Making a business out of gardening. Advice please

Cyril

I have the opportunity of renting a small piece of land to begin a cottage industry selling hanging baskets, tubs , herbs etc etc.
But

I need to make sure the business is viable the whole year and not just seasonal so any ideas welcome.

Thoughts so far,
Christmas decorations
xmas wrapping service
garden artifacts, architectural ornaments
Hobby days ie make a hanging basket + lunch + guest speaker
Childrens paint and plant a pot parties

Also what plants can be offered year round.

The space is about a quarter of an acre and there will be a shed to sell from which could be expanded if the venture proves successful.

Anyone else done similar.

peter_the_piper

Its easy making money from March to July, it gets a bit more difficult August to October and blooming awful from Oct to Feb. The only highlight is the 3 weeks up to xmas when christmas trees are selling. I'm sure Davesnave will confirm this.

Forgot to mention, forget about selling much during wimbledon, world cup, olympics as well.

Orange_King

Would you be intending to grow the plants yourself or buy them in? There would be a very limited range that could be sold year round I suspect so you'd very much need to cater for seasonal demands and naturally enough it peaks in Spring?Summer when folk will (hopefully) have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors.

What is the competition like in the area - is there a need for what you intend to offer?

I'm only a novice at it but been selling plants at school fairs and car boot sales for a year or two and I'm never able to cater for all tastes due to limited space but the bigger the choice you have the more chance you have of attracting customer interest. If its all the same they just quickly glance at the stuff and quickly disappear.

And of course you would need to consider pricing to make sure it really is worth the effort. I am doing it largely for personal enjoyment and the proceeds are a bonus. Making a business out of it is an entirely different matter.

Cyril

The plants for baskets and tubs would be grown from seed and all others bought in.

There is competition in the area but I think its good competition in that it is a road that the locals come to to kit out their gardens and the other nurseries are large commercial ones which could easily be undercut.

A fortune doesn't have to be made just enough to cover a small rent and a profit for the time put in.

Mayflower10cat

I ran a small nursery from home in our last house. In my first year I grew almost everything from seed and I have to say, the labour was incredible. Pricking out hundreds of seedlings and potting them on three or four times is tough day in day out. Starting bedding from seed means you start early in the year and need a heated environment, so factor in that cost, too. The following year I'd learned the hard way and so ordered my plants as tiny plugs from a wholesale supplier. http://www.ballcolegrave.co.uk/Growers/_default.aspx
This meant I could offer a wider variety of plants. There is certainly scope for selling hanging baskets and pots planted up, but again you need to start them early and keep them frost free so they're a decent size when you sell them.

I used to get very disheartened at the incredibly low prices charged by the likes of 'B&you know who' for trays of 36 bedding plants - even with my low overheads I couldn't have sold my plants as cheaply as they did.

On a more encouraging note, the cheap packs of bare root perennials you find in Wilko/Poundland etc., are very easy to pot up and grow on. Within a very few months you have a decent looking plant to sell. And many plants come on very quickly from cuttings; penstemons always sold well, and even bedding plants like petunias.

Good luck!

savemoney

I dont think there is much demand for small nurseries now not at least in my area several small ones in my area closed down years ago. Assuming that is repeated across the country then doesn't look very good. Maybe the bigger ones are okay due to size.

I know a guy down road from me who runs two allotments and sells stuff to local shop to sell on, not sure if there is much money in it though

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Take a few courses and look into funeral & wedding flowers.

peter_the_piper

Cyril wrote: »

A fortune doesn't have to be made just enough to cover a small rent and a profit for the time put in.

The question is, is it to make a living or as added extras? Its starting up a business to make a living from is the difficult bit.

rhosynbach

hi how about selling local peoples crafts etc on a comission bases so there is no outlay i worked in a place that did this and they made a lot of money suggested it to a friend who was taking over a garden centre and it has worked well with them as well they have people bringing garden funiture as well as crafts people

also take advantage of thompson morgan and others clearance lines 120 begonias for 2.99 when potted up could make a lot of profit the gardne centre aboth does this to..

if you do it then good luck

Davesnave

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Its easy making money from March to July, it gets a bit more difficult August to October and blooming awful from Oct to Feb. The only highlight is the 3 weeks up to xmas when christmas trees are selling. I'm sure Davesnave will confirm this.

Yes, he will!

DW and I made a partial living from 1/4 acre for over 10 years, but not by waiting for folks to come to us; we went out to them, sometimes four times a week. We were lucky to have an undercover market half a mile away and a local population of 80 000, but even then, on a bad day we could come home with £50 or less. Maybe 70% of that would be profit, if we were lucky.

Yes, there were posh plant fairs too, where takings could be £600 in a few hours, but those came along when we'd established ourselves. Reaching these venues required a van and public liability insurance, a professional gazebo, tables etc, all of which cost a few thousand £. Once you are up and running it's fine, but as Peter says, start up costs can prove a problem.

If you can begin by selling from this piece of land, then this clearly navigates around some of the major costs above, but may in itself create other difficulties. Are you sure that the local council and the opposition will happily sit by while you turn this land into a commercial retail space? If it's already that, fine, but otherwise expect the worst!

Incidentally, we never sold beyond the end of October. I used to find that a chance to take stock, clean up and generally plan for the next year was time well spent. On 1/4 acre you have to be organised and time everything with military precision, or you either run out of stock, end up panic buying-in and dent your profits, or you disappear into the foliage! Indeed, even with careful planning, we always ran out of space around August and ended up throwing pots of plants at each other......:o:o

But most of the time it was good fun. Honest!

peter_the_piper

Davesnave wrote: »

Yes, he will!

Yes, there were posh plant fairs too, where takings could be £600 in a few hours, but those came along when we'd established ourselves.

We were once offered a "TABLE" at a very posh house once (they were having an antiques or something fayre), only £750.00 and that was about 10 years ago. Naturally we were already "busy" on that day.