Gardening is often seen as just a hobby, but with a little creativity, it can also become a source of income. If you have a green thumb and some extra time, consider these 8 ideas to start making money from your garden:
1. Sell Fresh Produce
The most obvious way to make money gardening is by selling your extra fruits vegetables herbs, and flowers at farmers markets, through community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, or to restaurants and grocery stores. Focus on niche, heirloom, or organic varieties that fetch higher prices. You can even sell produce on eBay or Etsy!
2. Offer Landscaping Services
Many people don’t have the time, energy or knowledge to design and maintain a beautiful landscape If you have a knack for garden design and plant care, offer your landscaping services to homeowners. Services can include initial consultation, full or partial redesigns, regular garden maintenance, plant healthcare, irrigation system installation, and more.
3. Teach Gardening Workshops
Share your gardening knowledge by hosting hands-on gardening workshops. These can cover topics like vegetable gardening, flower gardening, composting, pest management, and more. Workshops are a great way to educate others while earning some extra income. Hold them in your own garden or find a community center or nursery willing to host.
4. Write a Gardening Blog
Blogging is a flexible way to make money gardening from home. Share your expertise through gardening tips, DIY projects, product reviews, interviews and gardening success stories. Once your blog is established, you can make money through advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, ebooks and selling products like garden signs or t-shirts.
5. Consult Local Gardeners
Offer your gardening expertise as a consultant. Help home gardeners design, plant and maintain their gardens for a fee. Or provide consulting services to new community gardens, school gardens or urban agriculture projects. Long-term maintenance contracts provide stable income.
6. Make and Sell Crafts
Turn plants from your garden into decorative or useful items to sell. Ideas include dried flower wreaths, potpourri, soaps, herb-infused oils and vinegars, jam and preservatives, and seed paper or seed bombs. Even utilize reclaimed wood, branches, and sticks to create unique garden crafts and decor items.
7. Raise and Sell Seedlings
The seeds you collect from your own plants can be nurtured into seedlings and sold to other gardeners. Focus on popular annuals and perennials, natives, heirlooms, or unusual varieties. Market seedlings through classified ads, at farmers markets, or to local nurseries.
8. Participate in Research Studies
Universities, seed companies, and horticultural organizations sometimes pay gardeners to participate in research studies. Studies may involve testing and reviewing new plant varieties, growing methods, fertilizers, pest controls, tools and more. The compensation and time commitment varies.
Gardening can certainly provide healthy food, beauty, enjoyment, and relaxation. But as you can see, with some planning it can also supplement your income. Start small by trying just one of these money-making ideas. Then expand and diversify as you build up your gardening business. With imagination and hard work, you can earn extra cash doing something you love.
Sell Your Gardening Experience, Not Plants or Produce
Way back in 2015, I decided I was going to start my own gardening business so that I could make money for my family but still have flexible hours. I wasnt quite sure what I would sell—I just knew I loved working in my garden—so I googled “how to make money gardening”. The results told me I could turn my backyard into a mini garlic farm or plant nursery.
Eventually I settled on selling bags of lettuce. I was growing an abundance of organic produce in my own garden, after all. Why not sell it?
So I registered a business and called it Rooted Garden Goods. Shortly after, however, a friend of mine said, “Nicole, I dont want to buy stuff from your garden. What I really want is to learn how to garden the way you do.”
A light bulb went off in my brain! I realized, Oh my gosh, that sounds so much more fun than washing lettuce. I want to teach people; I want to be a coach for adults! I changed the name of my company to Rooted Garden and began to advertise my company as a garden consulting company. The rest is history.
If youre interested in making money as a gardener, the best product to sell is not something youve grown or harvested from your own garden. Its actually your gardening experience. You can work as a garden coach to teach others how to find success gardening. (Learn more about why people really will pay you to coach them.)
So, how you do go about selling your experience?
Grow a Business from Your Gardening Experience
You dont actually need to be a master gardener or a horticulturist to sell your gardening knowledge to others. I hear so many people say, “Oh, I would love to grow a garden coach business like yours, but I just dont have enough experience yet.”
I think a lot of us fool ourselves into thinking we need to be at a certain level before we can be a good coach or a teacher, when really, we just have to be able to take our knowledge and turn that into a system we can pass along to students and make them feel accomplished—thats what coaches do. (Learn more about the qualifications to become a garden coach.)
The first step to turning your knowledge into something you can sell to clients and students is probably not what you think. Its not going out and getting a Masters in botany. Its not buying a farm.
Its simply documenting what youre doing in your own garden.
Thats right. The one key thing you should start doing, if you have even the slightest idea of growing any kind of business from your own gardening experience, is to take photos.
Use your phone until you can get a really nice camera. I didn’t have a camera until a year and a half into starting my company, but once I got it, it made all of the difference in the world.
But how does a camera help you start your business?
5 Ways To Make Money From Your Backyard Garden
FAQ
What is the best thing to grow to make money?
- Bamboo. Landscapers and homeowners pay as much as $150 each for potted bamboo plants, and many growers find it hard to keep up with the demand. …
- Flowers. …
- Ginseng. …
- Ground Covers. …
- Herbs. …
- Landscaping Trees and Shrubs. …
- Mushrooms. …
- Ornamental Grasses.
How to make a living as a gardener?
- Offer Garden Services. …
- Rent Out Garden Plots. …
- Create and Sell Wreaths and Garlands. …
- Produce and Sell Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. …
- Run Workshops or Classes. …
- Write a Gardening Book. …
- Sell Plants and Flowers.
Can you make a career out of gardening?
Yes, you can earn a living as a gardener without a multi-year degree. Many successful gardeners and landscape professionals have built their careers through experience, certifications, and hands-on training rather than formal education. Here are some pathways to consider:
What gives the most money in Grow a garden?