As a gardener, you cherish the time you spend in nature. Every plant lover would love nothing more than to make a living from gardening. If you would like to move from gardening as a hobby to gardening as an income source, it’s important to explore different ways to make a living from gardening in a creative, simple, inexpensive way.
You can make a living from gardening by doing things like selling plants, selling seeds, selling produce, selling fresh herbs or dried herbs, selling fresh or dried medicinal herbs, making herbal teas to sell, or turning medicinal herbs into oils, tinctures and salves.
Gardening is a truly cathartic experience that allows you to become one with nature. To turn this cathartic experience into an income stream can be fairly simple as there are various forms of gardening that produce different outcomes, and a variety of ways you can generate income through your garden.
Ideas you can implement to make a living from gardening
Here is a complete guide on how to make a living from gardening in creative and simple ways.
Plants
Plants have become a popular decorative item in homes. Growing plants and selling them is a simple way to earn an income given the demand for plants as home décor.
If you’re feeling creative, you can sell porch planters, succulents, and indoor herb gardens. These products are great to sell at local markets as there is a large demand for affordable plants that bring a decorative element to one’s home.
Plants with custom pot plants
With the demand for plants as decorative items comes the demand for custom pot plants that suit the design of the home or have a special meaning for a customer.
Offering custom-made pot plants will take a bit of effort, but because it’s unique, there will be a demand for the product, and people will be willing to pay high prices, generating a reasonable income for you through your love of gardening.
To add to this service, you can offer to deliver the custom pot plants at an additional fee and offer to include a card with the plant if it is a gift. In this sense, you will be able to make a profit off the delivery fees and the card, while will be extra income in your pocket in addition to the profit made off the plant sold.
Plant food
Plant food is very quick and simple to make. Making your own plant food can save you a lot of money. However, lack the time, energy, or knowledge to make plant food.
A simple online search will enable you to learn how to make plant food which you can then sell and promote as homemade plant food. Selling homemade plant food is a simple, inexpensive way to make a profit while also producing plant food for your own garden at home.
Seeds
While many may joke about killing their plants, most people are enthusiastic to try to grow plants.
Selling seeds is an easy way to make money, especially if you’ve already started saving your own seeds. You could also sell groups of seeds that grow together as a garden starter pack.
Fresh produce
Store-bought produce simply does not compare to locally sources fresh produce. There is a great demand for fresh produce as it is often healthier and more affordable.
To meet the market need for fresh produce, consider selling your fresh produce to locals in creative ways. Offering to deliver fresh produce to locals in your area is a great way to generate income while establishing a customer base. Additionally, selling exotic fruits or rare vegetables will help you stand out in the market and draw in customers.
Dried or fresh culinary herbs
Selling dried or fresh herbs for culinary use is an innovative way to provide culinary herbs for yourself while making a profit from your garden. Popular herbs such as thyme, mint, rosemary, and basil are crowd favorites which you could sell at your local market or have sold in local grocery stores.
Adding your own charming labels to your products will help your products stand out and also help you create a recognizable brand in your community.
Herbal salts and oils
A creative way to earn income using your homegrown herbs is by making your own herbal salts and oils.
Given the demand for essential oils and herbal products, turning your homegrown herbs into herbal salts and oils is guaranteed to bring in a decent income. Consider approaching local health stores to discuss selling these products in their stores.
Medicinal herbs
Growing medicinal herbs is not only good for your health, but also an opportunity to earn an income by harvesting and drying the herbs to sell at local markets.
Herbal tea blends
The increased emphasis on wellness in the past few years has sparked a demand for herbal products, specifically herbal teas believed to have healing powers.
By creating your own herbal tea blend, you will be able to earn a profit from your home garden. If you market your herbal tea blends as teas containing herbal products containing healing powers, you’re likely to make an even bigger profit.
You-pick garden
Planting a you-pick garden and opening it to the public is a fun, creative way to make money. Visitors can come, spend time in nature, take a few pictures and leave with a few freshly picked fruits.
Popular you-pick plants include strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and pumpkins. Alternatively, fruit trees like pears, apples, and peaches are also excellent for pick your own produce farms.
Dried produce
Fruit snacks are a yummy, healthy treat. Unfortunately, store-bought products often contain so many unhealthy additives that detract from the overall health benefits of these snacks.
Providing healthy dried fruit snacks will attract local health food lovers, but also parents who would happily purchase your natural healthy snacks for their children.
Homemade cottage food
Everyone loves a good homemade jam or fruit tart. Consider selling your homemade baked jams and jellies to generate an income.
You could sell these products from your home, or supply them to grocery stores and health stores, or sell them at markets in your area.
Soups
Everyone loves a good soup in winter, and there’s nothing better than a soup made from fresh ingredients.
Some prefer to make soup themselves, but find it tedious to cut up all the ingredients. To meet these customers’ needs, consider offering ready-cut soup packs. You can offer different soup options and have each soup pack containing all the necessary ingredients already cut, ready to be boiled.
While some prefer to make the soup themselves, others prefer ready-made soup that simply needs to be heated up for a few minutes. In this regard, you could sell hearty soups that are already made and simply need to be popped in the microwave before use.
Flowers
Growing flowers and selling them is a beautiful way to generate income. To advance your business, consider offering to deliver flowers for special occasions and offer custom bouquets too.
Additionally, you could turn your garden into a unique flower picking experience, opening your garden to the public, allowing them to pick their own flowers. You can generate income this way by charging an entry fee and/or charging for the flowers that are picked.
Another great way to expand your flower business is by supplying flowers to restaurants, hotels, lodges, and offices in your area. Furthermore, you could approach grocery stores and offer to supply flowers to their stores. Securing these supply agreements will allow you to make a living from gardening.
Potpourri
Making potpourri is a great way to generate income in various ways. When you think of potpourri, your mind probably races to weddings. While providing potpourri for weddings is a straightforward way of generating income, there are other ways you could generate income selling potpourri.
Potpourri is often used to provide a fresh, natural scent and is often placed in a decorative bowl in residential settings.
While you could generate income selling potpourri to individuals for their homes, a more innovative option would be to supply potpourri to hotels and guest houses as this will lead to large orders that generate higher income.
Securing a supply deal with a hotel or guest house is a great way to make a living from gardening as you will have a steady flow of income for a certain time period based on the supply agreement.
Sustainable packaging
There has been a call for a decrease in the use of plastic. A creative way to make money is to use your plants as a packaging source.
Stores are often looking for creative, sustainable ways to package their goods. Something as creative as using banana leaves to replace plastic produce packaging is a sustainable option that is not only innovative, but also eco-friendly.
If you are able to grow your own fresh produce, you could offer a unique product to grocery stores by selling fresh produce packaged in natural materials rather than plastic.
However, if you are unable to grow your own fresh produce, but are able to create a sustainable packing source using something like banana leaves, you could partner with a fresh produce supplier to provide the packaging for their produce.
By doing this, you will generate an income from the packaging being sold to the fresh produce supplier, and your income will be dependent on your agreement with the fresh produce supplier, rather than being based on the number of fresh produce sales.
Crafts
Making crafts out of the herbs and flowers in your garden is an enjoyable way to generate an income. You can use the greenery found in your garden to make soaps, candles, and even jewelry.
Teach gardening classes (in person)
Many people would love to know more about gardening and are willing to pay money for it. Consider using your gardening knowledge to host classes teaching others how to garden.
You could turn it into a gardening course that people could enroll in to learn the basics of gardening. Alternatively, you could offer classes on particular gardening topics, and people could pay for the individual classes and attend based on the topics that interest them.
To make your business stand out, you could offer gardening lessons for kids to extend your target market. Doing this could not only attract kids to your classes, but also their parents who will need gardening knowledge to support their kid’s gardening journey at home.
You could also avail your services to local schools, offering to teach gardening classes to the students. This is a resourceful way to make money without even needing to have your own garden, because you’ll be teaching on the school’s premises. Additionally, this could provide a stable source of income depending on the agreement between you and the school.
Teach gardening classes (online)
Given the importance of technology in modern society, it would be beneficial to offer gardening classes online and in person. Offering gardening classes online allows you to offer your services internationally, which will broaden your customer base.
Online classes are particularly useful because of the ability to record your lessons and use them in future. Having these recordings allows you to create an online course that can be accessed internationally for years to come without you having to give the class each time.
This simple action allows you to give one class and make money off that class for years, enabling you to use your gardening knowledge to generate a passive income.
Homemade compost
Compost is called black gold for a reason. Homemade compost is in high demand and people are willing to pay good money for organic compost. Selling homemade compost is an advanced way to generate income while providing compost for yourself for your own garden.
Teach composting classes
Due to the rising cost of fertilizers and the concerns regarding artificial ingredients in fertilizers, many are open to learning how to make their own fertilizer by composting.
Organic fertilizers offer peace of mind that many will pay for. Therefore, you decide not to sell your own fertilizer, offering these classes is a great way to generate income.
Offer personal gardening services
Your gardening knowledge and skills can be of great use to those beginning their gardening journey or anyone needing assistance in their garden.
There are a host of services you can offer based on your gardening knowledge. Offering gardening planning services is a unique way to help anyone create the garden of their dreams.
Alternatively, you could offer gardening supervision where you guide a newbie gardener as they plant seeds and nurture their garden. In this sense, you could be a garden coach, helping beginners learn the foundational principles of gardening practically.
You could also offer gardening consultations, where you visit properties, inspect gardens and give guidelines to customers on how to put their garden to good use.
Blog about gardening
There are many people who would love to garden, but simply do not know where to start. Starting a blog providing guidance on gardening is a great way to market yourself while generating an income through the ad revenue of your blog.
Additionally, you could guest write for gardening websites or blogs and earn an income through that.
Vlog
Vlogging yourself working in the garden, providing tips, rating gardening products is a great way to establish yourself online.
Once you have established yourself online and have a decent following base, you can approach brands and offer to promote their products on your social media in exchange for free products and/or payment. If you’re lucky, you might find brands approaching you to promote their products in exchange for free products or payment too.
Having a strong online presence can open many doors and can even lead to you becoming a brand ambassador for gardening products. Additionally, this can lead to features on television or other online channels where people may pay to interview you and discuss your gardening knowledge.
Photography
Gardens provide the most beautiful scenery. An easy way to generate income is to take photos of your garden and sell them to photo websites.
For this, you might need to invest in a good camera. Nonetheless, this would be rewarding as you would have the opportunity to make a living off your garden and have pictures of your garden for your own personal enjoyment.
Alternatively, you could generate income by opening up your garden to the public as a photography location for birthdays, graduations, weddings, and other special events.
Host events
The beautiful scenery of your garden does not need to be limited to being used for photographs. Your garden can also be used as a location to host events such as dinner parties, bridal showers, birthday parties, or picnics.
Connecting with caterers and wedding planners in your arrange opportunities on your property is a great way to make a living from your garden.
Maze
A fun way to generate income is to turn your garden into a maze that you open to the public. A simple maze could generate a relatively decent income.
You could also make a living by renting out your maze for treasure hunts, races, or Easter egg hunts, or host these events yourself to draw crowds to your maze.
Community garden
Some people truly enjoy working in gardens, but simply do not have the time or energy to maintain a garden full-time. For this reason, starting a community garden where people can pay to do garden work for a few hours without any further commitments is a great opportunity to provide a therapeutic experience while you reap the benefits of the garden.
If you would like to give back to the community, a great initiative would be to have some of the produce from the garden be donated to local charities.
Doing this will draw support from locals as they will be able to have a therapeutic gardening experience while doing something good for the less fortunate in the community.
Seed testing/reviews
Companies are often developing new varieties of seeds and require gardens to try the seeds and report on the results. Testing these products is a great way to get free products and earn an income.
If you establish yourself with these companies by giving meaningful feedback, they will likely consult you in future to provide feedback on their products. This is a great way to ensure you have access to more free products and the opportunity to earn income too.
Look out for opportunities to do other testings such as pest control testing or fertilizer testing as these are also great opportunities to get free products and make money. It’s possible to make a living as a tester if you establish yourself with brands.
Gardening recipes
There are many food blogs, vlogs, and cooking channels that pay for recipes. It is possible for you to earn an income selling your garden-fresh recipes.
It is particularly beneficial if you are able to provide delicious recipes along with high-quality photos. In this sense, you will have the ability to provide unique recipes because your meals are prepared with fresh homegrown ingredients.
Additionally, you will be able to supply not only images of the meals, but also images of the ingredients grown in your garden, making what you have to offer stand out to those in the food industry.
Gardening e-book
Creating an e-book is a great way to earn a passive income because it requires your effort only once. E-book’s allow you to continue to get paid for your intellectual property for years to come without additional work being needed apart from promoting the book.
Creating an e-book can be relatively simple, given modern technology. The extent of your gardening knowledge will most likely dictate the topic of your e-book. However, you can always conduct further research to expand your knowledge.
Some interesting topics for gardening e-books include:
- A beginner’s guide to gardening
- Exciting recipes you can make using plants found in your garden
- The do’s and don’ts of gardening
- Easiest fruits and vegetables to grow and how to grow them
Offering your garden as a place of peace and quiet
Spending time in nature can be a very calming, humbling experience. With all the hustle and bustle of life, many are looking for a place of solitude.
Hosting yoga and meditation classes in your garden is a great way to share your beautiful space with others while making a living from your garden. You could also charge for day visits on your property for people to spend time in nature to relax, exercise, or simply use it as a quiet studying or working area.
Things to keep in mind
Laws
Before you begin any of these ventures, be sure to check your local laws as some states may require that you register your business or need a license to proceed with your venture.
Tax
Additionally, you will most probably need to pay tax on your income. In this regard, it is important to keep good records of all your transactions, from purchasing equipment to profits generated.
Insurance
If you are embarking on a venture that includes having visitors on your property to spend time in your garden, it is important to ensure that you have insurance in the event of any incidents occurring on the property.
Covid-19
Given the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important that any product you offer is made in a covid-compliant workspace. Furthermore, if you host visitors in your garden, it’s essential that you comply with the relevant protocols applicable in your state.
Conclusion
There are various innovative, fun ways to make a living from gardening. Many of the ideas discussed can be incorporated with one another to offer a niche gardening service that will allow you to generate an income while nurturing your love for gardening.
References
Recent Posts
All plants have necessary requirements which help them to grow. Without sunlight, water, fresh air, the correct temperature, and essential nutrients, plants would not thrive. Combine these factors...
Keeping a well-manicured lawn and a tidy garden does take hard work and regular maintenance. Having the correct tools to use for the job at hand makes the job easier. Knowing when and how to use the...