quite good on YouTube and covers this in one her films - some interesting insights on quantifying what you need to produce and also diversifying so that if weather/pests destroy a crop you have a good substitute (e.g if you get potato blight, sweet potato’s/swede as an alternative carbohydrate). Also growing a broad range helps alleviate boredom as eating seasonally or through gluts can become very repetitive (I think all of us have lived through courgette/green bean tsunamis from just a little garden veg patch)

At my old allotment site, my neighbour and her OH were almost self sufficient in vegetables from just over around 1.5 standard plots with the remainder of the second used for fruit. I don’t know how many portions of veg they ate a day and they weren’t growing grains so this was just salad and veg.

 

I think as @Butterfly6 suggests, it comes down to what you like to eat, what is expensive in the shops, how many people in your household, will you have any help for free or will you need paid help. Are you planning to just be as self sufficient as possible in plant based food or are you looking to maybe a future commercial enterprise - even if only selling produce "at the gate" so to speak ?
Do you like to eat eggs ? If so, have you considered keeping laying hens ? Eggs in the SM's are becoming quite expensive in comparison to local free range suppliers. Probably not the best idea at the moment with the Avian flu restrictions but a possibility in the future ?
Keeping part of your land as natural as possible ( plant and animal life ) would be good and I'd think it may be worth your while to contact local/regional organisations such as Wildlife and Woodland Trusts. They could certainly offer info/advice for your area which you may find helpful in your endeavours.
With the info/advice given on here so far, I'd say it's "Make your mind up" time now - I'm sure many of us will be interested in any updates as you go along.