Hi Stuart, what a grand dream you have. Hope you have lots of help to make those animals into meals, and lots of help for the whole thing! As one who falls into the age category you mention, my dream garden is small and more manageable than the hillside I garden on now, flatter. Yours sounds like the dream of a young person, not based in the reality of the lessening of physical prowess as you age. This post is inspiration for one of my own, a good lesson in 'be careful what you wish for!'

Hi - Like you I would like a big enough plot not to be overlooked - an acre would do me. I have aspirations to own a small nursery - nothing grand just somewhere were people can buy good quality perennials and annuals. I would like an orchard with geese and a veggie patch and a wildlife area and.............

Mine would start out as a raised bed system to grow vegetables, and possibly sorghum (since I believe I'm gluten intolerant, and sorghum is used as a flour replacement, and maybe I could learn to make molasses on a small scale).

There'd be lots of 3 Sisters combinations, with yard long beans (wow we love those), and maybe Winged beans too (the entire plant is edible, and the beans are said to taste like asparagus, which is too hot here to grow). And as the 3rd Sister, I'd grow that squash that I can't remember its name, but it's a summer squash early on, then it becomes a winter squash if not harvested early.

I read that buckwheat is a good green manure; cool, because that's another replacement flour, and it would help break up and fertilize our dreadful soil from late Autumn to early Spring. And if we have a mild enough Winter, we might get the grain from it too.

I would like to learn about dual temperature greenhouses, that protect against both cold and hot extremes. But I'm hung up on the soap suds greenhouse: How do the important sun rays get through the double layer of plastic in the summer? See, I have a lot to learn on that.

I'd like to learn to grow easy mushrooms, then build my way up after experience.

I'd love to have a small orchard with mini fruit cocktail trees (grafted combination), citrus and stone for sure. I don't think apples grow here. And thornless blackberry bushes (we have plenty of thorny brambles in the field next door, but ouch, plus we have to watch for snakes).

I'd also like edible, non-spreading bamboo. We probably wouldn't eat very much of it, but we'd put it along our north fence as a windbreak and privacy fence, and could eventually use the wood for lots of fun projects.

And finally, a pretty aquaponic fish farm to grow lettuce, and whatever else does well with aquaponics. I'd like it if we had catfish (we're from the South US), tilapia, crawfish (cray). And since this is a fantasy, then I'd like the setup big enough so we could have a small island to grow edible snails. The only way I can think of to keep the snails from spreading is to have stepping stones in the water that lead to the small island. Maybe we could have edible pond plants in the aquaponics setup, I haven't looked that up to know if it's possible, if so, lotus and taro for sure.

My dream garden is simple. Something classy, European, and surrounded by trees so it's enclosed. I also want some covered sofa and nice walkways.

You've overlooked nothing, Stuart. I dream about a garden large enough so that one could actually stroll through it, not just admire it from the driveway. An acreage resplended with flowering orchards, stone pathways, ponds and waterfalls, spots for quiet reflection, statues... Most of all, lots and lots of color...some tamed, some tangled. :) Don't want much, eh?

I meant to say that I'm 53 and fully intend to have this garden somewhere, somehow, some day. :)

Beautiful dreams, all of you! I think many aspects of Stuart's idea could be self-sustaining if you tweak it right, and exercise is important at all phases of life. Of course, if you become disabled as you age, well you'll likely need to move to assisted living anyhow, whether you farm or have an apartment.