Gardening can be quite a satisfying hobby. You invest a lot of time and hard work into it, and you are rewarded with a beautiful outdoor space full of healthy plants, flowers, or maybe produce.
Along with these rewards, you can also get financial rewards if you look at gardening as a way to make money. Lots of people turn their gardening hobby into a second source of income, and so can you.
Here are some tips explaining how you can do that.
What Do You Need To Get Started With Gardening?
What you need first is knowledge. You need to know how to identify plants, what the different kinds of plants are, and what the ideal environment conditions should be in order for the plants to thrive.
Different plants require different levels of sunlight, soil conditions, temperatures, etc. So, when you are choosing the type of plants you want to add to your garden, you have to make your choices based on this knowledge.
You can get this knowledge from reading gardening books written for your geographic region. You can also get information from authoritative gardening websites. Another source of information is your local gardening center.
They will have most plants that do well in your area. The plant nursery staff can give you advice on the best way to take care of them.
Armed with this knowledge, you will need to get gardening tools and equipment to take care of your garden. A shovel with a long handle, a hand-held shovel, a rake, garden shears, a garden saw, and garden clippers are your basic general-purpose tools.
You should also have a sturdy pair of garden gloves and a large 5-gallon bucket to carry your hand-held garden tools and other items that you might need.
If you have a lawn in your garden, you will need a lawn mower. If you have hedges, you will need a hedge trimmer. Down the road, you will get other garden tools to add to your collection.
Finally, you will need seeds or young plants to plant in your garden based on what results you want to get. You can have a garden for flowers, herbs, vegetables, fruits, or whatever you desire.
Each type of garden will require different maintenance tasks like when to water, when to fertilize, what fertilizer to use, and so forth.
What Is The Easiest Way To Make Money In Gardening?
An obvious way to make money in gardening is to sell what you grow. That means selling the flowers, vegetables, fruits, or herbs that you had harvested. However, that might not be the easiest way to earn money because you have to wait for the harvest in order to reap a profit.
And sometimes, your yield might not be as big as anticipated because weather conditions were not ideal or gardening problems like pests or plant diseases led to a smaller yield. As a result, that can cut into the money that you anticipate making.
An easier way to make money is by selling your services as a gardening consultant. A lot of homeowners do not take the time to learn all about plants. When their garden is not doing well, they would rather ask someone for help.
This is where you can provide your expertise. You can charge by the hour for your consultation services. You can go to your client’s home and evaluate the condition of their garden.
You can try to diagnose what the problems are based on your own experience and knowledge about plants. Then, you can make a recommendation on how to remedy the problems.
Another easy way to make money is by designing a garden for someone. For this, it will help if you have some background in landscaping.
Since you know all about plants and their planting conditions, you can recommend what plants to plant in specific areas of the garden. You will need to know how the sun moves over the house during the day so that the plants will get the appropriate amount of sun exposure.
You can group plants together based on the similarity of their soil needs and sun exposure requirements. You can charge a flat fee for coming up with a design for the garden.
Lastly, you can make money by creating a website on gardening tips and writing content about gardening.
You can monetize your content by linking to products that are relevant to gardening, so you will get paid each time your visitor clicks on your affiliate links. You might not make tons of money this way, but it is passive income, so it is certainly easy.
How Much Money Can You Make From Gardening?
Selling what you grow will make you as much money as what you would expect to pay for flowers and produce elsewhere. So, it depends on how much you have to sell.
As a gardening consultant, you can set your own rates, and it really depends on how much people are willing to pay for your advice. If you are just starting out, you may have to charge a bit less just to attract new customers.
You also have to establish a reputation in your community as an expert in gardening in order to command a higher fee. Reputation takes time to build as you get more clients.
If you are offering landscape design, you can charge per design plan. It can go from several hundred dollars to several thousand, depending on the complexity of the design and the size of the garden. The larger the space to plan for, the higher the fee.
The market rate also depends on your geographic region. Areas where the cost of living is higher will justify higher service costs.
Also, do not forget about licensure and experience. If you are an amateur gardener with good advice but not a licensed landscaper, you won’t be able to justify charging a landscaper’s price. It is like hiring a handyman versus hiring a contractor.
Learn more about your money-making options in this guide to making money from your hobbies.
Can You Make Gardening A Career?
You can definitely make gardening a rewarding career. You can help homeowners bring their vision of a beautiful garden to life. You can help them make a garden retreat where your client can enjoy the fruits of his labor.
You will work with a client who is just as passionate as you are about creating a beautiful outdoor space. You can make a positive impact on someone’s lifestyle by improving their quality of life.
Other benefits include being able to set your own flexible schedule because you will be your own boss and will work when you want to.
You will also be outdoors most of the time, enjoying the fresh air and getting exercise while you garden. Your health will no doubt improve from these garden activities.
You can reinforce that career by continuing to write useful content on your gardening website. This is one way to show visitors that you are an authority on the subject matter.
When people search for help for their gardens, they start their search by entering a few keywords along with their geographic region.
If your website is optimized with the right keywords, your website will appear at the top of their search results, and that will make it more likely for them to visit your website.
You might want to establish a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms. You want to gain as much exposure as you can as an expert in gardening.
Because gardening is your passion, it can turn into a very satisfying career.
How Can You Make Money From Gardening As A Beginner?
As a beginner, you can start offering your services in making small changes in a customer’s garden. For instance, you can offer to repot some plants or prune a tree that needs pruning.
You can make some suggestions on a small area of the garden and offer to get some plants (with plant costs listed separately) to fill in that section. Offer to come back for a follow-up after a few weeks to check how the new plants are thriving.
If your first few clients are happy with the results, they will hire you back for bigger projects. Also, they will refer their family and friends to you for garden consultation. Gradually, your client base will grow.
Final Thoughts
You can see that it is very possible to make money from gardening. Next time you work on your garden, remember these tips and ask yourself if this is something that you would like to do to make money.
If you are serious about gardening as a career, you can take it to the next level and work on getting credentials as a landscaper. You will learn in-depth about plants, trees, soil management, pest management, irrigation, and more.
You can earn a lot more when you have a professional license in your field.
Gardening will always be a part of you, so why not harness that passion and turn it into your dream job!