I have 1/32th of an acre!

[Rosendula]

I have always been terrible with imagining sizes, even when told the measurements. I have never been able to picture what an acre would be, and never knew what a rod was (other than a bloke in Japan with a cool hat ).
Well, now I know!
My half-size allotment, which I was told was approx. 187sq.m, is 5 rods, which is a 1/32th (or is 1/32nd?) of an acre. So if I had 16 full-size plots, I'd have an acre (I'm clever, me ).
Furthermore, I have read that the average sized football pitch is 2 acres. I never knew that! So now, when people say they have an acre of land, I know it's about 1/2 a footy pitch.

I thought I would share this with anyone else out there who didn't have a clue.

[snapdragon]

congratulations Do you have to have one of those rods to measure it with?

I'm hoping to get a half plot when I can find where the allotment secretary hangs out

[gdb]

That's an interesting way of thinking about it. It's very hard to visualise land and things like acres mean very little to me.
(So when people ask, I can say I have about 3 football pitches!! )

[Clara]

isn't it telling the things we use culturally to compare stuff...of course if you had a lot of land you'd be obliged to refer it to the size of wales , perhaps only prince charly gets to do that

[LBR]

Is 5 rods a standard size? I found these surveyor's measurements: http://www.gloverfamily.com/docs/landmeasurements.htm

I've always wondered about rods, roods, legions, and such. How many acres in a square mile, etc.

Thanks for inspiring me to finally look up these things.

[Millymollymandy]

I have no probs as long as it is in m2! I can visualise land, the habitable area of a whole house or individual rooms and I know immediately what size they are. That's what comes of buying houses in France.

When some cheeky estate agent told us a house we were going to see had a hectare of land we knew immediately it was miles less than that although the stupid estate agent (and they SHOULD KNOW! ) insisted it was a hectare. Eventually they apologised to us and said it was actually 3,000m2. Which completely wasted our time as we'd never have bothered going to see a place with so little land.

[LBR]

I had to look up hectare. It's 10,000 square meters. Still vague. Found this:

One Hectare = 2.47 acres
One Hectare = 10,000 sq. meters or 107,600 sq. feet
One Acre = 4,050 square meters or 43,560 sq. feet

Okay, almost 2.5 acres.

Yeah, I can think in acres. But, I dream of land in miles...

[Masco&Bongo]

We have 1/3 of a acre

No idea how big that is in m, m2, football pitches, rods or anything else....

[Marc]

1/3 of an acre = 53 and a third sq rods - that's nearly 5 1/2 standard allotment plots or 11 half size ones

an acre is equivilent to 16 full-sized allotment plots.(10 rod plots) or 160 sq rods.

I found a UK site with similar info :-

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapev ... _4438.html

It's interesting as I've looked it up before but never remembered until now - now I will

[JulieSherris]

............an acre is equivilent to 16 full-sized allotment plots.(10 rod plots) or 160 sq rods.........

Right....so how many raised beds can I get into 40 allotment plots............

[Rosendula]

............an acre is equivilent to 16 full-sized allotment plots.(10 rod plots) or 160 sq rods.........

Right....so how many raised beds can I get into 40 allotment plots............

Hmm ... Well 1 acre is 10 square chains, and there are 100 links in a chain, so perhaps if you tell us how many links wide and long your raised bed will be, someone (else ) will no doubt give it a go

[Annpan]

I think we have enough space for about 30 double decker buses and a ping-pong table. That is about the same as 4 tennis courts.

[DominicJ]

I have 1/32th of an acre!

Oddly enough, me too, bit more if I count the front garden too.
Most of its lawn though.