Start a Garden Nursery to Become
Self Employed
 Whether your goal
is to become self employed or just to make a few extra dollars, consider starting
a garden nursery in your backyard. Regardless of your skill level, climate, or acreage
you can earn a respectable income and free yourself from the 9 to 5 grind. Depending
on your existing landscaping and income goals, you may even be able to start this
new business without spending a dime. I hope this article gets the ‘gears turning’
so that you come up with the perfect business opportunity for your interests and
lifestyle.
Before you select types of plants to raise and sell you need to decide when and
how much you want to work. Do you want year round production and sales or would
you prefer to focus on seasonal products? You could grow vegetables and bedding
plants from seed, market them in early spring, and be done for the season. Such
a burst of planting, raising, and rapid sales would require much time and attention during the growing season but then you would have 8 or 9 months off. If you are
looking for a more leisurely endeavor, consider purchasing whips (small bare root
trees) and growing them for a few years to greatly increase their value. In this
scenario your stock would require very little time and attention, but the income
is further down the road and proportionately smaller. There are many options, but
you will be more satisfied with your new business if determine the pace, hours,
and income potential before your first sale.
 The choice of plants
can also be considered based on your marketing strategy, and there are numerous
ways to offer your plants for sale. Fresh cut flowers or potted herbs would be a
great addition to a garden stand setup at a farmers market. Sell starter tomatoes,
peppers, or other garden plants at a weekend roadside sales stand. Costs for these
would be very minimal but the returns could be huge. Selling flats of bedding plants
in early spring is a sure fire way to sell large groups of plants very fast. As
your stock and experience grow, consider approaching landscaping companies. They
may appreciate the flexibility and price that a small local vendor could provide,
especially if you can provide 1” trees that every new cookie cutter subdivision
home gets!
Most businesses cost an arm and a leg to start, but consider using your existing
landscaping as stock. This won’t work for all plants, but many varieties are very
easy to propagate.
Some ornamental grasses, lilies, peonies, and many others can
be divided
with a spade or knife; one quick cut and one plant becomes two. Tulips,
Irises, Daffodils, and Hyacinths propagate themselves after sufficient growth. Simply
split the root stock or bulbs and one plant becomes several. The speed with which
you can grow
your business will be severely limited if you don’t purchase any stock, but this
is a possibility for the extremely thrifty. Save those cartons your plants came
in and reuse them; your neighbors probably won’t complain if you ask for their cartons
as well. You will be saving money and recycling at the same time. You may not have
the luxury of starting your business from plants on hand, but it is an option to
consider.
While considering what to cover in an article about starting a backyard garden nursery,
I certainly expected there to be more talk of flowers, plants, and shrubs. The reality
is that this venture is almost a guaranteed success if you have realistic goals
and set yourself up for success. If you want to retire in 10 years, you won’t be
able to start with a modest plan and begin with only the stock in your yard. The
10 year retirement plan also won’t work if you only want to work two hours a week.
The good news is that you can work as much or as little as you want, you are in
control of the when’s, what’s, and how’s and maybe this will provide the income
that allows you to start your modern sustainable homestead.
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