How to Start a Profitable Backyard Plant Nursery.

Starting a backyard plant nursery can be a wonderful way to turn your love of plants and gardening into cash. It's one of the best ways to "bootstrap" a few hundred dollars into a good income.

When people think of a plant nursery, the local garden center usually comes to mind. Fact is, most garden centers produce very few of the plants they sell. Instead, they purchase their plants from specialty nurseries, who actually grow the plants.

You'll find specialty plant nurseries ranging in size from tiny backyard nurseries to giant regional wholesale nurseries, who might supply retailers in several states. That's the beauty of  the plant nursery business - there's room for everyone - from "mom & pop" part-timers to corporate giants. And it might surprise you to find out just how many of the corporate giants got started  as backyard growers with just a "shovel and a wheelbarrow".

The secret to making good money with a backyard plant nursery is to specialize in plants that are in demand and can be container-grown to save space. A relatively new development in container growing - called the "pot-in-pot" system, allows growers to produce larger trees and shrubs without the back-breaking hand digging and high water consumption required by field growing. For smaller plants, container growing saves time, water and transplanting.

Growers who live in a small town or rural area can also make a good income focusing on wholesale plant sales to retail nurseries and landscapers around their region. A local grower who specializes in ornamental grasses sells her entire year's production to retail garden centers in a city 90 miles away.

One of the best "perks" about having your own plant nursery is being able to buy wholesale at deep discounts. There are hundreds of wholesale nurseries that specialize in what are called in the trade "plugs, liners & whips", which are different types of plant starts. All you'll need to do is re-plant them in a larger pot - say a 5" or 6" size - and wait a year or so for the plants to grow to saleable size. The profit margins are amazing - you'll find starts for 25 cents that can be re-sold in a year for $5 - a 2000% markup!

Wait - it gets even better! Once you've got your "mother" plants, you can easily propagate more by cuttings or root division, and reduce your plant costs to zero. This can really make a difference with ground covers and ornamental grasses, for example, because most buyers need dozens of plants, not just one or two.

Ground Covers

With profits of up to $20 per square foot, it's easy to see why a ground cover nursery could provide you with the ideal backyard nursery crop. With today's high labor costs and water shortages, ground covers are becoming the smart way to landscape. Requiring no mowing, little maintenance and conserving water, ground covers can pay for themselves in a year or two. As a living mulch, they can also protect the soil from erosion and keep it cool and moist - reducing the need for watering.

In addition to being a high-value crop, ground covers are easy to grow, easy to propagate, and easy to sell. Most ground covers are sold in one-gallon pots, so four pots only take one square foot of growing area. A backyard plot of 50 x 50 feet can hold eight thousand plants, which can be sold for $3 each wholesale or $4 to $5 retail. In chapter one of Profitable Plants, How to Start a Profitable Backyard Plant Nursery, you'll learn about the most popular ground covers - how to set up your container nursery - how to propagate for free growing stock - how to wholesale your plants to landscapers and garden centers - and how to have "Retail Saturdays" that can bring $5 a plant.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses are enjoying a surge of popularity today. They range in size from low-growing six inch tufts to 20 foot tall giants. Landscapers love them, because they can be used in so many ways - as ground covers - specimen plants - in borders or near ponds - and as privacy screens and in rock gardens. An additional plus is that these low-maintenance perennials add their striking form and color to the landscape much longer than flowers - some even lasting through the winter dormant season.

Pampas grass - the "queen" of ornamental grasses - is what most people think of when ornamental grasses are mentioned. yet there are hundreds of other ornamental grasses, most of them hardy in the north. In addition to the perennial grasses, there are about 25 annual ornamental grasses, which are grown from seed and have decorative flowers that can be dried for bouquets.

Ornamental grasses are easy to grow, and are bothered by few insects or diseases. You can propagate most of them by simply dividing the root clump as it matures and enlarges.

Because ornamental grasses are so popular, many specialty nurseries are selling all they can produce. In chapter one of Profitable Plants, How to Start a Profitable Backyard Plant Nursery, you'll learn which plants are "hot", how to set up a small-scale nursery, how to grow and market ornamental grasses and where to find wholesale seeds and starts.

Landscaping Trees and Shrubs

Deep in the Appalachian mountains, a semi-retired farmer, Sam Davey, decided to try growing high-value landscaping plants instead of low-value row crops. Now, after just a few years, his six acres contain thousands of azaleas, rhododendrons, Japanese maples, firs, spruce and junipers.

Each year, his stock is sold out, without any paid advertising. Most of his plants are sold to local residents, who appreciate quality plants at affordable prices. The rest go to landscapers and two nearby retail garden centers. As for profits, he will only admit that he's making more money than ever before in his life. If he wanted to, he could just grow out his existing stock of seedlings and retire, set for the rest of his life.

Further west, Jack & Karen Cooper have filled their Arizona acre with deciduous trees such as cottonwood, maple and birch. They started with one cottonwood tree, and from that one plant alone, have grown and sold thousands of trees.

Jack prefers to sell wholesale in large quantities, working directly with landscapers and retail nurseries. He sells most of his trees bare-root, and then the retailers re-pot the trees in 15 gallon pots for resale. His acre is laid out like a cornfield, with rows three feet apart, and tree seedlings spaced one foot apart in the rows. He is able to grow about ten thousand trees on his acre using this method, and figures he nets about $50,000 after expenses.

Many backyard nurseries have also specialized in container grown landscaping trees and shrubs. It's surprising how many pots will fit in a small area - even the larger 3 and 5 gallon sizes. One grower has had great success with unique varieties of Japanese maples, and charges up to $150 for a single plant. That's one of the secrets of success for a small nursery - find a "niche" where you can specialize. How to Start a Profitable Backyard Plant Nursery, also covers landscaping trees and shrubs, with tips on the best high-value plants for specialty growers, and hard-to-find sources for tree and shrub seedlings-even where to get free pots.

How to Start a Profitable Backyard Plant Nursery is really three guides in one-covering the three best crops for new growers - Ground Covers, Ornamental Grasses and Landscaping Trees and Shrubs. You'll find it all in chapter one of Profitable Plants.