Starting A Plant Nursery

Starting a backyard plant nursery is a great opportunity to cash in on your passion for plants and gardening. It's one of the most effective strategies to turn a few hundred bucks into a substantial income.

The neighborhood garden center is frequently the first thing that springs to mind when people think of a plant nursery. The truth is that most garden centers only grow a small percentage of the plants they sell. Instead, they buy plants from specialised nurseries that cultivate the plants themselves.

Specialty plant nurseries come in many sizes, from small backyard nurseries to large regional wholesale nurseries that supply merchants across multiple states. That's the beauty of the plant nursery industry: there's room for everyone, from part-time "mom and pop" operators to corporate behemoths. And you might be surprised to learn how many of the corporate behemoths began as backyard growers with little more than a "shovel and a wheelbarrow."

The key to making money with a backyard plant nursery is to focus on high-demand plants that can be grown in containers to conserve space. The "pot-in-pot" approach, a relatively new development in container planting, allows farmers to create larger trees and shrubs without the back-breaking manual digging and excessive water consumption that field growing requires. Container gardening saves time, water, and transplanting for smaller plants.

Growers in small towns and rural areas can also make a solid living by selling wholesale plants to retail nurseries and landscapers in their area. A local ornamental grass grower sells her whole year's crop to retail garden centers 90 miles distant.

Buying wholesale at great discounts is one of the best "perks" of operating your own plant nursery. There are hundreds of wholesale nurseries that specialize in several sorts of plant beginnings known as "plugs, liners, and whips" in the industry. All you have to do now is re-pot them in a larger pot – say, a 5′′ or 6′′ size – and wait a year or so for the plants to mature to a size that can be sold. The profit margins are incredible — you may find starters for 25 cents that can be resold for $5 in a year – a 2000% markup!

But wait, there's more! Once you've acquired your "mother" plants, you can easily propagate additional using cuttings or root division, thereby halving your plant expenditures. When it comes to ground covers and decorative grasses, for example, this can make a big difference because most purchasers require dozens of plants rather than just one or two.

Covers For The Ground

It's easy to see why a ground cover nursery could be the ideal backyard nursery crop, with profits of up to $20 per square foot. Ground covers are becoming the practical approach to landscape in light of today's high labor costs and water shortages. Ground covers can pay for themselves in a year or two by requiring no mowing, little upkeep, and conserving water. They can help protect the soil from erosion and keep it cool and wet, minimizing the need for watering by acting as a living mulch.

Ground coverings are easy to grow, propagate, and sell, in addition to being a high-value crop. Because most ground coverings come in one-gallon pots, four pots require only one square foot of growing space. A 50 × 50-foot backyard plot can accommodate 8,000 plants, which can be sold for $3 wholesale or $4 to $5 retail. Learn about the most popular ground covers, how to set up a container nursery, how to propagate for free growing stock, how to wholesale your plants to landscapers and garden retailers, and how to offer $5-per-plant "Retail Saturdays."

Ornamental Grass

Ornamental grasses are currently experiencing a spike in popularity. They range in size from six-inch tufts to giants standing 20 feet tall. They're popular among landscapers since they may be utilized in a variety of ways, such as ground coverings, display plants, borders, and near ponds, as well as privacy screens and rock gardens. Another benefit is that these low-maintenance perennials remain far longer than flowers in the landscape, with some even staying into the winter dormant season.

Most people think of Pampas grass, the "queen" of decorative grasses, when they think of ornamental grasses. Hundreds of additional ornamental grasses exist, the majority of which are hardy in the north. There are roughly 25 annual ornamental grasses, in addition to perennial grasses, that are cultivated from seed and have gorgeous flowers that can be dried for bouquets.

Ornamental grasses are simple to grow and have few insects or diseases to contend with. The majority of them may be propagated by simply dividing the root clump as it matures and expands.

Many specialist nurseries are selling out of ornamental grasses because to their popularity. Learn about "hot" plants, how to start a small nursery, how to grow and sell decorative grasses, and where to get wholesale seeds and starts.

Trees And Shrubs For Landscaping

Sam Davey, a semi-retired farmer deep in the Appalachian woods, decided to try producing high-value landscape plants instead of low-value row crops. His six acres already have thousands of azaleas, rhododendrons, Japanese maples, firs, spruce, and junipers after only a few years.

Without any sponsored advertising, his stock sells out every year. The majority of his plants are sold to locals who value high-quality plants at reasonable pricing. The remainder is distributed to landscapers and two retail garden centers in the area. In terms of profitability, he will only say that he is making more money than he has ever made before. He could simply grow out his existing stock of seedlings and retire for the rest of his life if he so desired.

Further west, Jack and Karen Cooper have planted cottonwood, maple, and birch trees on their Arizona acre. They began with a single cottonwood tree and have since grown and sold hundreds of trees from that single plant.

Jack loves to engage with landscapers and retail nurseries to sell wholesale in huge volumes. Most of his trees are sold bare-root, and dealers repot them in 15 gallon pots for resale. His acre is laid out like a cornfield, with three-foot-wide rows and one-foot-wide rows of tree seedlings. He estimates that by adopting this strategy, he can produce approximately ten thousand trees on his acre and earns about $50,000 after expenses.

Many backyard nurseries have specialized in landscaping trees and shrubs grown in containers. It's astonishing how many pots - even the larger 3 and 5 gallon versions – will fit in a tiny space. One grower has had remarkable success with rare Japanese maple types, and a single plant can cost up to $150. Finding a "niche" in which you may specialize is one of the secrets to small nursery success.

Here's Why A Plant Nursery Makes A Great Side Hustle

It's a simple task that anyone can complete. You can accomplish this no matter what you've done before, how old you are, or how far you've progressed in school. All you'll need are a few hand tools and a tiny growing space.

You are free to set your own hours. You can establish a backyard plant nursery if you have an hour a day to spare. Container gardening saves time on watering, weeding, and transplanting.

You'll be doing something you're passionate about. You'll look forward to caring your nursery if you enjoy growing plants, and it won't feel like labor at all!

It's possible to turn it into a full-time job. With just a minimal investment, you can start a backyard plant nursery in your leisure time and grow it into a full-time business. Leave the 9-to-5 grind behind and earn a steady income cultivating plants for profit.

It's a low-tech operation. You don't need to be an expert in horticulture to do this. Simply follow the simple instructions in the guide and you'll be good to go. You'd be surprised how many multimillion-dollar plant nurseries began with little more than a spade and a wheelbarrow.