Can you lease just 1 acre to start a small farm/garden?

Hello!,

 I'm new here so bear with me haha. I have always been interested in gardening/farming but I don't really have a lot of space to do so in the property that I live in. I was wondering if it is possible to lease just 1 acre to start a small farm/garden. If so, what would the price range be? What tips should I know to start this? If this is possible at all, I would plan on having chickens and growing some vegetables (no clue what yet haha). I live in Ohio.

  Thanks,
     Adam

Around here, land is often a burden to the people that claim to be it's owners. People are delighted if someone will take care of their place for them. No lease or rent payments required.

My farm is about 3 acres scattered across 7 fields in 4 communities. It could be much larger if I didn't turn down so many offers to care for people's land. The owners pay the property taxes, and the water bill. I grow fruits or vegetables, and might share some. I might also do some non-farming  care for the property like mowing/watering a lawn, pruning trees, or just watching over the place while the owner is away.

One of the property owners receives a huge property tax discount because I am farming the land, rather than having the county tax  it at residential rates. In such a scenario, you might consider asking the property owner to pay you to farm the land....

One of my farmer's market pals farms on a lot of small urban lots scattered around a neighborhood in the big city. She doesn't pay rent either, people just love the feeling of knowing that someone is taking care of their land, and growing something useful on it.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Around here, land is often a burden to the people that claim to be it's owners. People are delighted if someone will take care of their place for them. No lease or rent payments required.

My farm is about 3 acres scattered across 7 fields in 4 communities. It could be much larger if I didn't turn down so many offers to care for people's land. The owners pay the property taxes, and the water bill. I grow fruits or vegetables, and might share some. I might also do some non-farming  care for the property like mowing/watering a lawn, pruning trees, or just watching over the place while the owner is away.

One of the property owners receives a huge property tax discount because I am farming the land, rather than having the county tax  it at residential rates. In such a scenario, you might consider asking the property owner to pay you to farm the land....

One of my farmer's market pals farms on a lot of small urban lots scattered around a neighborhood in the big city. She doesn't pay rent either, people just love the feeling of knowing that someone is taking care of their land, and growing something useful on it.

Thanks for the info! How did you find the land? Should I post an ad in the newspaper or something similar or is there another method that is better to use? Thanks again.

First try posting an ad here at permies!  https://permies.com/f/27/land-share

I got my first field because I saw a note in the post office for "horse pasture for rent". The rest of my fields people came to me and asked me to farm their place. I paid rent on the first field for a few years. $400 for an acre for a year. Which was way overpaying. The average rent in this area is closer to $60 to $100 per acre per year.

If you see an orchard that hasn't been pruned in years, or fruit trees where the fruit is falling on the ground, stop and talk to the owners. They might be thrilled if someone took care of their place. If you see a place that was previously a garden, but that is going to weeds this year, that's a great place to strike up a conversation with the current tenants.

The Small Farm Plan By Booker T. Whatley | MOTHER EARTH NEWS
https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/small-farm-plan-zmaz82mjzkin

I think there's almost no endeavor more important these days than small farming.  Diversified small farms are much more productive per land unit than large commodity ones, and can be more resilient to weather extremes.

Hi! I live in Ohio too! I also worked with and work as a small farmer. Farming is awesome, but as for money, it takes a while to build up enough to do anything, and I wouldn't rely on it for income for atleast 5 years, and one acre is probably a good start, but long term I think five acres is minimum...but starting with 0.25 acres is not a bad way to go because there's a learning curve and getting set up and through that curve takes time and energy. Also, many farms have a secondary "agrotourism" or educational aspect.

If you are close to Cleveland there's many small farmers who are willing to show you what they have going on.

Try Craigslist. I stumbled across an ad a few days ago asking for someone to plant & care for their large garden. Looked to be 2 or 3,000 square feet. It was already tilled & manured. Apparently it was an older couple who just wanted to share.

What states are we talking about here?

Jody, welcome to the forum.

Since this thread is from 5 years ago, there may not be a lot of response.

To me, anyone can lease just 1 acre to farm as long as the city, county state laws do not prohibit farming or agriculture.

The trick is find 1 acre of raw land for lease.

It also depends on what type of farming.  For just a market garden one acre sounds good to me.

We made a good living for 27 years on 1/4 acre of rented land with artesian geothermal well water. The warm water enabled us to grow our crop year-round in an area with cold winters. We invested quite a bit in infrastructure over the years but it really paid off. We sold the farm business a couple years ago. The current farm operators are doing well on the same rented ground.
The company that we rented from has a considerable amount of land and water and the owners are willing to rent to entrepreneurial farmers with credentials and a good business plan.  

To answer the question: YES, you definitely can lease small piece of land to start and learn about farming.. if you are eager to learn, you might build your own farming business in our land for free. We can offer business mentoring as well .

My husband and I started our farming journey in 2018.  We develop a sustainable pasture raised multi-livestock business and sell our farm production in local Farmers market. Now we are seeking permaculture or organic vegetable growers to join us as business partner.
Please see more detail link here : https://sevenoakscoastalfarm.com/our-partners/seeking-local-vegetable-grower-partnership

Our land is at Georgia coastal line, zone 9a .