Sean, you’ve been one of my biggest inspirations in the world of permaculture. I’m taking my PDC with Verge now. Hope you and the family are well and you’re getting some sleep. 😊
Thanks so so much Andrew and thank you for being a consistent part of our community for all this time, so wonderful! Wishing you great abundance and success. Yep, we're sleeping, Zelda is rad :)
Your channel made permaculture approachable to me and my family. I have learned so much over the years from your channel and I thank you and your lovely family for all your contributions to the body of permaculture knowledge. Thank you as always for sharing your observations and findings with us all!
Farmer's markets. We got licensed as a small nusery last spring and began selling annual veg plants and some perennial cuttings at the local farmer's market. In our state the license for an operation our size is only 50 bucks/yr. Public support was very encouraging indeed. We were able to undercut the prices big box stores charge for starts, despite us being all-organic, all-heirloom, etc. And still made enough profit to re-invest a few hundred dollars back into our gardens. We also met a lot of knowledgable people with whom to network and learn. And we feel great about helping more folks start home gardens, or continue/expand their existing gardens for less money. Moving forward we'll be following many of the ideas shown here, to offr more perennials and flowers and so on. But the veg starts really helped us get our foot in the door with very little cash to start with, and I honestly feel we're doing the community a service at the same time.
Thank you thank you for sharing this! I just made my first couple of air prune boxes out of scrap wood and milk crates. They're living where the paths should probably be in my tiny rental's garden! Super inspired by you and Akiva's book. I've been scrounging fruit and nut seeds while out working my day job as a dog walker. Yesterday I even found a smooshed Hachiya persimmon gift that a crow had left on a bench. It kinda feels like a superpower to have this knowledge.
It can feel like magic sometimes or a trick to think you can collect seeds from trees and help them turn into trees. It's such a simple and known concept but it still gets me when I hold a handful of seeds and think about the small mountain of nuts or fruits that can come from tending them correctly...
Now you've done it! I love the informality of your standard content but now realize I also love this specifically informative type of content. I'm pretty sure that you could talk about anything and I'd enjoy it. I tend to like to do things out of the box and everything you post speaks to me or inspires me to change things so they better support my needs. BTW, the word you use that opened up my gardening vision was "explore". Recognizing I can decide how and what my gardening journey will be. Thank you. Gonna go grab some oasage oranges to soak for seeds this spring.....
i made $175 this, my first, year of sales and am still so very excited for next year! How would you address folks who think that a street tree for city planting needs to be a containerized (expensive), 6' multi-year-old tree? I have looked for research on planting 1 or 2 year (oaks, hickories) bare root trees in the city and can't find any research.
So great you are starting things and making it happen for yourself, wonderful! As far as the street tree idea, I think it's a matter of helping people understand the value... A $200 tree that absolutely needs stakes to keep it up, ample constant watering to survive establishment and may very well die without that may not be the solution just to get a tall tree initially.... A $20 bare root tree planted when dormant generally will be QUITE larger and healthier after 2-3 years. It's worth continuing the conversation and demonstrating!
The timing of this is perfect. Over the next several years I want to build up a home nursery, first to help plant out my property and then eventually as a business. I look forward to future videos!
You, Shasha & Juan through this channel have revived by wish to have a homestead nursery. Akiva mentioned your channel in his. Greatly enjoy the content in both.
Thank you for this series and all the knowledge you share. One of my retirement goals is to have a small nursery. However, my biggest challenge is the very dry climate and extremely hot summers we have in Texas. Merry Christmas to you and your family! Juan too!
Your region needs you!!! Working on understanding hardy plants that can thrive in your conditions and sharing with people those plants and how to grow them resiliently will be a super valuable offering into the future... I hope it comes together for you!
This is awesome Sean, your generous and loving spirit is always an inspiration.....I have been reading 'entangled life' by Merlin Sheldrake, which brings together many of the amazing research concerning fungi and their many symbiotic relationships....he comments (and I paraphrase) that scientists views on the reasons why these relationships come about generally reflect the political lens that the individuals view life through. There are those who insist that the relationships will only come about if it offers advantage to an organism to make it worthwhile, and then there are those who have the feeling that nature just cooperates on some levels, for the advantage of all, altruistic ish. I go with the latter, and your way of being, and your community give me hope that it can be the norm. And yes, I am highly motivated to grow some food foresty plants for others in my locality as a result of your information. Go well.
It seems like nature just demonstrates over and over and over and over again that the default behavior, especially when it comes to plants and certainly trees, is to cooperate and make it work for everyone involved. Most plants and wild beings feel, at least to me, to be on that page. The capitalist and competitive lens feels like a human specific way of seeing things
Hoping to get my permaculture nursery going next spring on my off grid property in southern Oregon. Have a ton of prep to do before then. I’ve been following you guys for a long time and am super excited to implement some of the many techniques I’ve learned. You all are an inspiration and I appreciate every video you do!
I received my PDC from Rob/Verge back in 2012. I was thrilled to see you team up with him considering how influential both of you have been to me. Love your work and your voice in the community. keep up the great work!
Great video. I imagine growing plants suited for your area (wet) is also what people in your area are looking for so kudos for not fighting Mother Nature!
Getting the ball rolling is something I have every intention to do. I’ve been learning so much through you in getting my food forest started. I might even make a road trip from Vermont to buy from you and meet you in person with my friend who showed me your channel. You’ve filled my life with good vibes
Jake it is wonderful to have you with us in this expansive community. WIshing you wonderful growth in your explorations and please feel free to reach out early spring about a visit and plant pickup moment if that works for you!
Thank you for this wonderful information. I’ve been wanting to incorporate a nursery with my garden for a few years now. Your videos have inspired me to create a chicken composting system. I absolutely love hanging out in the chickens yard with the ladies. Thanks again.
I am a Canadian Horticulturist and Permaculturist with a shared love of perennial food plants, your videos have been a source of inspiration, comfort, and wisdom for many years now. Thank you, you life bringer you! I am looking forward to the rest of the videos in this series, and thank you for sharing your surplus of experience and wisdom, which I hope to call on as I plan my/our spring food forest expansions. All the best!
This video is perfectly timed. I am SO excited about the possibilities. We just moved to 4 acres from a tiny .8 acre home. Looking forward to the next videos.
Thank you so much for this video, Sean! I'm so glad you're doing these permaculture nursery videos. I was feeling down for not having achieved all the things I wanted to achieve this first year in our garden. Watching your videos always uplifts me and makes me feel I can do things. Most importantly, it helps me not think of the things I didn't succeed at and focus on the ones I can and on trying again. A big hug to you and your family! 🤗💛🤗 PS: it's been awesome to hear about how you did that first plant sale with Akiva and how things evolved from that.
Dear Sean - Thank you very much for sharing your experiences and knowledge with us! I am just starting in southern NH and am learning a lot from you and your team. Thanks once more for your generosity!
Great thoughts as always man. You've really inspired us (and many others here, I'm sure) to get going on the nursery path. We're even about to finally launch our website! It's an exciting time for the world of permaculture and you are right in the middle of it and helping guide the next generations of growers along. That's as noble of a legacy as I can think of! We can all be proud of the great work we do on this Earth. Keep it up, my friend!
You continue to inspire me. I found your channel during lockdown and now I have 6 air prune beds in my parents backyard and a cuttings prop bed with around 300 plants starting. I appreciate your work and willingness to teach an ol redneck country boy like me. Many thanks from KY.
Great video, thanks for putting this out, looking forward to the other videos as well! Moving towards a low scale plant nursery focusing on edible foods. Been watching for a few years, love how freely you share- knowledge, plants, time, energy! I also firmly believe that what you send out you receive back.
Sharing in this way has been extremely rewarding and fruitful for me in many ways so it is absolutely with my pleasure that this is offered up. Good luck on the nursery!
Permaculture inspiration that is actually helpful for small to big. But this apply to gardens as well as farms. Thanks a million. Happy new Year and I hope it will bring you prosperity and good health. Greatings from Sweden.
Thanks for sharing! I really appreciate the "To begin a nursery" section. For years, I have been saying when I get a tractor, when I build a greenhouse, when I get a pond dug... I just keep pushing the dream away into the future. It's refreshing to think I can just start here where I'm at, with what I have already. Thanks for the inspiration 🦨🦨
Thanks Sean for starting this great, very useful and applicable, series. Much appreciated. One suggestion - is there a way that you could list the other nurseries / enterprises that you mentioned. For example, list the name of the place where we can get the grafted apple trees, etc. It would be a way to spread the word and support each other. … ie more pieces of the community (puzzle) that can fit together. Thanks for sharing your wonderful knowledge 😊
I'm glad you appreciating this information. That's a great suggestion and something to consider, in the short run I think the nursery I was mentioning is Cummins Nursery in Ithaca New York. On our website there is a pretty robust list of nurseries we really like. Edibleacres.org/permiculture-nurseries
Thank you so much for doing this! I hope to propogate here as we begin our permaculture biodynamic farm for a second time. This will be super helpful I'm sure. Thanks again!
Very inspiring, especially hearing your reassurance that you can start small and work with what you have! I'm just beginning my garden, but I think it would be fun in the long term to learn how to propagate from cuttings (easy elderberries, currants, etc. to start) and save/grow from seed. I have a different job, so I'd even be happy to just give them away; The more plants out there, the better! Unfortunately, one big thing I worry about now is Jumping Worms. None in my garden yet but a friend who lives a few streets away has them, so it's a matter of when, not if, they find my backyard. I wouldn't want to spread them around (their cocoons look just like dirt), but thankfully bare root's an option! Looking forward to part 2!
i'm fairly sure that i brought jumping worms into my yard in the bags of leaves that i've been hauling in 🤥 it's crazy what they do to the soil. i am super careful about washing the roots before selling, but it is a huge bummer. take care!
Wishing you great success in your growing! Jumping Worms are not wonderful but they aren't the end of the world. If you find you have them in the nursery space, just plan to wash roots off with rain water and then a hose and offer them as bare root in fresh sawdust or other moist media. I wouldn't worry too much about it!
Thank you for doing this Sean it’s a great remind, revise and consolidation of useful information and I look forward too the remainder in this series. ❤
Thank you very much for this video (and all the others, your chanel is a true gold mine), very interesting content and information that I will implement at home, on the other side of the ocean, in France. All the best to you and the rest of the team.
I’d like to see this style of video done on your chicken system. It’s quite unique and was novel to me. I think others would find it valuable as well. Thanks again.
This was great! I am going to propogate some native red elderberries. I like your simple and natural approaches so can't wait to hear about it in detail. I plant everything like you do, where many plants are mixed together. Everything benefits eachother and it looks great, just like nature grows.
Hi Sean, thank you so much for putting this high quality piece of content out! Learned a lot. I’ve been growing trees for about 7 years now. Lots to learn.
this video is great....a perfect companion piece to the vlog style of your main content. connects a lot of dots for me. one suggestion to add: would be cool to see how youve laid out your whole property with a map, too. youve inspired me. one thing I kinda wonder: how to choose a place to grow? if someone could buy some land anywhere - how should they go about deciding where?
Great question, and interestingly I touch on it in a community consultation question that I just recorded an answer to... Some thoughts will be coming with the next video. Map idea is nice, I think borrowing or investing in a drone to record would be a smart move for me at some point...
Thank you so so much for inspiring me and helping me think deeply about my role in my community. In spirit of building discussion, in my mind it’d be helpful to understand the work flow of Sean, Sasha and Juan in terms of harvesting perennial plants for consumption. For example, it’d be helpful to know, that while in addition to propagating , do you folks harvest/preserve/utilize what feels like enough goji or goumi or currants or elderberries or poplar or miscanthus or kiwis or peaches etc etc? More than enough? Way more? How are you striving to improve your work flow for purposes of consuming the yields to eat and utilize the kinds of plants that you propagate for sale?
Neat questions here for sure. There are definitely some crops we harvest in a thorough way. For example, Seaberry we now harvest as much as possible and process into a raw juice we mix with water all winter. It's a simple enough process so we do it thoroughly. Sasha processes whatever black currants I bring back into wine so I try hard to bring a lot! That said, I would venture a guess that right now we probably only harvest a gentle fraction of what could be consumed from the perennial aspects of our land... It feels a bit more like creating this deep abundance that many creatures can enjoy for now and we can dip into as needed. We could do 'better' in that regard but it seems like it will reveal and unfold when its the right time
Thanks so much for this Shawn. I appreciate your passion and knowledge. I always wanted to be in a situation where I can get my hands dirty growing my own food. Been learning as much as I can over the last 3 years or so. Hoping to build to a point where I can sell what I grow. There are some real challenges being super rural. For now, I will do what I can,when I can and see how things evolve. Best wishes to you Sasha and Zelda. 👊😎
Is there a way to see the slides with a full view? Some of the information is blocked. A recommendation for further parts. Perhaps you can shrink the size of the webcam video so it doesn't interfere with the information being showing in the slides. Thank you again for this knowledge really do appreciate your time and efforts as an American living in the UK. I have literally just started creating my own organic permaculture nursery with a focus on trees.
Howdy from Washington state! Long time viewer and this is just perfect timing. I’m working on setting up a perennial edible permaculture nursery that will launch in the spring. Hoping it well one day allow my wife and I to work from home full time. How did it affect your annual sales when you went from just selling locally to selling bare root online? Thank you for sharing your knowledge, you’ve inspired many projects on our one acre property. Grateful for your videos, looking forward to the next three parts of this series. Happy winter solstice to you and your family!
Going to online wasn't a massive jump in income right away... It too about 2 years to slowly build up but now it represents most of our annual documented income, like 80% or more... Wishing you great success and thank you for being part of our growing community!
Wow! Thank you for this gift. We aren’t sure what our plans are but ideally I’d like to be able to make some income off our lot as a way to supplement retirement. Our home and large city lot are the backbone of our retirement plans. We have a head start on personal food production but I’d love to do some plant propagation to sell at a farmers market alongside my existing other small cottage biz. One thing I’d like to know is what are the legalities around propagation? Are some plants patented and therefore not accessible to a small concern?
You're one of my favourite human beings. Also, the main culprit I got into chickens more than a year ago. I'm trying to adapt many of your ideas to Spain's hot temperate climate. Do you know about any resource on how to preserve water in hottest climates? I wish you well to you and your family.
I think the best thing you can do to hold onto precious water in a dry place is to focus on very very deep mulches to lower sun heat getting into soil and reduce evaporation, that and have good tree coverage so the ground is naturally shaded!
Thank you for sharing these two parts. I was looking for some resource to get started and this came in handy. Just a small suggestion: if you can minimize the talking head video or remove it which showing the pictures, it may help to see the areas you are marking and talking about. Maybe in the upcoming videos. Thanks a lot!
Top five plants you would count on to keep you and your family alive in truly hard times? Mine are, Jerusalem Artichokes, White Goosefoot, Orange Giant Amaranth, Turnips and Winter Peas. I bought some J. Artichokes from you three years ago that have gone insane. I dug up five buckets worth the other day in less than an hour. Other than digging them up I do NOTHING for them. Love it.
i'm wondering about the possibility of selling bare root plants at market. i started a small nursery from my spreading perennials last year and made maybe 600 bux 😀 although cheap or free pots are readily available, the soil to fill them was the biggest hurdle/expense. i have to admit my composting game is lacking which is embarrassing going into the fifth year of my food forest.
GOod question... If you can secure a massive amount of woodchips ASAP and let them rot down that can be a great bulking media for potting up plants as one idea... I think if you can heel in plants in very shady and cool microclimates in your landscape you can extend the bare root season quite a bit. Advertising early and often on facebook marketplace, craigslist, etc etc can help you move along plants too. These free and publicly open spaces to advertise have been huge for me getting started early on, very worth trying!
@@edibleacres thank you very much. i saw your flash sale of cuttings yesterday and thought i should go out and do some of my own, though our ground JUST froze. i think i'll do some in pots...The woodchip game is rough around here. we have a huge gardening/food forest scene in a really small town so they are in high demand but i''ll keep researching. maybe manure, sawdust and...other...
I think trying to figure out what plants will sell in your area is important as well. I live down in Tasmania, Australia and am trying to figure that out.. I'm growing some curants and elderberries as i've learnt from you that theyre easy beginner plants, not sure how well they'll sell though . We will see. Thanks for all the amazing information!
Good notes to think about here... Currants and Elder... Amazing plants to start with but do they have a market or desire in your area? Well, the good news is that since they aren't risky or expensive to propagate you can try without it being a problem if they don't sell well. You can also do the work to promote why people would want the plants! I feel like I do a fair bit of explaining why I think certain plants are just so wonderful and why folks may enjoy them. I believe in it so it never feels like a sales pitch, just helping people get excited about what I love.
Hi Sean. How do you deal with rodends in the high tunnel at neighbours place? Maybe also in other places where you have a mulch over soil? I noticed that if I do not cut my hey field that is next to my permaculture garden with huge hey mulch layer, then they are way less in the garden. I think it can be because of that they can eat some simple grass roots and don’t need to come to the garden for veggies. What is your experience? Thanks.
Voles can be tough... We have a number of cats that are outside and more neighborhood cats are coming in as time goes on which I think has a huge regulating effect on things in this way...
Is the nursery that you mentioned that does apple trees near you called Mehrabyan Nursery? I had noticed when I ordered from them that they are also from Ithaca NY and was wondering if you knew them. They seem like great people and all the trees I got from them are doing great
I think I was probably mentioning or thinking of Cummins nursery, but yes what you mentioned is a lovely nursery and they are great folks with great plants
I so love your videos and your approach to life. Inspiring. One problem I'm worried about ... standing water and our 4 legged rodent friends. Like you I appreciate how rats turn over compost (esp that which is non chicken friendly and in a separate tardis) but the idea of Weill's disease gives me pause for thought. I have a small rain filled pond and am thinking I might fill it in. But then ... frogs love it... thoughts welcome. Peace and power to all of us earth guardians.
Is weil's very prominent where you live? I had to look it up to get familiar. we don't have it where i am but we do have hantavirus. the way i've dealt with that over the years is just by taking the recommended precautions when i'm in a high risk situation and other than that, just hope for the best. i imagine building a nicely integrated ecosystem outweighs the risk of disease. water plants and trees attract rodents but also birds and snakes and others to create a balance. the thought of a little pond with frogs near me is lovely (and a future plan!) good luck with it all 🐸🌱
Thank you megathorn. I live in the UK ... Mid Eastern side ... Yorkshire...so the only snakes we have are adders and grass snakes ... I don't think they're major rat eaters ... I'm probably going to have to explore sodium bicarbonate as recommended by Doug n Stacey and peanut butter and buckets of water by the Weedy Garden. It would be great to leave them just be but they're breeding toooo successfully now .... more holes appearing. They clearly have a very good life! So all I want to do is lower the numbers ... not many predators here ... Owls and other wild birds ... But there's miles of open countryside which they prefer. Maybe I should invest in some ferrets or a falcon...half joking but possibly some sense there too. Waiting for colder weather and then I'll start the process ... Nothing like procrastination.
Hi there, the Weils disease question is new to me... I looked it up and it seems scary I suppose but also something I've never heard of in our area so it honestly hasn't been something that has been on my mind at all . Rats when they do show up have been only in the chicken composting area and have only been beneficial to our system in that context. I monitor it and if things evolve and unfold in different ways I will be very open to intervening. Certainly poison is out of the question but the dehydrating approach is something that doesn't seem horrible I suppose and the body could then be composted or allowed to feed other wild animals. Just not an area I have much to offer other than I've been in observation mode more than interaction mode in our context
@@handlethehandle7 great minds! i need some ferrets or weasels to take care of my prairie dogs. and i'd love a falcon but i hear that to become a falconer you must go out and catch your own. i don't have time for that 🤣
My Main limitation is I live at the end of wilderness road and not legal to drive. I have to find some good soil to start the propagation. I want to build a landscape of what plants are possible here. A demonstration garden. Then I could sell Varieties that do grow well.
Perhaps potted plants brought to market or farmstands can help get things moving, that and advertising online for local pickup and handoff... Just some ideas!
@@edibleacres wrt trees and shrubs, I will try local advertising on a while supplies last basis. Since I am building a demonstration ecosystem, it may do well when people can see the plants do well and what the look like in the garden.
do you have to deal with plant pasports, or is that a EU thing? I work at a seed company, and I can imagine that it is a nightmare for small businesses.
Thank you for sharing. I hope what I suggest is not needed. What if something would happen, illness/ death is there anyone to take over say the apple tree grafter with the sharp knife. He is good. It would be a shame for all his work to go to waste and so much work to get it going again if there is an illness. Just a thought and thanks for sharing.
I love your channel but so much of it does not apply to my environment. You live in a damp climate. I live in a dry climate in zone 4-5. But I watch nonetheless because you are such an inspiration. Thank you.
Those irrigation ponds would be wonderful, if I got enough rain to fill them. Some of the bushes, like the elderberry, might survive here and would provide food for the chickens. It's the chicken system you have that would work really well here. A few other things will work. Thank you so much.
