Gardening is a great hobby, especially if you’re growing the majority of your own herbs and vegetables like I do. But if you’re looking to make your garden into a full-time job or a side hustle, there are some smart ways to turn it into a money minting machine. So here are the absolute best ways to make money gardening!
Ways to Make Money Gardening
- Sell seedlings
- Propagate and sell cuttings
- Garden consulting
- Start a gardening blog
- Sell heirloom seeds
- Take your produce to market
- Sell flowers from your garden
- Sell dried herbs
- Grow a u-pick garden
- Host gardening classes
- Make and sell soap with dried herbs
- Sell homemade compost
- Set up gardens for other people
- Grow and sell microgreens
- Providing to restaurants
- Write a gardening book
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WAYS TO MAKE MONEY GARDENING
Making a garden income is ultimately not that hard – and there are so many ways to go about it!
From selling products from your garden to garden consulting, there are tons of options no matter what type of gardening you’re into!
Take a look at each of these profitable ways to make money gardening and you’ll be amazed at how easy it is.
1) SELL SEEDLINGS
Selling seedlings is probably the easiest way to make money gardening!
This is because seedlings grow in almost no time and take up very little space. Plus, your initial investment is very low!
And many gardeners prefer seedlings, instead of planting crops directly from seed.
Seedlings for plants such as tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and flowers, sell like hot cakes! And if you notice that one type of seedling sells more than others, you can plant out more of those!
I usually start seeds twice per year – in spring and then again in the fall. And I always have extra.
So by selling my extra seedlings I’m able to make enough money to pay for the next season’s seeds.
Selling locally (aka in my own neighborhood) usually works best – but you can always list them on social media to get more exposure!
2) PROPAGATE & SELL CUTTINGS
If you’re looking for a free way to make more plants, then you need to learn to propagate!
Basically this involves taking cuttings from your existing plants, rooting them (usually in water) and then planting them to create a whole new plant.
Selling cuttings allows you to earn a decent amount of money since you don’t have to buy seeds.
This allows you to have plants in your garden that you can use for your own home consumption, and to sell for profit!
3) GARDEN CONSULTING
A garden consultant is a person that helps you start a garden from scratch by planning out an ideal layout for your space. Or that helps you remedy existing problems in your garden.
Being a garden consultant allows you to help other gardeners with their gardening dilemmas and earn a garden income from it by charging a fee.
So if you’re an experienced gardener, this might be a lucrative option. And you can always set up a website for remote consulting!
Psst…want to fast track your garden? Get access to my FREE gardening resource library and start maximizing your garden today!
4) START A GARDENING BLOG
If you love gardening and want to earn money from it, you can start a gardening blog where you write about everything gardening. Just like this blog!
How does garden blogging earn you money?
Good question. There are several ways you can earn from garden blogging, which include:
- Affiliate marketing. You can sign up for affiliate marketing with sites such as Amazon. So if you recommend a product you like, and the reader buys it, then you earn a small commission. A great reason to click on my links (hint, hint!)
- Monetizing your blog with ads. When you have helpful, engaging content, it drives traffic to your website and you can earn money by having ads on your site.
- Sell gardening workbooks – just like this one! 😉 If you have tons of helpful content, you can use that to create a product to sell to your readers!
This is probably one of my favorite ways to earn money gardening since I get to share my knowledge with other gardeners!
5) SELL HEIRLOOM SEEDS
Once you harvest your crops, you should be seed saving at least some of your seeds!
It’s one of my favorite ways to garden on a budget and you can also turn around and sell your extras!
Plants such as pumpkin, beans, peas, squash, corn, among others, don’t do as well when planted as a seedling as they would when grown from seed.
So if you can grow plants that are in demand in your area and sell their seeds, you’ll likely make a good amount of money!
But just keep in mind that in order to be successful with this method, you have to sell only high quality seeds that have a high germination rate.
If you can do that, then this is a great option for making money from your garden!
6) TAKE YOUR PRODUCE TO MARKET
Nothing tastes quite as good as a fresh tomato right off the vine!
At a farmers market, the produce you sell is fresh and straight from the garden. This means that more buyers are inclined to buy from you.
The advantages of selling at a farmers market include:
- You can sell several products at once
- Save money for transportation since the distance is short
- Growing a community
- Providing fresh, local produce to your neighbors
This is probably an option for more advanced gardeners, or people with a little bit more space. Since you will need to take quite a few options with you.
But you could also grow seedlings and take them to market!
7) SELL FLOWERS FROM YOUR GARDEN
There’s a reason that almost every grocery store in the country sells flowers – people love them!
And there are many types of flowers you can grow and sell from your garden, ranging from edible to decorative flowers.
Edible flowers you can sell right from your garden include dandelions, nasturtiums, and lavender – among others.
You can also grow and sell decorative flowers for flower arrangements at events such as weddings, baby showers, engagement parties, or just for the kitchen table.
Plus, selling flowers is pretty lucrative and people will pay a high premium to have freshly cut flowers in their home!
8) SELL DRIED HERBS
Apart from selling freshly cut herbs like we’ve already talked about, selling dried herbs is an easy way to turn your garden into a side hustle!
Lots of people hate buying fresh herbs because they go bad so fast. But dried herbs last for months and can be used for basically the same things as fresh ones!
In order to dry herbs from your garden, you can invest in a dehydrator. Or you can simply hang them to dry, which is what I do.
Then once they’re ready, package them in cute little bags and voila!
Dried herbs to sell!
9) GROW A U-PICK GARDEN
In order to grow a u-pick garden you probably need a little bit more space. But it depends on the type of things you want to grow.
For example, growing apples takes up a lot more space than growing herbs!
And especially in spring and summer, people are looking to get outside and connect with nature!
As a u-pick gardener, you get to sell your produce at a fair price without having to incur other costs such as transportation, storage, etc.
You can earn a tidy amount from having a u-pick garden. And what’s more, you don’t even have to harvest the crops yourself, which saves you a lot of labor!
10) HOST GARDENING CLASSES
A huge reason why people don’t try new things is that they don’t know where to start!
So if you can give them basic instructions, in the form of a fun, entertaining class, you can earn a ton!
Plus, you can have 10, 15, 20 people in each class and earn more for the same amount of work!
And you can offer specialty classes, like gardening classes for kids.
These classes would cover less information, and would likely be shorter too!
11) MAKE & SELL SOAP WITH DRIED HERBS
Did you know that you can use culinary herbs to make a good, homemade soap?
Herbs such as parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, and oregano can be used to create magnificent smelling soaps.
And many people prefer organic soaps that are gentle on their skin. So if you can make such soaps, you can get a decent profit for them.
I would say though that this is on the more complicated side of the options on this list. So doing some research on soap making is a good place to start!
Psst…want to fast track your garden? Get access to my FREE gardening resource library and start maximizing your garden today!
12) SELL HOMEMADE COMPOST
Compost is very important to every organic garden, but due to busy schedules or lack of enough space, many people are not capable of making their own compost.
However, homemade compost is so much better than store bought. So if you can provide it, there’s definitely a market for it!
And if you’ve never made homemade compost before, I have an entire video on kitchen composting for beginners!
13) SET UP GARDENS FOR OTHER PEOPLE
Setting up a garden is hard work!
And many people are looking to outsource that garden task – with good reason!
So if you are willing to put in the effort and manual labor, this is an awesome way to make some gardening income in a few short hours!
Just keep in mind that you will have to work with your client on the type of garden they want, whether or not they want to use organic gardening methods, and their garden layout.
So if you enjoy working with people, helping to set up gardens and charging a fee is a great way to go!
14) GROW AND SELL MICROGREENS
If you’re wondering what microgreens are, they are aromatic greens, also known as vegetable confetti, or micro herbs, that add color and flavor to a variety of dishes.
They were first introduced to restaurants in the 1980s and have since gained a lot of popularity since they are packed with nutrients!
Microgreens are also very convenient to grow. And so many greens can be started as microgreens – arugula, radish, lettuce, carrots, celery, leeks, and garlic, among others.
You can grow them and sell them to restaurants, homes, or at a farmer’s market.
And generally they take only a few weeks from seed to harvest!
15) PROVIDING TO RESTAURANTS
Restaurants are constantly looking for the best produce they can find to serve for their customers.
So if you have some advanced gardening skills, and enough time and space to grow for large orders, providing produce to restaurants can be very lucrative!
Start by calling local restaurants and seeing what’s in demand as far as produce goes.
That way you have an idea of what you can supply, with little competition!
16) WRITE A GARDENING BOOK
One of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon is by flipping through my stack of gardening books to get new ideas for things to grow, or look for new gardening methods to try!
Writing is not for the faint hearted but if you love to write and garden, why not write a gardening book?
What’s more, once you write a book it will be on the shelves, which earns you passive income while you still earn from your garden!
WHAT VEGETABLES ARE MOST PROFITABLE?
The most profitable vegetables to sell will depend on what’s in demand in your area.
Some of the easiest to grow, with the quickest turnaround time and highest profit margin are micro greens and salad greens.
But by visiting local farmer’s markets or calling local restaurants, you’ll get a good idea of what gaps there are in the market and you can swoop in and provide that supply!
The above ways to make money gardening can help you grow a successful gardening business or provide a few extra dollars worth of side income! Either way, jot down your favorite ones and don’t be afraid to get your feet wet with new ones!
I hope this was super helpful! And for more gardening resources, get access to our free gardening resource library! It will help you fast track your garden and it only takes 5 seconds!
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