Starting a Garden Side Hustle - Ep. 208

[00:00:00] Okay, so maybe you've heard the origin story of how I started gardening and then came to be a market farmer, which led me to getting a degree in horticulture, which led me to doing

[00:00:10] 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 I tried to find a way to make

[00:00:20] 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 of seasons in a row and then realize

[00:00:31] just how much they enjoy being in the garden and growing things and they know that they could grow more and then maybe they start de-dreaming about setting up a little stand at the end

[00:00:40] of the driveway once a week or going to the local farmers market and setting up a table there or even doing weekly garden boxes in a community supported agriculture or subscription style. None of those things are far-fetched and I've seen people just pop in once or twice

[00:00:57] a season at the smaller markets around town with a table full of nothing but the zucchini that has gone gangbusters in their garden or the pumpkins that they grew way too many of. I've also seen gardeners take it one step further and increase the size of the

[00:01:10] garden and grow things specifically to take to the market every week. Unfortunately, I have also seen some of these same gardeners be extremely disappointed that they didn't sell out of that bounty of zucchini or that they planned for so many offerings at the

[00:01:25] market but almost none of that produced like they'd hoped and they didn't really have much to sell. Would you believe me if I told you that selling the produce from your garden isn't the only way to make money from it? Today on Just Grow Something

[00:01:41] we are talking 10 different ways that you can make money from your garden and only a couple of them involve selling the actual fruits or vegetables. This is a very, very high level look at the options that you have so you can start thinking about what might

[00:01:57] actually fit into your lifestyle because let me tell you after 17 seasons of selling every week at the farmers market I will tell you it is hard work and there are definitely other options available to you. Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen. I started gardening

[00:02:16] in a small corner of my suburban backyard and now 18 years later I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40 acre market farm. I believe there is power in food and that everyone should

[00:02:26] know how to grow at least a little bit of their own. On this podcast, I share evidence based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest and store all your family's favorites. Consider me your friend in the garden. So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee

[00:02:40] and get ready to just grow something. So some of you know my story. Some of you don't. You hear a little bit about it in the intro to this podcast, but basically I started

[00:02:58] gardening behind a shed in a very small footprint of my suburban backyard. We were living in a duplex and did that for a couple of years before we moved to our five acre homestead

[00:03:10] and that is where I really expanded the garden first to a quarter acre then to a half an acre and I was running my own small business management company at the time out of my home

[00:03:21] and I found myself sitting there supposed to be working on client work, working on the computer, but my office window faced my garden and I just sat there staring at the garden wishing that I was

[00:03:34] out there instead of sitting at my desk and that's what got me started thinking how I might be able to make a little bit of side money from the garden. Maybe I could at least pay for the

[00:03:43] seeds and the plants that we were using to grow our own stuff so basically that we would be kind of eating for free if I sold the extra and that is when I came across the concept of a

[00:03:55] community supported agriculture program and that was what we started with and it was part time for two years and then it turned into my full-time gig and about a year or two after that it became

[00:04:07] my husband's full-time gig as well and so we've been selling to the public for about 17 seasons now and for 15 of those seasons it has been my full-time job and then like I said my husband

[00:04:20] joined me about a year and a half two years later and he was always working alongside me it just wasn't his you know his full-time income so this is our this is our livelihood at this point.

[00:04:31] What we have grown and what we have sold over the years has changed and where and how we have sold those products has also changed. Initially I was just growing what I knew how to grow

[00:04:45] well right what I had figured out so I was pretty good at tomatoes and really good at squashes, cucumbers I was really good at, we did green beans and then I tried to delve into some of the

[00:04:58] the root vegetables so more of the beets and the carrots and then we moved into doing some strawberries but we were also raising livestock at that time and so we also were selling the eggs

[00:05:08] from our chickens and we were selling the meat from beef and pork and chicken and turkey and even goat for a very short period of time and then I started to do more value added things as well so

[00:05:22] I was making my own jams for the family so I started selling jams different jams and jellies at the market. I have done dried herbs and herb blends and tea blends over the years we've done

[00:05:36] some farm merchandise and we started by selling at the farmers market we sold out our CSA shares there were 15 families that signed up that first season and they were supposed to pick up at the

[00:05:48] farmers market and so the idea was they would come and pick up their box from us and then we would bring whatever extra we harvested that week and we would sell it at the farmers

[00:05:59] market at our stand and as the CSA grew and our farmers market sales grew we started to sell at more farmers markets and at some point half of my vehicle would be filled up with the CSA boxes

[00:06:19] and that left me not as much room for the stuff that we would want to sell at the market so we started going to more markets because we needed to sell more stuff and there just wasn't enough room

[00:06:30] for it and at some point this kind of got out of control literally we were selling at six different farmers markets throughout the week we would be one of us would be there Tuesday evening one would be Wednesday morning another one Wednesday evening another one Thursday evening

[00:06:49] and then we would be at two separate markets on Saturday mornings it was just insane and it honestly didn't leave us a whole lot of time to actually be out into the gardens and so the

[00:06:57] gardens kind of started to become a total mess and then I started to have less time to be able to do the jams and the jellies and be able to dehydrate the herbs and so then we had to

[00:07:07] figure out okay well something's got to give and it just so happened that we added online orders for home delivery during the pandemic because we realized that our farmers markets weren't going

[00:07:17] to open on time but we still had all this produce that we had already planted and we still had to figure out a way to get our csa shares to our customers and so we started delivering and so

[00:07:27] even after the pandemic ended and all of our farmers markets opened back up we actually kept the delivery portion of it because all of our csa's were now being delivered which meant that

[00:07:38] we could fit more of our stuff into our vehicles which meant that we could finally start to back off of the number of farmers markets we were attending every week and that is sort of where

[00:07:49] we're sitting now I actually don't sell jams and jellies anymore um I do still do some of the herbs and stuff I've been drying them but I haven't had time to do the blends or to package up the

[00:08:00] teas for probably the last two years and so that's something that we're slowly looking at reintroducing we don't sell eggs anymore we don't sell anything other than pork and this will actually be our last year selling the pork in terms of meat and then we have added

[00:08:17] sales from the farm so we're now open on Fridays and we might consider opening up another day depending on how our sales are going so all of that to say how you start selling doesn't have

[00:08:31] to be the way that you continue to sell and what you start out selling doesn't have to continue to be what you sell if you decide to jump into any one of these ventures you don't

[00:08:43] have to decide that that's all you're going to sell you don't have to decide that that's what you're going to sell from here on out and where and how you sell it can change also

[00:08:52] are there things I would do differently when I started selling absolutely because I was growing mainly what I was planning on selling was what I was growing in the gardens my garden planning

[00:09:04] should have been a heck of a lot different than what it was I did not understand you know fully how to get a continuous harvest out of those gardens of the things that people really wanted the most

[00:09:15] throughout the season so succession planting I had to learn all of that I had to learn inter planting and would have been able to get a lot more out of my existing spaces rather than

[00:09:28] continually trying to like break new ground or to be able to expand the gardens if I had learned how to inter plant much earlier on if I had learned companion planting earlier on I would

[00:09:38] have had less problems with the insects and that sort of thing so in terms of garden planning that was one of the major things and it's kind of why I came up with or how I came up with my

[00:09:49] plan like a pro garden planning course is because I took all of that information that I figured out in terms of learning how to grow for market and I translated into how people could use that

[00:10:01] for planning their own gardens regardless of the size because I've got it down to a sort of step by step but it took me years to figure that out the other thing I wish I'd done was to scope out the

[00:10:11] markets that we were going to sell at much better than what we did we quite literally signed up for these markets without actually having ever attended them I have no idea what we were thinking and I

[00:10:22] should say not we me this was all my doing my husband had nothing to do with any of the planning of this he just said yes dear and kind of followed along bless his heart so

[00:10:33] I should have done more scoping out of the markets so these things that we sort of learned as we went along in selling at the markets and now selling online and now doing online deliveries and stuff

[00:10:45] I'm sort of looking at maybe creating another series or a workshop series or even you know my husband I have talked about maybe doing a completely separate podcast talking about how to

[00:10:59] sell and set up at farmers markets so as you listen to this episode as we go through all these different ideas if that is something that you are interested in learning about send me a message

[00:11:09] please or comment in this episode send me a DM on on social or email me something let me know if this is something that would interest you a full series on start to finish how do you get

[00:11:23] into farmers markets what are the things that you have to think about one of the setups that you have to worry about and all of these different things that go into it like I said today's episode

[00:11:31] is really just going to be a very high level sort of overview of the different ideas of what you can do to generate some income but I think folks would really benefit from a sort of in-depth

[00:11:43] look at what it takes to sell at a farmers market so if that's something that interests you please please reach out and let me know and let me know what questions you might have

[00:11:51] too because that might give us an idea of what we might want to talk about so without further ado here are 10 ideas for how to generate some income from gardening and not all of them

[00:12:04] actually have to do with selling your garden produce now the first one does okay selling your produce that is number one and there are multiple ways that you could do this the first

[00:12:12] one and the simplest way to start this would be to do a roadside or driveway stand so if you're rural you live in a rural area if you especially if you live like on a gravel or a dirt

[00:12:23] road and you have a long driveway this just might be something at the end of your drive sort of along the roadside if you are suburban it might be at the edge of your driveway along

[00:12:33] the sidewalk or at the top of the drive so people could just kind of walk up kind of think of this like an adult lemonade stand right except instead of selling lemonade you are

[00:12:43] selling the produce the extra stuff that is coming out of your gardens now of course if you have a homeowner's association you need to know those rules if you have city codes

[00:12:53] that require a permit for this you need to know that too these are things that you have to look up but barring all of that you can just start with a simple table setup maybe a pop-up canopy

[00:13:04] if it's if it's sunny out and some baskets for your produce and that's pretty much it you get to decide whether or not you're going to actually man the stand if you're just going to

[00:13:13] pop it up out there one day a week and let people know that you're there and sit there and sell for a few hours or you could set it up sort of like an honor system I mean think of the little free

[00:13:24] libraries that are set up at the end of people's driveways you could do something very similar to that you just have to have a way to sort of lock up the money or you just say hey you

[00:13:32] got a Venmo me or whatever there are a lot of options for this depending on where you live you can be as simple or as fancy with your setups as you want I will guarantee you if you

[00:13:44] go on to Pinterest and you just look for you know home produce stand or pop-up stand or whatever I will it guarantee that you will find a bunch of different options for people who have made

[00:13:55] really cute fancy little things and then or just pictures of you know very simple setups with just a table and a pop-up canopy or even just a market umbrella of some sort right so that's just

[00:14:06] your little own setup right there in front of your house the next step beyond that would be a farmer's market actually setting up a stall at the farmer's market to sell your stuff directly to

[00:14:17] consumers I think the first thing that you need to think about when when considering this is understanding the market that you are looking at right and and I say your market and I mean

[00:14:30] that in two different ways one being the actual farmer's market itself what is the setup what are the date you know the days that they sell what are the hours what are the requirements but that

[00:14:41] specific market in terms of what you need to bring in your you know your setup the tables if you need a canopy if you need weights and all those types of things but also understanding

[00:14:53] the market that is there in terms of the customers what do they want what is lacking at that market that you might be able to provide those are the things you kind of want to learn so if you could

[00:15:06] go to the farmer's market a couple of times throughout the season understand what the volume of traffic is like and see the volume of what the other vendors are bringing so

[00:15:19] that you have an idea of whether or not you will be able to match that volume don't be like me and just assume that you're going to pop up your table at the farmer's market

[00:15:29] and you're going to sell your extra and then sell out of your extra within the first 30 minutes of the market and have to stand there and twiddle your thumbs for the next four and a half hours

[00:15:38] as people walk by an empty table because you did not do your homework so understand your market before you go and talk to the customers talk to the vendors not while

[00:15:48] they're busy but if they have a chance you know at the end of their day or during a break find out you know what the crowd is like talk to the customers and find out what they would

[00:15:56] like to see more of you might find that there is a niche there that you could actually fill that you might be very good at there might be plenty of tomatoes and cucumbers and such at

[00:16:06] that market but maybe there's a you know a lack of fresh herbs you know and you grow fantastic basil and dill and cilantro and people would go nuts for that you know maybe there's plenty of freshly-fee greens but there's no microgreens so that's what I mean by understand

[00:16:25] your market look at your local market and where you would be find to figure out whether or not you'd be able to provide the volume that was necessary for that market some of them are

[00:16:33] very small and one little table with you know 20 pounds of produce is going to be enough others that's not going to cut it so understand that and then still know the things before you

[00:16:44] go like what the setup requirements are does the market require you to have insurance but type of packaging are you supposed to have or allowed to have that sort of thing so there is a lot of

[00:16:53] nuances that go into that but just understanding the market from a customer perspective is a place to start the other option here is to do a community supported agriculture program or a subscription box and I and I use those two terms separately even though sometimes you might hear

[00:17:10] them used interchangeably for me a traditional csa is where customers pay upfront for a share of your garden's produce throughout the season and you decide how many weeks that lasts and you decide how much they pay for it up front and you go from there the subscription

[00:17:30] box is a little different they would pay weekly for a box of the harvest and you know they're not necessarily locked in they can choose whether they want to buy that week or not you can choose

[00:17:42] how you want to do either one of these if they get to choose what goes in the box or if you get to decide what goes in the box what it comes down to is planning for this is

[00:17:51] absolutely key again understanding those succession plantings because that is essential for a consistent harvest once you are obligating yourself to giving somebody produce every you know week for a certain number of weeks the pressure really is on for you to make sure that that harvest

[00:18:10] is successful and that you have a wide variety of things to put into that box one of the biggest complaints that I used to hear from people who joined a csa was that there was no variety

[00:18:25] because the farm that they were working with was really good at growing leafy greens and they would get boxes and boxes of leafy greens in the beginning part of the season all kinds of greens

[00:18:38] but then there wouldn't be much else and you know there might be some radishes or there might be some turnips there might be something but there is all kinds of things that you know it was

[00:18:47] just too much in the way of one thing so having an idea of how to to provide for some variety is also something that's important there and then understanding how you will distribute

[00:19:00] those boxes so are you going to have people come pick up at your home where you garden or if you garden in a community garden is it you know are they going to come pick up there are you

[00:19:09] going to do a combination like we did where you set up a farm stand or you set up a farmer's market stand and have people come and pick that up at the same time that you are selling so these

[00:19:18] are things to just sort of think through before you make the decision that this is one of those things that you want to do so yes selling your produce is absolutely probably the number one way to make

[00:19:28] some income from your garden whether it's a roadside stand or at a farmer's market or through a csa program but those are not the only ways to be able to make a little bit of side money

[00:19:39] the second way to sort of start a garden side hustle is one that we already talked about that i have done which is to sell value added products so things like jams and jellies dried

[00:19:52] herbs and teas baked goods if you are utilizing your garden produce in baked goods whether that's zucchini bread or pumpkin bread pumpkin pies or you're making facotias that have fresh herbs

[00:20:04] and then whatever it is if there is something that you can create from your garden that is a value added product you're not necessarily selling the produce itself you're selling these other things

[00:20:18] and if you're good at that you know hey you know how to create some really stellar tea blends or seasoning blends or you make some really great sachets out of the lavender that you grow in

[00:20:29] your garden or you make this killer strawberry jam whatever it is you once again have to decide where and how you will sell that so are you going to sell it directly from the house from a stand

[00:20:42] are you going to do a listing on facebook marketplace and have people come and pick it up from your home are you willing to deliver it 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 of somebody else's shop these are things that you have to understand because different municipalities all have different

[00:21:01] rules about what you can and cannot resell so if you are doing something in your home that is typically referred to as a cottage industry so you are participating in a cottage industry meaning

[00:21:14] you know out of the home you're not working in a licensed facility therefore in most areas you cannot give your product to somebody else to sell on your behalf so you can't make that in your own

[00:21:27] home and then have somebody put it in their store to resell even on a consignment basis this usually applies to everything from baked goods to your jams and jellies um and your dried herbs and teas

[00:21:39] so 90 probably of the places where you're going to sell you're going to have to do it direct to consumer so that's going to either mean doing pickups from your house or delivery or doing it

[00:21:50] at a farmer's market or popping up that little lemonade stand out in front of your house and selling your jams and jellies that way the third way that you can make a little money from the garden

[00:22:01] would be through plant sales so if you have gotten really good at starting your own seeds for transplants for your garden you can grow extra in the spring and you can do that again in the late summer

[00:22:16] for a fall garden you can maybe educate people on you know hey this is when it's time to plant the fall garden so if you can start extras and you can sell those in the spring and again in the fall

[00:22:27] that's a couple of times a year where you can sell a bunch of stuff off and then maybe you're not selling throughout the middle of the uh the summertime in some areas you can also divide

[00:22:37] and propagate like your perennial plants and offer those for sale or your perennial herbs and offer those for sale in some places you do need a nursery license in order to be able to do that

[00:22:47] in Missouri you have to be licensed in order to be able to propagate perennials that are coming out of the ground because they want to be able to inspect and make sure that you're not you

[00:22:57] know passing on any soil-borne pathogens or anything like that into somebody else's garden not every place requires this so look up the rules in your municipality and figure out what you are and are not allowed to sell right alongside this you could be selling the seeds too again

[00:23:13] if this is something that you've done before you've done seed staving you understand how to isolate those varieties and sell those seeds check to see whether or not you're required to

[00:23:22] have some sort of a license in your state and what it requires uh to what's required to get that i used to do that years ago that was something else we used to offer was seeds yes

[00:23:32] i needed a license to do it it was super easy for me to get that and it was no big deal it was just certain information that you had to include on the packaging when you sold it but once again with

[00:23:43] plant sales or seed sales you do need to know where are you going to sell these from so are you going to do it from home are you going to take it to a market can you sell them to a

[00:23:53] local garden center and have them resell them on your behalf is that something that is allowed in your area do you need a nursery license in order to be able to do that if they are just

[00:24:05] annuals and a lot of places the answer is no you don't have to have an inspected nursery to do that you can start and propagate your own annual vegetable seeds or seedlings and be able to

[00:24:17] have a local garden seller sell them on your behalf whether that's on consignment or you sell them to them outright and they sell it to their customers so you have a few different options there but plant sales are a really good way to make some money

[00:24:31] from your garden especially if you are really good at starting your own seeds and your own transplants the next side hustle you might consider would be cut flowers and floral arrangements if you grow fabulous flowers and you know how to put those together as good looking fresh

[00:24:51] floral bouquets they sell like hotcakes I can tell you at the farmers market our flower growers always have a line of people wanting to buy their flowers you also have the option at that point

[00:25:04] to maybe sell them to local florists if you do a really good job at the things that they like to put in their displays then you can actually approach them and say hey this is what i'm

[00:25:13] growing this season would you be interested in buying now if you're going to do it that way you really ought to approach them the season before and give them an idea of what it is that

[00:25:22] you actually grow and see if they would be interested and set your kind of situation up ahead of time so that you're not increasing what you're growing hoping to sell them to local florists

[00:25:33] and then you know not being able to connect with any of them and having too many flowers but you could just go ahead and do those bouquets and sell them at the farmers market you could also offer weekly or bi-weekly or monthly flower subscriptions to local customers

[00:25:50] you know a subscription doesn't necessarily have to be for produce you know you could do that with flowers if you're really good at that that is not something that i am good at i can grow my own

[00:26:01] cut flowers for in my kitchen but i do not know how to arrange them properly and it's not something that i am really good at making these you know tall plants stand up and

[00:26:11] i just leave that to the experts but um i have been known to buy flowers from my other vendors at the farmers market so again where are you going to sell these if you decide to do bouquets and

[00:26:22] you know you want to sell them already pre-made are you going to do it the farmers market are you going to set up a little pop-up stand at the end of your driveway you're going to

[00:26:30] list them on facebook marketplace whatever it is um just know what your outlet is going to be and cut flowers and floral arrangements are absolutely something that you could do to make money from your garden one that you might not think of would be to give garden tours

[00:26:46] or give little workshops if you have a really unique garden layout or just a stellar setup you know that's very you know pleasing to look at people will pay you to come and get a guided

[00:27:02] tour of not just what it is that you're growing but how you're growing it or how you haven't laid out or what your trellis system is you can hook up with a local growers group or university extension services programs that offer tours if you really have something special

[00:27:22] to offer it's not it's not as far-fetched as it sounds you can also host workshops on different gardening techniques or pest management or composting or plant care whatever it is that you are really good at you know think about when you're talking to your friends who also

[00:27:39] happen to be gardeners or who have maybe an interest in gardening what questions are they asking you that you are always able to answer whatever that is it must be something that you're good at because

[00:27:52] you're giving them the answers they're looking for knowledge you have it that is something that you could host a workshop on and it doesn't necessarily have to be in your garden or at

[00:28:03] your home you could do something like that at the local library or at the you know community center there are different ways that you can get into doing you know either tours of your garden or

[00:28:15] giving workshops and teaching other people how it is that you do your gardens because every technique is different and every gardening area is different and you have something to offer if you have been successful at even one thing in your garden what kind of goes along with this

[00:28:33] but in a much different manner is number six and that is online content and products this is a bit more difficult and i'm actually speaking from experience here because this goes into a lot

[00:28:45] of what i do which is either blogging or vlogging or online courses ebooks guides podcasts that sort of thing sharing your gardening tips your techniques through either a written blog or a youtube

[00:29:01] video blog or doing it on social media or a podcast is absolutely viable but trying to make money from it is a bit more difficult than just sort of doing one-on-one in-person classes because the way that you monetize those things the blogging and the vlogging

[00:29:24] is through ads or through sponsorships or through affiliate marketing and it is definitely a sort of slow burn now if you're just doing it because you enjoy it and you love doing that which

[00:29:36] is kind of what i did when i first started the podcast it was just in order to share the information with people and teach people how to garden and the monetization of it sort of started to come

[00:29:47] later done okay great you don't have any expectations at point but if you really are expecting to make some side money by doing this it takes a very concerted effort to start doing ads and find sponsorships and find products that you can be an affiliate for

[00:30:03] and it doesn't happen quickly it has to be something that you are very consistent about and something that you can be very patient with online courses that's a whole different story i mean

[00:30:16] if you can develop an online course or a webinar or something on various gardening topics that you are really well versed in i mean you can throw them out there and you know who knows

[00:30:27] how many people are actually going to sign up for it does it take some effort to be able to like actually develop those courses absolutely it took me forever to put together my very first one

[00:30:36] the plain like a pro one and i've been working on several others of them over the past year and it takes time your situation is going to dictate how much time you can spend on these

[00:30:50] things and then you have to spend time marketing these things and getting people to lay eyes on them and decide that this is something that is for them same thing goes if you are writing ebooks

[00:31:02] or other types of online guides um you know everybody is looking for information in one way or another about their gardening right and there's and you constantly have people looking for you know doing google searches or doing online searches for very specific topics if you

[00:31:19] can find out what those topics are you can write and sell ebooks that are about those specific topics but again there's marketing that goes along with that and there's a lot of time in actually writing and researching making sure that you are actually passing on not just

[00:31:35] your own knowledge but also the correct knowledge um to other people because you don't want to be you know giving people bum scoop basically it takes a lot of focus to do these types of

[00:31:49] things and they are things that I am constantly working on in the background of my business because Just Grow Something is a side hustle to my farm that you know the farm started as a

[00:32:01] side hustle to my garden but then became my full-time job the farm comes first then this podcast and my consulting clients and then I get to create the other content like the ebooks and the

[00:32:12] online courses that are always in the works if it sounds like a lot it is and it's why I'm really loving this seven-day challenge from Magic Mind because it's gotten me into the calm

[00:32:25] focus that I need to accomplish even more in my day because you know my day wasn't busy enough as it was I just got back from a trip to visit family last weekend I didn't bring any Magic

[00:32:35] Mind with me because I was traveling light like one backpack on the plane light and I was actively trying not to work while I was there 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 to focus on writing podcast episode notes and doing the previous week's bookkeeping for the farm that I just wasn't keeping my focus

[00:33:00] I was all over the place it was only when I went to make an iced coffee to wake myself up that I remembered I hadn't taken my Magic Mind with my coffee that morning it's really amazing

[00:33:11] the difference it's making in my productivity and how I actually notice now how my focus tends to wane in the afternoons when I'm not taking it it works so much better alongside my coffee in the

[00:33:25] morning for just sustained energy and focus than me grabbing a coffee in the afternoons now if I grab a coffee just because I love my coffee that's a totally different story you can try Magic Mind and get your own productivity boost by going to magicmind.com slash justgrowsomething

[00:33:44] and using code justgrowsomething20 at checkout to save big on a new subscription or 20% on a one-time purchase I am all about this stuff it's my little green happy productivity shot magicmind.com slash justgrowsomething with code justgrowsomething20 at checkout to get

[00:34:04] yours. Speaking of subscriptions that is number seven on our list of things that you can do as a side hustle in the garden subscription boxes and I'm not talking subscription boxes like we talked

[00:34:16] about with like the CSA program where it's all produce think of things like garden kits right things that you're putting together with seeds or tools or instructions for specific garden projects that you have successfully done in your own garden or kits with everything someone would

[00:34:32] need to grow their own herb garden or a specific tea blend or a salad box specific salad grains things like that that make life easier for somebody who is trying to do something new

[00:34:48] always go over really really well and you could just do this you know start locally either slip listing them on Facebook marketplace you could do them at a farmer's market stand you could sell these at like craft shows or holiday markets and these types of things you

[00:35:06] actually could sell to local shops or sell them on consignment in local shops you can test the waters you can see how well they go you can try different packaging options and different you know combinations of things to see what really works first of all what you love

[00:35:25] to put together because none of these things are going to work if you don't enjoy actually doing it right so if you think if you're really good at making fairy gardens right or if you're

[00:35:37] really good at you know making little gnome homes or whatever you can sell those kits to teach people how to do that you just start locally and test it out and then if you get

[00:35:49] really good or if you get good feedback or it seems to be doing well you could actually expand to online sales that you could ship these are things that are easy enough to ship if you have

[00:35:58] the right packaging so you can either do it through Etsy or you could create your own online shop on your own website so these types of things are really popular and they're really

[00:36:08] fun for people when they have an interest in something but they either don't know where to start or they're just looking for something that's new and fun and fresh or a little bit of a surprise if it's something that's different every single month and they get it automatically

[00:36:21] number one that's automatic money in your pocket every month that is a nice little side hustle and it's a surprise for them they get to open if you've ever had one of these subscriptions

[00:36:30] it actually is kind of fun so that's another really good way to kind of start a garden side hustle is with subscription boxes of different like kits now if we go back to selling the actual produce one other option that you have is to focus on specialty crops

[00:36:48] so maybe this is something where you can develop a niche market for a very specific type of produce so maybe it's heirloom varieties maybe you specialize in growing and selling the really unique or heirloom varieties of the fruits and vegetables that are common in your area

[00:37:08] maybe it's microgreens those have a really high market value they can be grown year round and maybe you're at a market where there's lots and lots of other types of produce but maybe microgreens aren't there and these are something that maybe you could also

[00:37:26] you know sell locally to either the local grocery store because it's technically like a plant it's not necessarily produce you know it can be sold at the grocery store but can also be sold in other markets as well maybe you're really good at medicinal plants

[00:37:42] you know either medicinal herbs or other plants that are used and have medicinal properties maybe you can grow and sell the plants or you can sell the harvest from the plants now be careful on this

[00:37:53] one with your wording though don't get in trouble by claiming the plants or a harvest from a plant will specifically do x y and z that fda is very specific about what they you know we can say

[00:38:05] that plants do or don't do definitively and you know so usually it's you should say what they may do and i'm using bunny ears this may help you with x y and z is usually what you have to say but

[00:38:18] if you are into the medicinal plants and you grow them very well you might be able to you know create a niche market for yourself in terms of medicinals number nine would be to sell gardening services so are you really good at garden planning

[00:38:35] are you really good at garden design as a service to other homeowners um you know can you lay out a garden space really really well and make good utilization of it or are you really good at kind

[00:38:48] of conceptually creating these things that just look absolutely beautiful this is part of what I do with my garden consulting services most of what I do is the actual garden planning but I do help

[00:39:01] with design services when needed the other thing that you might be interested in doing is helping with installation and maintenance you know if you've got somebody that okay yeah I have this idea

[00:39:12] and I want these raised planters over here but I need this also tilled up etc etc is that a service that you can offer do you like getting your hands in there and actually kind of doing

[00:39:21] the creating of the new space this is not something that I offer with my just grow something garden consulting but I know plenty of people out there who do do this as sort of a side hustle you know

[00:39:33] I will come till your garden for you or I will come put your raised beds together for you or I will you know mix your potting mix together for you and install it in those raised beds so

[00:39:42] you know gardening services whether it's in terms of design or installation and maintenance can be a way to make some money from your own gardening knowledge and then if you're really adventurous the last one would be to rent your garden space so if you have a really beautiful

[00:40:03] garden area and you have an outdoor gazebo that is in there could you rent it out is there a local photographer who would love to take sessions for people in your garden you know

[00:40:16] can you rent it out for like tea parties or something or if it's really big you know a family reunion or something you know do you want to get into like event hosting or could you rent an area

[00:40:27] of your garden out to people who want to garden but they don't have a space of their own you know community gardens in my area are really few and far between and a lot of time

[00:40:39] those community gardens are actually run by the master gardeners program and they do it to raise produce for donation there are some areas that I pass by once I get further up into the city

[00:40:51] where there are definitely community gardens but a lot of those gardens plots are always taken up and it seems like there is always a need out there for an allotment or for a garden plot to be

[00:41:03] rented so is that something that you would be able to do do you have an area where you could actually rent out a space to people who really want to garden but they lack a space

[00:41:13] to be able to do it on their own or at their own home so with all of these I think there are some overarching themes or ideas behind them right number one would be understanding your market know

[00:41:29] what products or services are in demand in your area or if you plan on going online and doing online sales or online courses is there a demand out there for what it is that you

[00:41:41] are trying to offer when it comes to what you're physically selling I think quality over quantity is probably you know a really big 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 be able to offer it but if that stuff isn't really good quality it's not going to matter because nobody's going to want it so quality

[00:42:09] over quantity definitely but then also focusing on you know being able to meet the market demand and then marketing goes along with every single one of these you're going to have to somehow

[00:42:21] either use social media or local advertising or word of mouth or whatever it is to promote whatever business it is that you start on the side to you know gain some money from

[00:42:33] from your garden and then anytime you can diversify if you could take two of these ideas and combine them offer a variety of products and services whatever it is just to kind of you know

[00:42:47] reduce the risk and increase the reward in terms of revenue stream I always say you know diversifying is absolutely necessary because of one thing doesn't sell at least you have something as a backup that's it 10 different ideas for making money from your garden and they

[00:43:09] don't all involve selling the actual produce itself yes that can be part of it but value added products are always in demand and putting kits or boxes and things together for people that they

[00:43:20] can't or don't know how to do themselves almost always has a market and teaching people to do those things for themselves yeah that's my jam that's why you're here listening to me right if I can take my experiences and education and teach people how to do it themselves

[00:43:40] well so can you you don't have to have a degree in agriculture or 20 years of gardening experience you just have to have more experience and education than the folks that you're teaching so if you've successfully started seedlings for transplant into your own garden for years

[00:43:59] teach that if you have a fantastic herb garden every year and you know a thousand ways to use them teach that whether it's in a conference or it's in an e-book or it's an online course whatever

[00:44:11] it is start small share the knowledge share the joy and maybe you can make a little money from the garden too until next time my gardening friends keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk

[00:44:24] again soon thanks for listening to another episode of just grow something podcast for more information about today's topic and to find all the ways you can get in touch with me or support the show

[00:44:36] go to just grow something podcast dot com until next time my gardening friends keep learning and keep growing