Saturday, May 21, 2011

Ebay and Online Stores

I've been buying items on Ebay for a few years. This week was the first time I sold something.  It was quite the learning experience and now I'm glad a did it.  I got a rush when I saw that my item sold. (And I almost put it in my thrift store donation pile).  I'm glad that I made a little extra income and now I'm trying to figure out what else I can sell!  Do you have any tips for selling on Ebay?  My next goal is to sell homemade items on Etsy.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Edible Landscaping

Eric and I don't like all useless lawns that surround entire houses.  Why waste time every day or week watering, mowing, and fertilizing a lawn?  I could go on and on about how pointless a manicured lawn is, but for the sake of time I won't. 

Instead of a lawn at our house, our plan is to replace the sod with native and/or edible plants.  We have seen wonderful pictures of people who have already done so.  I think we got a good start on it last year by building ten raised beds and adding a chicken pasture.

On our property we have a steep hill that runs the length of our yard.  We are very eager to plant edible bushes on this hill so that we don't have to mow the grass.  Our plan is to add blueberries, currants, ground cherries, native roses, and other decorative edibles over the course of a couple years. 

We just recieved our first Northland Blueberry bushes and Black Currant bushes from St. Lawrence Nursery in Upstate New York.  We bought our three apples trees from that company last year.  Blueberries aren't usually grown around our neck of the woods, but we have a few pine trees near the steep hill that will make the soil more acidic.  And the currants Eric planted with hopes that we will actually like the berries (we haven't tasted black currants yet). 

Practicing patience before we see any fruit!
The month of May is giving us lots of projects.  In the background of the photo is the fence that Eric is building.

-M