Love the community consultation. Please keep doing them. In regards to the Etsy question Dan: I think its a rip off what they charge on fees. I am selling seeds for 2$ per package and found none of the places like etsy, mercari, bonanza… worth the time. I am selling on Facebook market place. I always use the “local pick up only” function -that way I don’t have to connect my bank account to facebook. When people contact me for seeds, I then offer a shipping option, but I don’t use the facebook build in mechanism that would cost me 80 cents. Its working well for me so far. Seed packages with a theme like “native seeds” or “edible plants for your front yard” work well and bring in bigger money for less hustle.
This is great! I'm not sure I'll ask a question, but I definitely enjoy hearing them and your responses. A good opportunity to learn something or find out something entirely new!
Thank you so much Sean! Mine was the last question and the answer was so encouraging! I was really hoping that multiple ideas could come together for this elder and herb livelihood that is on my heart to continue pursuing. One of the things that I have loved about learning the permaculture ideology is that many things come together to support the growing of abundant life. And you pronounced my name perfectly well! I love reading other peoples answers as well. thank you for the encouragement, it’s wonderful to find such a knowledgeable community.
I have a ton of Creeping Charlie in my yard. I let it grow as ground cover. When I want to plant something, the CC is so easy to just grab by the handful, make a 'hole' & plant the new plant. Does it take over? Yes. But it also smothers more tenacious, taller weeds. So I allow it.
I've taken the same approach to Creeping Charlie; I don't know what else to do. It is ALL OVER my 0.8 acre yard. I yank it out by fistfuls when I'm putting in something new to give it the new little plant a chance.
Our Great-Grandparents had multiple income streams. As well as cost cutting/no cost skills such as food preservation. Penny saved is a penny earned. Great topic for a video.
I like that you do things like this. Not just answering questions but offering new ideas compared to some of the more "popular" channels. In my sidebar, there's yet another video from a guy with his usual "..they don't want you to know this," clickbait title and it ticks me off when folks like that copy/paste common knowledge gleaned elsewhere and are rewarded. I've walked away from those grubs. Thanks for sharing real experience.
On the diversified nursery/farm design topic: We have a twenty acre woodland that we're developing as our homestead using permaculture design principles. Part of the process involves clearing some of the trees to give us a place for our house and related infrastructure. The woodland will benefit from some thinning. A good portion of the material harvested is going into the timber frame of our house and the other outbuildings for the homestead. But there's lots more beyond what we need for our own use. And that leads to one of our cottage industry themes - wood products. I can build various kinds of planters and our nursery products are a natural match for marketing. I can build raised bed frames, bird houses, trellises, garden benches, etc. that all link to the nursery side. I do a bunch of my work with green wood, and teaching green woodworking is another iron in the fire for us. There's brash that can be chipped to provide woodchips and while that's never likely to be enough to sell, it's an onsite waste stream we can capture for the gardens. There's also the option of turning a bunch of that material into biochar, which is a marketable product. So what begins with the necessity of clearing an area for our house to stand becomes a multichannel flow of captured 'waste' back into potential income streams through the application of permaculture principles ;)
Before you chip your brash, I recommend considering dead hedges to keep deer out of regeneration forest areas. England are doing a parallel dead hedge with 4' between rows. Cornell is looking at slash walls. Also look to older traditions for forest management and products like coppice stands for easy firewood and poles (sell to gardeners). Then the obvious mushroom logs (classes or sell inoculated log chunks).
Creeping Charlie is a good medicine for respiratory issues, including allergic reactions such as hayfever. Dry and make a tea, or seep in alcohol/vinegar/honey to make a tincture 😊
I'm the one who asked about short fruit trees. I live in Chicago zone 6A. It seems like our weather tracks pretty closely with Edible Acres weather but maybe a little less snow.
Why short? Fruit trees can be either pruned to short and/or grown on "short" rootstock. Purchase dwarf or semi dwarf root stock and graft your favorite onto them. Look to UK hedgerows. Prunus, malus are all heavily pruned, but pruning limits fruiting.
This is only tangentially related to some of your points, but it kept reentering my mind when people had nursery questions. I am very excited about the prospect of running of business based of sharing food plants with people, but I, like many people struggle to take someone’s money or set up these exchanges in strictly monetary way. While obviously I can’t make a living off of giving things away, I truly can’t describe all the opportunities and the amount of abundance that has been offered to me simply because of free plant exchanges. An entirely different connection is made (not saying good or bad) when you and someone else collaborate on a space or plan and plants and labor are given freely. My food stores, access to fresh food and skills in harvesting and preserving have gone up exponentially. Obviously some people are not in a place where they can give free time and plants as readily, but if you are in that position I’d suggest doing it as often as you can manage. Money is only the middle man with getting things done, having a community that thrives off your mutual success is much more effective.
Do you technically need a nursery license to sell plants by any means? This concern has prevented me from doing so. I've reached out to my state government and they ignored my question of whether I can gift plants in exchange for donations to a charity as a fundraising activity and just said I need a license.
“You might hear some sounds in the background, that is life going on in our home.” No frills and still great content. Thanks for the vid!
Love the community consultation. Please keep doing them.
In regards to the Etsy question Dan: I think its a rip off what they charge on fees.
I am selling seeds for 2$ per package and found none of the places like etsy, mercari, bonanza… worth the time. I am selling on Facebook market place. I always use the “local pick up only” function -that way I don’t have to connect my bank account to facebook.
When people contact me for seeds, I then offer a shipping option, but I don’t use the facebook build in mechanism that would cost me 80 cents.
Its working well for me so far.
Seed packages with a theme like “native seeds” or “edible plants for your front yard” work well and bring in bigger money for less hustle.
Are you required to have some kind of license for selling your seeds or plants on FB marketplace?
This is great! I'm not sure I'll ask a question, but I definitely enjoy hearing them and your responses. A good opportunity to learn something or find out something entirely new!
Thank you so much Sean! Mine was the last question and the answer was so encouraging! I was really hoping that multiple ideas could come together for this elder and herb livelihood that is on my heart to continue pursuing.
One of the things that I have loved about learning the permaculture ideology is that many things come together to support the growing of abundant life.
And you pronounced my name perfectly well! I love reading other peoples answers as well. thank you for the encouragement, it’s wonderful to find such a knowledgeable community.
I have a ton of Creeping Charlie in my yard. I let it grow as ground cover. When I want to plant something, the CC is so easy to just grab by the handful, make a 'hole' & plant the new plant. Does it take over? Yes. But it also smothers more tenacious, taller weeds. So I allow it.
I've taken the same approach to Creeping Charlie; I don't know what else to do. It is ALL OVER my 0.8 acre yard. I yank it out by fistfuls when I'm putting in something new to give it the new little plant a chance.
To answer Christine: Espalier or step-over fruit trees might be nice along a six foot high fence.
Interesting! Espalier fruit trees along the fence would look so beautiful. I'll have to look into that. Thanks!
Our Great-Grandparents had multiple income streams. As well as cost cutting/no cost skills such as food preservation. Penny saved is a penny earned.
Great topic for a video.
I really enjoyed this video - including the real life aspect 😁
I like that you do things like this. Not just answering questions but offering new ideas compared to some of the more "popular" channels. In my sidebar, there's yet another video from a guy with his usual "..they don't want you to know this," clickbait title and it ticks me off when folks like that copy/paste common knowledge gleaned elsewhere and are rewarded. I've walked away from those grubs. Thanks for sharing real experience.
On the diversified nursery/farm design topic: We have a twenty acre woodland that we're developing as our homestead using permaculture design principles. Part of the process involves clearing some of the trees to give us a place for our house and related infrastructure. The woodland will benefit from some thinning. A good portion of the material harvested is going into the timber frame of our house and the other outbuildings for the homestead. But there's lots more beyond what we need for our own use. And that leads to one of our cottage industry themes - wood products. I can build various kinds of planters and our nursery products are a natural match for marketing. I can build raised bed frames, bird houses, trellises, garden benches, etc. that all link to the nursery side. I do a bunch of my work with green wood, and teaching green woodworking is another iron in the fire for us. There's brash that can be chipped to provide woodchips and while that's never likely to be enough to sell, it's an onsite waste stream we can capture for the gardens. There's also the option of turning a bunch of that material into biochar, which is a marketable product. So what begins with the necessity of clearing an area for our house to stand becomes a multichannel flow of captured 'waste' back into potential income streams through the application of permaculture principles ;)
Before you chip your brash, I recommend considering dead hedges to keep deer out of regeneration forest areas. England are doing a parallel dead hedge with 4' between rows. Cornell is looking at slash walls.
Also look to older traditions for forest management and products like coppice stands for easy firewood and poles (sell to gardeners).
Then the obvious mushroom logs (classes or sell inoculated log chunks).
Creeping Charlie is a good medicine for respiratory issues, including allergic reactions such as hayfever. Dry and make a tea, or seep in alcohol/vinegar/honey to make a tincture 😊
You rock bro. Thanks!
I'm the one who asked about short fruit trees. I live in Chicago zone 6A. It seems like our weather tracks pretty closely with Edible Acres weather but maybe a little less snow.
Why short?
Fruit trees can be either pruned to short and/or grown on "short" rootstock. Purchase dwarf or semi dwarf root stock and graft your favorite onto them.
Look to UK hedgerows. Prunus, malus are all heavily pruned, but pruning limits fruiting.
Get a semi dwarf of your favorite fruit - and then train the young branches to go sideways and keep pruning the ones that poke above the fence ! :)
How long to grow elderberry orchard, if starting with 6 to 8 in tall plants? Zone 5 ontario
This is only tangentially related to some of your points, but it kept reentering my mind when people had nursery questions.
I am very excited about the prospect of running of business based of sharing food plants with people, but I, like many people struggle to take someone’s money or set up these exchanges in strictly monetary way. While obviously I can’t make a living off of giving things away, I truly can’t describe all the opportunities and the amount of abundance that has been offered to me simply because of free plant exchanges.
An entirely different connection is made (not saying good or bad) when you and someone else collaborate on a space or plan and plants and labor are given freely. My food stores, access to fresh food and skills in harvesting and preserving have gone up exponentially.
Obviously some people are not in a place where they can give free time and plants as readily, but if you are in that position I’d suggest doing it as often as you can manage. Money is only the middle man with getting things done, having a community that thrives off your mutual success is much more effective.
This is my favorite answer. Emphasis on community and bartering with abundance really strikes a chord in my heart.
Do you technically need a nursery license to sell plants by any means? This concern has prevented me from doing so. I've reached out to my state government and they ignored my question of whether I can gift plants in exchange for donations to a charity as a fundraising activity and just said I need a license.