Watching My Garden Business Grow and Profit

by Ardith
(Longmont, CO. US)

Gardening for profit

I used to perform contract sewing, but my back could not take the constant pressure of sitting for long periods. Eventually, I had to retire from that job, but I still wanted to bring in extra income.

I got the idea of selling vegetables because I have always had a mild, green thumb, and like to do gardening. I did not have much luck at first because the soil conditions were not the best. I started growing tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, peppers, radishes, and onions out in the open field, but that only turned out to be a fair profit when it came time to sell them.

Meanwhile, with the help of my husband, we built a greenhouse to keep the temperature and humidity constant; this helped tremendously. When the greenhouse was ready, I planted my first, indoor seeds and the plants popped out of the earth faster than they ever have. When they had matured, I harvested the vegetables and got them ready for market. In turn, I began selling them and I started to make the kind of money I needed.

I sold many of the vegetables at flea markets. In the end, the people that had bought my vegetables from the flea market would show up at my front door wanting more. People were overjoyed at the excellent quality of the produce. When the news spread, word of mouth, it brought in more customers and I made enough income to be able to buy the extra things my husband, and I could not afford.

The idea of gardening was not new to me, but I have developed growing better produce with the help of the greenhouse, books, and the Internet. I will not say the process of gardening is not hard work because I still have back problems. However, I can take breaks whenever I want to rest my back and then go back to the thing I love-doing most, working at my business. The reward of growing and nurturing each seedling and watching the plants thrive to maturity, is a miracle in itself.

The best advice, I could give to someone who wants to garden for profit, is make sure you have the room and the time to give your plants a healthy start; patience is a plus when gardening. Even though this is a part-time business, I have been gardening for the last ten years to bring in extra income, and this homegrown business is just what I needed.