Maybe you’ve heard the origin story of how I started gardening and then came to be a market farmer which lead to me getting a degree in horticulture which led to me doing this podcast. The short story is I had a really successful, very large, garden and I was sick of being stuck inside all the time working my day job and tried to find a way to make some side money from the garden, and the rest is history.
Maybe you’ve been in the same position. A lot of gardeners do really, really well a couple seasons in a row and realize just how much they enjoy being in the garden and growing things and daydream about setting up a little stand at the end of the driveway once a week or going to the local farmer’s market.
Would you believe me if I told you selling the produce from your garden isn’t the only way to make money from it?
Today on Just Grow Something we are talking ten different ways you can make money from your garden and only a couple of them involve selling the actual fruits and veggies. This is a very high-level look at the options you have so you can start thinking about what might actually fit into your lifestyle. Because, let me tell you, after 17 seasons of selling every week at the farmer’s market, it is hard work, and there are definitely other options available to you. Let’s dig in!
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OK, so maybe you've heard the origin story of how I started
00:00:04
gardening and then came to be a market farmer, which led me to
00:00:08
getting a degree in horticulture, which led me to
00:00:10
doing this podcast. The short story is I had a
00:00:13
really successful, very large garden and I was sick of being
00:00:17
stuck inside all the time working my day job.
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And I tried to find a way to make some side money from the
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garden and the rest is history. Maybe you've been in the same
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position. A lot of gardeners do really,
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really well a couple of seasons in a row and then realize just
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how much they enjoy being in the garden and growing things and
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they know that they could grow more.
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And then maybe they start de dreaming about setting up a
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little stand at the end of the driveway once a week, or going
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to the local farmers market and setting up a table there, or
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even doing weekly garden boxes in a community supported
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agriculture or subscription style.
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None of those things are far fetched and I've seen people
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just pop in once or twice a season at the smaller markets
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around town with a table full of nothing but the zucchini that
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has gone gangbusters in their garden or the pumpkins that they
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grew way too many of. I've also seen gardeners take it
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one step further and increase the size of the garden and grow
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things specifically to take to the market every week.
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Unfortunately, I have also seen some of these same gardeners be
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extremely disappointed that they didn't sell out of that bounty
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of zucchini or that they planned for so many offerings at the
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market, but almost none of that produced like they'd hoped and
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they didn't really have much to sell.
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Would you believe me if I told you that selling the produce
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from your garden isn't the only way to make money from it?
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Today on Just Grow Something. We are talking 10 different ways
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that you can make money from your garden and only a couple of
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them involve selling the actual fruits or vegetables.
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This is a very, very high level look at the options that you
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have so you can start thinking about what might actually fit
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into your lifestyle. Because let me tell you, after
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17 seasons of selling every week at the farmers market, I will
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tell you it is hard work and there are definitely other
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options available to you. Let's dig in.
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Hey, I'm Karen, I started gardening in a small corner of
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my suburban backyard and now 18 years later, I've got a degree
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in horticulture and operate a 40 acre market farm.
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I believe there is power in food and that everyone should know
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how to grow at least a little bit of their own.
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On this podcast, I share evidence based techniques to
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help you plant, grow, harvest and store all your family's
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favorites. Consider me your friend in the
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garden. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
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So some of you know my story, some of you don't.
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You hear a little bit about it in the intro to this podcast,
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but basically I started gardening behind a shed in a
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very small footprint of my suburban backyard.
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We were living in a duplex and did that for a couple of years
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before we moved to our five acre homestead.
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And that is where I really expanded the garden, first to
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1/4 acre, then to 1/2 an acre. And I was running my own small
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business management company at the time out of my home.
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And I found myself sitting there, supposed to be working on
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client work, working on the computer, but my office window
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faced my garden. And I just sat there staring at
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the garden, wishing that I was out there instead of sitting at
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my desk. And that's what got me started
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thinking how I might be able to make a little bit of side money
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from the garden. Maybe I could at least pay for
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the seeds and the plants that we were using to grow our own
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stuff. So basically that we would be
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kind of eating for free if I sold the extra.
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And that is when I came across the concept of a community
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supported agriculture program. And that was what we started
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with. And it was part time for two
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years and then it turned into my full time gig.
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And about a year or two after that, it became my husband's
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full time gig as well. And so we've been selling to the
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public for about 17 seasons now. And for fifteen of those seasons
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it has been my full time job. And then like I said, my husband
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joined me about a year and a half, two years later and he was
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always working alongside me. It just wasn't his, you know,
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his full time income. So this is our this is our
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livelihood at this point. What we have grown and what we
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have sold over the years has changed and where and how we
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have sold those products has also changed.
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Initially I was just growing what I knew how to grow well,
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right, what I had figured out. So I was pretty good at tomatoes
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and really good at squashes. Cucumbers I was really good at.
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We did green beans and then I tried to delve into some of the
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the root vegetables, so more of the beets and the carrots.
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And then we moved into doing some strawberries.
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But we were also raising livestock at that time.
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And so we also were selling the eggs from our chickens and we
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were selling the meat from beef and pork and chicken and Turkey
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and even goat for a very short period of time.
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And then I started to do more value added things as well.
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So I was making my own jams for the family.
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So I started selling jams, different jams and jellies at
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the market. I have done dried herbs and herb
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blends and tea blends over the years.
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We've done some farm merchandise and we started by selling at the
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farmers market. We, we sold out our CSA shares.
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There were fifteen families that signed up that first season and
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they were supposed to pick up at the farmers market.
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And so the idea was they would come and pick up their box from
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us and then we would bring whatever extra we harvested that
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week and we would sell it at the farmers market at our stand.
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And as the CSA grew and our farmers market sales grew, we
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started to sell at more farmers markets.
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And at some point half of my my vehicle would be filled up with
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the CSA boxes and that left me not as much room for the stuff
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that we would want to sell at the market.
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So we started going to more markets because we needed to
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sell more stuff and there just wasn't enough room for it.
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And at some point this kind of got out of control.
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Literally we were selling at six different farmers markets
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throughout the week. We would be one of us would be
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there Tuesday evening, one would be Wednesday morning, another
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one Wednesday evening, another one Thursday evening, and then
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we would be at two separate markets on Saturday mornings.
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It was just insane. And it honestly didn't leave us
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a whole lot of time to actually be out into the gardens.
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And so the gardens kind of started to become a total mess.
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And then I started to have less time to be able to do the jams
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and the jellies and be able to dehydrate the herbs.
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And so then we had to figure out, OK, well, something's got
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to give. And it just so happened that we
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added online orders for home delivery during the pandemic
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because we realized that our farmers markets weren't going to
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open on time. But we still had all this
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produce that we had already planted.
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And we still had to figure out a way to get our CSA shares to our
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customers. And so we started delivering.
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And so even after the pandemic ended and all of our farmers
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markets opened back up, we actually kept the delivery
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portion of it because all of our Csas were now being delivered,
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which meant that we could fit more of our stuff into our
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vehicles, which meant that we could finally start to back off
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of the number of farmers markets we were attending every week.
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And that is sort of where we're sitting now.
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I actually don't sell jams and jellies anymore.
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I do still do some of the herbs and stuff.
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I've been drying them, but I haven't had time to do the
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blends or to package up the teas for probably the last two years.
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And so that's something that we're slowly looking at
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reintroducing. We don't sell eggs anymore.
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We don't sell anything other than pork.
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And this will actually be our last year selling the pork in
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terms of meat. And then we have added sales
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from the farm. So we're now open on Fridays and
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we might consider opening up another day depending on how our
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sales are going. So all of that to say, how you
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start selling doesn't have to be the way that you continue to
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sell, and what you start out selling doesn't have to continue
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to be what you sell. If you decide to jump into any
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one of these ventures, you don't have to decide that that's all
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you're going to sell. You don't have to decide that
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that's what you're going to sell from here on out and where and
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how you sell it can change. Also, are there things I would
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do differently when I started selling?
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Absolutely, because I was growing, but mainly what I was
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planning on selling was what I was growing in the gardens.
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My garden planning should have been a heck of a lot different
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than what it was. I did not understand, you know,
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fully how to get a continuous harvest out of those gardens of
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the things that people really wanted the most throughout the
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season. So succession planting, I had to
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learn all of that. I had to learn inter planting
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and would have been able to get a lot more out of my existing
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spaces rather than continually trying to like break new ground
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or to be able to expand the gardens.
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If I had learned how to inter plant much earlier on, If I had
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learned companion planting earlier on, I would have had
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less problems with the insects and that sort of thing.
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So in terms of garden planning, that was one of the major
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things. And it's kind of why I came up
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with or how I came up with my plan like a pro garden planning
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course is because I took all of that information that I figured
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out in terms of learning how to grow for market.
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And I translated it into how people could use that for
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planning their own gardens regardless of the size.
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Because I've got it down to a sort of step by step.
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But it took me years to figure that out.
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The other thing I wish I'd done was to scope out the markets
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that we were going to sell at much better than what we did.
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We quite literally signed up for these markets without actually
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having ever attended them. I have no idea what we were
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thinking. And I should say not we me.
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This was all my doing. My husband had nothing to do
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with any of the planning of this.
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He just said yes, dear and kind of followed along, bless his
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heart. So I should have done more
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scoping out of the markets. So these things that we sort of
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learned as we went along in selling at the markets and now
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selling online and now doing online deliveries and stuff.
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I'm sort of looking at maybe creating another series or a
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workshop series or even, you know, my husband and I have
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talked about maybe doing a completely separate podcast
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talking about how to sell and set up at farmers markets.
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So as you listen to this episode, as we go through all
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these different ideas, if that is something that you are
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interested in learning about, send me a message please, or
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comment in this episode, send me Adm on on social or e-mail me
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something. Let me know if this is something
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that would interest you. A full series on start to
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finish. How do you get into farmers
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markets? What are the things that you
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have to think about? What are the setups that you
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have to worry about and all of these different things that go
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into it. Like I said, today's episode is
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really just going to be a very high level sort of overview of
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the different ideas of what you can do to generate some income.
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But I think folks would really benefit from a sort of in depth
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look at what it takes to sell at a farmers market.
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So if that's something that interests you, please, please
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reach out and let me know and let me know what questions you
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might have too because that might give us an idea of what we
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might want to talk about. So without further ado, here are
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10 ideas for how to generate some income from gardening and
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not all of them actually have to do with selling your garden
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produce. Now, the first one does OK
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selling your produce, that is number one.
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And there are multiple ways that you could do this.
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The first one and the simplest way to start this would be to do
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a roadside or driveway stand. So if you're rural, you live in
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a rural area. If you especially if you live
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like on a gravel or a dirt road and you have a long driveway,
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this just might be something at the end of your drive sort of
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along the roadside. If you are suburban, it might be
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at the edge of your driveway, along the sidewalk or at the top
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of the drive. So people could just kind of
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walk up, kind of think of this like an adult lemonade stand,
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right? Except instead of selling
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lemonade, you are selling the produce, the extra stuff that is
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coming out of your gardens. Now, of course, if you have a
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homeowners association, you need to know those rules.
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If you have city codes that require a permit for this, you
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need to know that too. These are things that you have
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to look up. But barring all of that, you can
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just start with a simple table set up, maybe a pop up canopy if
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it's if it's sunny out and some baskets for your produce.
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And that's pretty much it. You get to decide whether or not
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you're going to actually man the stand, if you're just going to
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pop it up out there one day a week and let people know that
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you're there and sit there and sell for a few hours.
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Or you could set it up sort of like an honor system.
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I mean, think of the Little Free libraries that are set up at the
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end of people's driveways. You could do something very
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similar to that. You just have to have a way to
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sort of lock up the money or you just say, hey, you got to Venmo
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me or whatever. There are a lot of options for
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this depending on where you live and you can be as simple or as
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fancy with your setups as you want.
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I will guarantee you if you go on to Pinterest and you just
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look for, you know, home produce stand or pop up stand or
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whatever, I will but guarantee that you will find a bunch of
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different options for people who have made really cutesy fancy
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little things. And then or just pictures of,
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you know, very simple setups with just a table and a pop up
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canopy or even just a market umbrella of some sort, right?
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That's just your little own setup right there in front of
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your house. The next step beyond that would
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be a farmer's market actually setting up a stall at the
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farmer's market to sell your stuff directly to consumers.
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I think the first thing that you need to think about when when
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considering this is understanding the market that
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you are looking at, right? And, and I say your market, and
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I mean that in two different ways.
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One being the actual farmers market itself.
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What is the setup? What are the day, you know, the
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days that they sell? What are the hours, What are the
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requirements for that specific market in terms of what you need
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to bring in your, you know, your setup, the tables, if you need a
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canopy, if you need weights and all those types of things.
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But also understanding the market that is there in terms of
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the customers, what do they want, what is lacking at that
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market that you might be able to provide, Those are the things
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you kind of want to learn. So if you could go to the
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farmers market a couple of times throughout the season,
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understand what the volume of traffic is like and see the
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volume of what the other vendors are bringing so that you have an
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idea of whether or not you will be able to match that volume.
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Don't be like me and just assume that you're going to pop up your
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table at the farmers market and you're going to sell your extra
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and then sell out of your extra within the first 30 minutes of
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the market and have to stand there and twiddle your thumbs
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for the next 4 1/2 hours as people walk by an empty table
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because you did not do your homework.
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So understand your market before you go and talk to the
00:15:46
customers. Talk to the vendors.
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Not while they're busy, but if they have a chance, you know, at
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the end of their day or during a break, find out, you know, what
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the crowd is like. Talk to the customers and find
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out what they would like to see more of.
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You might find that there is a niche there that you could
00:16:01
actually fill that you might be very good at.
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There might be plenty of tomatoes and cucumbers and such
00:16:06
at that market, but maybe there's a, you know, a lack of
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fresh herbs, you know, and you grow fantastic basil and dill
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and cilantro and people would go nuts for that.
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You know, maybe there's plenty of fresh leafy greens, but
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there's no microgreens. So that's what I mean by
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understand your market. Look at your local market and
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where you would be fine to figure out whether or not you'd
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be able to provide the volume that was necessary for that
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market. Some of them are very small and
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one little table with, you know, 20 lbs of produce is going to be
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enough. Others that's not going to cut
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it. So understand that and then
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still know the things before you go like what the setup
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requirements are. Does the market require you to
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have insurance? What type of packaging are you
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supposed to have or allowed to have that sort of thing.
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So there's a lot of nuances that go into that, but just
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understanding the market from a customer perspective is, is a
00:16:57
place to start. The other option here is to do a
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community supported agriculture program or a subscription box.
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And I and I use those two terms separately, even though
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sometimes you might hear them used interchangeably.
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For me, a traditional CSA is where customers pay upfront for
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a share of your garden's produce throughout the season.
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And you decide how many weeks that lasts and you decide how
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much they pay for it upfront and you go from there.
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The subscription box is a little different.
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They would pay weekly for a box of the harvest.
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And you know, they're not necessarily locked in.
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They can choose whether they want to buy that week or not.
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You can choose how you want to do either one of these if they
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get to choose what goes in the box or if you get to decide what
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goes in the box. What it comes down to is
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planning for this is absolutely key.
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Again, understanding those succession plantings because
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that is essential for a consistent harvest.
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Once you are obligating yourself to giving somebody produce
00:18:03
every, you know, week for a certain number of weeks, the
00:18:07
pressure really is on for you to make sure that that harvest is
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successful and that you have a wide variety of things to put
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into that box. One of the biggest complaints
00:18:19
that I used to hear from people who joined the CSA was that
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there was no variety because the farm they were working with was
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really good at growing leafy greens.
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And they would get boxes and boxes of leafy greens in the
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beginning part of the season, all kinds of greens.
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But then there wouldn't be much else.
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And, you know, there might be some radishes or there might be
00:18:43
some turnips, there might be something, but there was all
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kinds of things that, you know, it was just too much in the way
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of one thing. So having an idea of how to to
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provide for some variety is is also something that's important
00:18:57
there. And then understanding how you
00:18:59
will distribute those boxes. So are you going to have people
00:19:02
come pick up at your home where you garden or if you garden in a
00:19:06
community garden, is it, you know, are they going to come
00:19:08
pick up there? Are you going to do a
00:19:10
combination like we did where you set up a farm stand or you
00:19:13
set up a a farmer's market stand and have people come and pick
00:19:16
that up at the same time that you are selling?
00:19:18
So these are things to just sort of think through before you make
00:19:21
the decision that this is one of those things that you want to
00:19:24
do. So yes, selling your produce is
00:19:26
absolutely probably the number one way to make some income from
00:19:29
your garden, whether it's a roadside stand or at a farmer's
00:19:32
market or through a CSA program. But those are not the only way
00:19:36
is to be able to make a little bit of side money.
00:19:39
The 2nd way to sort of start a garden side hustle is one that
00:19:43
we already talked about that I have done, which is to sell
00:19:47
value added products. So things like jams and jellies,
00:19:52
dried herbs and teas, baked goods.
00:19:54
If you are utilizing your garden produce in baked goods, whether
00:19:58
that's zucchini bread or pumpkin bread, pumpkin pies, or you're
00:20:02
making focaccias that have fresh herbs in them, whatever it.
00:20:05
It is. If there is something that you
00:20:07
can create from your garden that is a value added product, you're
00:20:13
not necessarily selling the produce itself, you're selling
00:20:16
these other things. And if you're good at that, you
00:20:20
know, hey, you know, how to create some really stellar tea
00:20:23
blends or seasoning blends, or you make some really great
00:20:26
sachets out of the lavender that you grow in your garden or you
00:20:31
make this killer strawberry jam, whatever it is, you once again
00:20:37
have to decide where and how you will sell that.
00:20:39
So are you going to sell it directly from the house, from a
00:20:42
stand? Are you going to do a listing on
00:20:44
Facebook Marketplace and have people come and pick it up from
00:20:47
your home? Are you willing to deliver it?
00:20:49
Do you want to go to the farmer's market?
00:20:52
Are you in an area where some of these things could be sold out
00:20:54
of somebody else's shop? These are things that you have
00:20:57
to understand because different municipalities all have
00:21:01
different rules about what you can and cannot resell.
00:21:05
So if you are doing something in your home, that is typically
00:21:08
referred to as a cottage industry.
00:21:11
So you are participating in a cottage industry, meaning you
00:21:14
know, out of the home, you're not working in a licensed
00:21:17
facility. Therefore, in most areas, you
00:21:21
cannot give your product to somebody else to sell on your
00:21:25
behalf. So you can't make that in your
00:21:27
own home and then have somebody put it in their store to resell.
00:21:31
Even on a consignment basis. This usually applies to
00:21:35
everything from baked goods to your jams and jellies and your
00:21:38
dried herbs and teas. So 90% probably of the places
00:21:42
where you're going to sell, you're going to have to do it
00:21:45
direct to consumer. So that's going to either mean
00:21:48
doing pickups from your house or delivery, or doing it at a
00:21:50
farmer's market, or popping up that little lemonade stand out
00:21:54
in front of your house and selling your jams and jellies
00:21:56
that way. The 3rd way that you can make a
00:22:00
little money from the garden would be through plant sales.
00:22:04
So if you have gotten really good at starting your own seeds
00:22:08
for transplants for your garden, you can grow extra in the spring
00:22:12
and you can do that again in the late summer for a fall garden.
00:22:17
You can maybe educate people on, you know, hey, this is when it's
00:22:20
time to plant the fall garden. So if you can start extras and
00:22:23
you can sell those in the spring and again in the fall, that's a
00:22:27
couple of times a year where you can sell a bunch of stuff off
00:22:30
and then maybe you're not selling throughout the middle of
00:22:32
the the summer time. In some areas you can also
00:22:36
divide and propagate like your perennial plants and offer those
00:22:40
for sale or your perennial herbs and offer those for sale.
00:22:43
In some places, you do need a nursery license in order to be
00:22:46
able to do that. In Missouri, you have to be
00:22:49
licensed in order to be able to propagate perennials that are
00:22:53
coming out of the ground because they want to be able to inspect
00:22:55
and make sure that you're not, you know, passing on any soil
00:22:58
borne pathogens or anything like that into somebody else's
00:23:01
garden. Not every place requires this.
00:23:03
So look up the rules in your municipality and figure out what
00:23:06
you are and are not allowed to sell.
00:23:09
Right alongside this, you could be selling the seeds too.
00:23:12
Again, if this is something that you've done before, you've done
00:23:15
seed saving, you understand how to isolate those varieties and
00:23:19
sell those seeds. Check to see whether or not
00:23:22
you're required to have some sort of a license in your state
00:23:25
and what it requires to what's required to get that.
00:23:28
I used to do that years ago. That was something else we used
00:23:30
to offer was seeds. Yes, I needed a license to do
00:23:34
it. It was super easy for me to get
00:23:35
that and it was no big deal. It was just certain information
00:23:38
that you had to include on the packaging when you sold it.
00:23:42
But once again, with plant sales or seed sales, you do need to
00:23:45
know where are you going to sell these from.
00:23:48
So are you going to do it from home?
00:23:49
Are you going to take it to a market?
00:23:51
Can you sell them to a local garden center and have them
00:23:56
resell them on your behalf? Is that something that is
00:23:59
allowed in your area? Do you need a nursery license in
00:24:02
order to be able to do that? If they are just annuals and a
00:24:06
lot of places the answer is no. You don't have to have an
00:24:09
inspected nursery to do that. You can start and propagate your
00:24:12
own annual vegetable seeds or seedlings and be able to have a
00:24:17
local garden seller sell them on your behalf, whether that's on
00:24:20
consignment or you sell them to them outright and they sell it
00:24:24
to their customers. So you have a few different
00:24:26
options there. But plant sales are a really
00:24:28
good way to make some money from your garden, especially if you
00:24:33
are really good at starting your own seeds and your own
00:24:36
transplants. The next side hustle you might
00:24:39
consider would be cut flowers and floral arrangements.
00:24:42
If you grow fabulous flowers and you know how to put those
00:24:47
together as good looking fresh floral bouquets, they sell like
00:24:54
hotcakes. I can tell you at the farmers
00:24:55
market, our flower growers always have a line of people
00:25:01
wanting to buy their flowers. You also have the option at that
00:25:04
point to maybe sell them to local florists.
00:25:06
If you do a really good job at the things that they like to put
00:25:08
in their displays, then you can actually approach them and say,
00:25:12
hey, this is what I'm growing this season.
00:25:14
Would you be interested in buying now if you're going to do
00:25:17
it that way, you really ought to approach them the season before
00:25:21
and give them an idea of what it is that you actually grow and
00:25:24
see if they would be interested and set your kind of situation
00:25:27
up ahead of time so that you're not increasing what you're
00:25:30
growing. Hoping to sell them to local
00:25:32
florists. And then, you know, not being
00:25:35
able to connect with any of them and having too many flowers.
00:25:38
But you could just go ahead and do those bouquets and sell them
00:25:41
at the farmers market. You could also offer weekly or
00:25:45
bi weekly or monthly flower subscriptions to local
00:25:49
customers. You know, a subscription doesn't
00:25:52
necessarily have to be for produce.
00:25:55
You know, you could do that with flowers if you're really good at
00:25:58
that. That is not something that I am
00:25:59
good at. I can grow my own cut flowers
00:26:02
for in my kitchen, but I do not know how to arrange them
00:26:05
properly and it's not something that I am really good at making
00:26:09
these, you know, tall plants stand up and I just leave that
00:26:12
to the experts. But I have been known to buy
00:26:15
flowers from my other vendors at the farmers market.
00:26:18
So again, where are you going to sell these?
00:26:20
If you decide to do bouquets and you know you want to sell them
00:26:23
already pre made, are you going to do at the farmer's market?
00:26:26
Are you going to set up a little pop up stand at the end of your
00:26:28
driveway? You going to list them on
00:26:31
Facebook marketplace? Whatever it is, just know what
00:26:34
your outlet is going to be and cut flowers and floral
00:26:37
arrangements are absolutely something that you could do to
00:26:40
make money from your garden. One that you might not think of
00:26:43
would be to give garden tours or give little workshops if you
00:26:49
have a really unique garden layout or a just a stellar
00:26:55
setup, you know, that's very, you know, pleasing to look at.
00:26:59
People will pay you to come and get a guided tour of not just
00:27:04
what it is that you're growing, but how you're growing it or how
00:27:08
you have it laid out or what your trellis system is.
00:27:11
You can hook up with a local growers group or university
00:27:17
extension services programs that offer tours if you really have
00:27:21
something special to offer. It's not, it's not as far
00:27:25
fetched as it sounds. You can also host workshops on
00:27:28
different gardening techniques or pest management or composting
00:27:32
or plant care, whatever it is that you are really good at.
00:27:36
You know, think about when you're talking to your friends
00:27:39
who also happen to be gardeners or who have maybe an interest in
00:27:42
gardening. What questions are they asking
00:27:45
you that you are always able to answer?
00:27:48
Whatever that is, it must be something that you're good at
00:27:52
because you're giving them the answers they're looking for
00:27:55
knowledge you have it. That is something that you could
00:27:57
host a workshop on and it doesn't necessarily have to be
00:28:02
in your garden or at your home. You could do something like that
00:28:05
at the local library or at the, you know, Community Center.
00:28:10
There are different ways that you can get into doing, you
00:28:13
know, either tours of your garden or giving workshops and
00:28:16
teaching other people how it is that you do your gardens because
00:28:20
every technique is different different and every gardening
00:28:22
area is different and you have something to offer.
00:28:26
If you have been successful at even one thing in your garden,
00:28:30
what kind of goes along with this but in a much different
00:28:35
manner is number six, and that is online content and products.
00:28:38
This is a bit more difficult and I'm actually speaking from
00:28:43
experience here because this goes into a lot of what I do,
00:28:46
which is either blogging or vlogging or online courses,
00:28:50
ebooks, guides, podcasts, that sort of thing.
00:28:54
Sharing your gardening tips, your techniques through either a
00:28:58
written blog or a YouTube video blog or doing it on social media
00:29:05
or a podcast is absolutely viable.
00:29:10
But trying to make money from it is a bit more difficult than
00:29:15
just sort of doing one-on-one in person classes because the way
00:29:19
that you monetize those things, the blogging and the vlogging,
00:29:24
is through ads or through sponsorships or through
00:29:27
affiliate marketing. And it is definitely a sort of
00:29:30
slow burn. Now, if you're just doing it
00:29:33
because you enjoy it and you love doing that, which is kind
00:29:37
of what I did when I first started the podcast, it was just
00:29:40
in order to share the information with people and
00:29:43
teach people how to garden and the monetization of it sort of
00:29:46
started to come later. You're doing OK, great.
00:29:49
You don't have any expectations at that point.
00:29:51
But if you really are expecting to make some side money by doing
00:29:54
this, it takes a very concerted effort to start doing ads and
00:29:59
find sponsorships and find products that you can be an
00:30:02
affiliate for and it doesn't happen quickly.
00:30:06
It has to be something that you are very consistent about and
00:30:09
something that you can be very patient with.
00:30:13
Online courses, that's a whole different story.
00:30:16
I mean, if you can develop an online course or a webinar or
00:30:19
something on various gardening topics that you are really well
00:30:21
versed in, I mean, you can throw them out there and you know, who
00:30:27
knows how many people are actually going to sign up for
00:30:29
it? Does it take some effort to be
00:30:31
able to like actually develop those courses?
00:30:33
Absolutely. It took me forever to put
00:30:35
together my very first one, the plain like a Pro one, and I've
00:30:39
been working on several others of them over the past year.
00:30:43
And it takes time. Your situation is going to
00:30:48
dictate how much time you can spend on these things.
00:30:52
And then you have to spend time marketing these things and
00:30:54
getting people to lay eyes on them and decide that this is
00:30:58
something that is for them. Same thing goes if you are
00:31:01
writing ebooks or other types of online guides.
00:31:05
You know, everybody is looking for information in one way or
00:31:10
another about their gardening, right?
00:31:12
And there's and you constantly have people looking for, you
00:31:15
know, doing Google searches or doing online searches for very
00:31:18
specific topics. If you can find out what those
00:31:20
topics are, you can write and sell e-books that are about
00:31:24
those specific topics. But again, there's marketing
00:31:27
that goes along with that. And there's a lot of time in
00:31:31
actually writing and researching, making sure that
00:31:34
you are actually passing on not just your own knowledge, but
00:31:36
also the correct knowledge to other people because you don't
00:31:41
want to be, you know, giving people bum scoop.
00:31:43
Basically, it takes a lot of focus to do these types of
00:31:49
things. And they are things that I am
00:31:50
constantly working on in the background of my business
00:31:55
because Just Grow Something is a side hustle to my farm that you
00:32:00
know, the farm started as a side hustle to my garden, but then
00:32:03
became my full time job. The farm comes first, then this
00:32:06
podcast and my consulting clients, and then I get to
00:32:10
create the other content like the ebooks and the online
00:32:13
courses that are always in the works.
00:32:16
If it sounds like a lot, it is. And it's why I'm really loving
00:32:19
this seven day challenge from Magic Mine because it's gotten
00:32:22
me into the calm focus that I need to accomplish even more in
00:32:28
my day because, you know, my day wasn't busy enough as it was.
00:32:31
I just got back from a trip to visit family last weekend.
00:32:34
I didn't bring any Magic Mine with me because I was traveling
00:32:36
light, like one backpack on the plane light, and I was actively
00:32:40
trying not to work while I was there.
00:32:44
When I got back, I went about my first day back to working.
00:32:48
And I realized about halfway through my day as I was trying
00:32:52
to focus on writing podcast episode notes and doing the
00:32:56
previous week's bookkeeping for the farm, that I just wasn't
00:32:59
keeping my focus. I was all over the place.
00:33:01
It was only when I went to make an iced coffee to wake myself up
00:33:05
that I remembered I hadn't taken my magic mind with my coffee
00:33:08
that morning. It's really amazing the
00:33:11
difference it's making in my productivity and how I actually
00:33:16
noticed now how my focus tends to wane in the afternoons when
00:33:21
I'm not taking it. It works so much better
00:33:24
alongside my coffee in the morning for just sustained
00:33:27
energy and focus. Again, me grabbing a coffee in
00:33:31
the afternoons. Now if I grab a coffee just
00:33:33
because I love my coffee, that's a totally different story.
00:33:37
You can try Magic Mind and get your own productivity boost by
00:33:40
going to magicmind.com/just Grow Something and using code.
00:33:45
Just Grow something 20 at checkout to save big on a new
00:33:50
subscription or 20% on a one time purchase.
00:33:53
I am all about this stuff. It's my little green happy
00:33:56
productivity shot. magicmind.com/just grow
00:33:59
something with code. Just grow something 20 at
00:34:02
checkout to get yours. Speaking of subscriptions, that
00:34:07
is #7 on our list of things that you can do as a side hustle in
00:34:11
the garden. Subscription boxes.
00:34:13
And I'm not talking subscription boxes like we talked about with
00:34:16
like the CSA program where it's all produce.
00:34:20
Think of things like garden kits, right?
00:34:22
Things that you're putting together with seeds or tools or
00:34:25
instructions for specific garden projects that you have
00:34:28
successfully done in your own garden.
00:34:30
Or kits with everything someone would need to grow their own
00:34:35
herb garden or a specific tea blend or a salad box, specific
00:34:39
salad greens, things like that that make life easier for
00:34:45
somebody who is trying to do something new always go over
00:34:50
really, really well. And you could just do this, you
00:34:54
know, start locally, either slip listing them on Facebook
00:34:57
Marketplace, you could do them at a farmers market stand.
00:35:00
You could sell these at like craft shows or holiday markets.
00:35:04
And these types of things you actually could sell to local
00:35:08
shops or sell them on consignment in local shops.
00:35:13
You can test the waters. You can see how well they go.
00:35:16
You can try different packaging options and different, you know,
00:35:19
combinations of things to see what really works.
00:35:23
First of all, what you love to put together, because none of
00:35:27
these things are going to work if you don't enjoy actually
00:35:30
doing it, right? So if you think if you're really
00:35:34
good at making fairy gardens, right, or if you're really good
00:35:38
at, you know, making little gnome homes or whatever, you can
00:35:43
sell those kits to teach people how to do that.
00:35:46
You can just start locally and test it out.
00:35:47
And then if you get really good or if you get good feedback or
00:35:51
it seems to be doing well, you could actually expand to online
00:35:54
sales that you could ship. These are things that are easy
00:35:57
enough to ship if you have the right packaging.
00:35:59
So you can either do it through Etsy or you could create your
00:36:01
own online shop on your own website.
00:36:04
So these types of things are really popular and they're
00:36:08
really fun for people when they have an interest in something,
00:36:11
but they either don't know where to start or they're just looking
00:36:15
for something that's new and fun and fresh or a little bit of a
00:36:17
surprise. If it's something that's
00:36:19
different every single month and they get it automatically,
00:36:22
number one, that's automatic money in your pocket every
00:36:24
month. That is a nice little side
00:36:25
hustle and it's a surprise for them.
00:36:28
They get to open. If you've ever had one of these
00:36:30
subscriptions, it actually is kind of fun.
00:36:32
So that's another really good way to kind of start a garden
00:36:34
side hustle is with subscription boxes of different like kits.
00:36:39
Now if we go back to selling the actual produce, one other option
00:36:45
that you have is to focus on specialty crops.
00:36:48
So maybe this is something where you can develop a niche market
00:36:54
for a very specific type of produce.
00:36:57
So maybe it's heirloom varieties, Maybe you specialize
00:37:00
in growing and selling the really unique or heirloom
00:37:04
varieties of the fruits and vegetables that are common in
00:37:07
your area. Maybe it's microgreens.
00:37:10
Those have a really high market value.
00:37:13
They can be grown year round. And maybe you're at a market
00:37:17
where there's lots and lots of other types of produce, but
00:37:21
maybe microgreens aren't there. And these are something that
00:37:24
maybe you could also, you know, sell locally to either the local
00:37:28
grocery store because it's technically like a plant.
00:37:32
It's not necessarily produce, you know it, it can be sold at
00:37:36
the grocery store, but could also be sold in other markets as
00:37:38
well. Maybe you're really good at
00:37:40
medicinal plants, you know, either medicinal herbs or other
00:37:44
plants that are used and have medicinal properties.
00:37:46
Maybe you can grow and sell the plants or you can sell the
00:37:49
harvest from the plants. Now be careful on this one with
00:37:54
your wording though. Don't get in trouble by claiming
00:37:56
the plants or a harvest from a plant will specifically do XY
00:38:01
and Z. The FDA is very specific about
00:38:04
what they you know, we can say that plants do or don't do
00:38:06
definitively and you know, so usually it's you should say what
00:38:11
they may do and I'm using Bunny ears.
00:38:14
This may help you with XY and Z is usually what you have to say,
00:38:18
but if you are into the medicinal plants and you grow
00:38:21
them very well, you might be able to, you know, create a
00:38:24
niche market for yourself in terms of medicinals #9 would be
00:38:30
to sell gardening services. So are you really good at garden
00:38:35
planning? Are you really good at garden
00:38:38
design as a service to other homeowners?
00:38:42
You know, can you lay out a garden space really, really well
00:38:46
and make good utilization of it, or are you really good at kind
00:38:50
of conceptually creating these things that just look absolutely
00:38:54
beautiful? This is part of what I do with
00:38:56
my garden consulting services. Most of what I do is the actual
00:38:59
garden planning, but I do help with design services when
00:39:03
needed. The other thing that you might
00:39:05
be interested in doing is helping with installation and
00:39:07
maintenance. You know, if you've got somebody
00:39:10
that OK, yeah, I have this idea and I want these raised planters
00:39:13
over here, but I need this also tilled up etcetera, etcetera.
00:39:17
Is that a service that you can offer?
00:39:18
Do you like getting your hands in there and actually kind of
00:39:21
doing the creating of the new space?
00:39:23
This is not something that Ioffer with my just grow
00:39:26
something garden consulting, but I know plenty of people out
00:39:29
there who do do this as sort of a side hustle.
00:39:32
You know, I will come till your garden for you or I will come
00:39:35
put your raised beds together for you or I will, you know, mix
00:39:38
your potting mix together for you and install it in those
00:39:41
raised beds. So, you know, gardening
00:39:43
services, whether it's in terms of design or installation and
00:39:47
maintenance, can be a way to make some money from your own
00:39:51
gardening knowledge. And then if you're really
00:39:55
adventurous, the last one would be to rent your garden space so.
00:40:00
If you have a really beautiful garden area and you have an
00:40:04
outdoor gazebo that is in there, could you rent it out?
00:40:09
Is there a local photographer who would love to take sessions
00:40:13
for people in your garden? You know, can you rent it out
00:40:17
for like tea parties or something?
00:40:18
Or if it's really big, you know, a family reunion or something,
00:40:22
you know, do you want to get into like event hosting or could
00:40:26
you rent an area of your garden out to people who want to garden
00:40:32
but they don't have a space of their own?
00:40:34
You know, community gardens in my area are really few and far
00:40:38
between. And a lot of the time those
00:40:39
community gardens are actually run by the Master Gardeners
00:40:42
program and they do it to raise produce for donation.
00:40:48
There are some areas that I pass by once I get further up into
00:40:50
the city where there are definitely community gardens.
00:40:54
But a lot of those gardens plots are always taken up and it seems
00:40:58
like there is always a need out there for an allotment or for a
00:41:02
garden plot to be rented. So is that something that you
00:41:05
would be able to do? Do you have an area where you
00:41:09
could actually rent out a space to people who really want to
00:41:11
garden, but they lack a space to be able to do it on their own or
00:41:16
at their own home? So with all of these, I think
00:41:22
there are some overarching themes or ideas behind them,
00:41:27
right? Number one would be
00:41:28
understanding your market. Know what products or services
00:41:31
are in demand in your area. Or if you plan on going online
00:41:35
and doing online sales or online courses.
00:41:39
Is there a demand out there for what it is that you are trying
00:41:42
to offer when it comes to what you're physically selling?
00:41:47
I think quality over quantity is probably, you know, a really big
00:41:53
balancing point sometimes when it comes to farmers markets.
00:41:58
Yes, you feel like you need to have a lot of stuff in order to
00:42:02
be able to offer it, but if that stuff isn't really good quality,
00:42:06
it's not gonna matter because nobody's gonna want it.
00:42:08
So quality over quantity definitely, but then also
00:42:12
focusing on, you know, being able to meet the market demand.
00:42:16
And then marketing goes along with every single one of these.
00:42:20
You're going to have to somehow either use social media or local
00:42:24
advertising or word of mouth or whatever it is to promote
00:42:28
whatever business it is that you start on the side to, you know,
00:42:32
gain some money from from your garden.
00:42:34
And then anytime you can diversify, if you could take two
00:42:38
of these ideas and combine them, offer a variety of products and
00:42:42
services, whatever it is, just to kind of, you know, reduce the
00:42:47
risk and increase the reward in terms of revenue stream.
00:42:52
I always say, you know, diversifying is absolutely
00:42:55
necessary because if one thing doesn't sell, at least you have
00:42:58
something as a backup. That's it. 10 different ideas
00:43:07
for making money from your garden, and they don't all
00:43:10
involve selling the actual produce itself.
00:43:13
Yes, that can be part of it, but value added products are always
00:43:17
in demand. And putting kits or boxes and
00:43:19
things together for people that they can't or don't know how to
00:43:23
do themselves almost always has a market.
00:43:26
And teaching people to do those things for themselves.
00:43:30
Yeah, that's my jam. That's why you're here listening
00:43:33
to me, right? If I can take my experiences and
00:43:36
education and teach people how to do it themselves, then so can
00:43:41
you. You don't have to have a degree
00:43:43
in agriculture or 20 years of gardening experience.
00:43:46
You just have to have more experience and education than
00:43:51
the folks that you're teaching. So if you've successfully
00:43:55
started seedlings for transplant into your own garden for years,
00:43:59
teach that. If you have a fantastic herb
00:44:02
garden every year and you know 1000 ways to use them, teach
00:44:06
that. Whether it's in a conference or
00:44:08
it's in an e-book or it's an online course.
00:44:11
Whatever it is, start small. Share the knowledge, share the
00:44:15
joy, and maybe you can make a little money from the garden
00:44:19
too. Until next time, my gardening
00:44:22
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
00:44:24
talk again soon. Thanks for listening to another
00:44:28
episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
00:44:30
For more information about today's topic and to find all
00:44:33
the ways you can get in touch with me or support the show, go
00:44:36
to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com. Until next time, my gardening
00:44:40
friends, keep learning and keep growing.