Several years ago I started a little nursery business where I sold plants at a local farmer’s market. It was a fun garden side hustle but ultimately I closed it down and shifted to a different business as our family needs changed. Every now and then I go back and think about those days and how I may have done things better or cheaper. One question that I think of sometimes is “could you start a plant nursery with no money?”
When I say no money, I mean from scratch, zero, zilch, you get the point. The ideal scenario is that you start your plant nursery with at least a small amount of cash on hand but there are ways to get around that if needed.
There a few things that you absolutely NEED in order to raise plants to sell. For that we have to assume that you are already a gardener and have some experience in growing plants. You probably also have certain necessary tools like pruners and shovels of various kinds.
To start this little backyard nursery for free you need to make some creative acquisitions. Let’s identify the absolute basic stuff to get.
How to Find Free Pots
Free pots are very easy to come by from other gardeners in your area. Often they will just give them to you after they have planted the plants they contained. Just put out an email or social media post in your favorite gardening groups and ask for anyone’s leftover pots. You can’t control the size of pots you get but you can easily get quite a few pots for your new nursery. Cost so far: FREE.
Free pots will likely need cleaned but with a 10% bleach and water solution you can soak the pots and be reasonably assured that most soil borne diseases are killed.
Where to Find Free soil?
Getting free soil is more of a challenge than free pots. You can’t just use the soil you dog up from your back yard and the garden soil at garden centers doesn’t come free.
To manage free soil we are going to have to think about compost. Composting materials can be leftover vegetable scraps from the kitchen, coffee grounds, grass clippings, leaves, or manures from local farms. Composting breaks down those materials and turns it into a rich dark loamy soil. The problem with this is it takes time for compost to break down, so plan ahead!
A couple other ways to find Free Soil
- You can also scavenge soil from people giving away pots or pick up pots from annual plants people are disposing.
- Consider trading for soil from other gardeners. You could offer cuttings to swap for pots of soil to get started. Or even sell just cuttings directly to other gardeners.
How to Find Free Plant Materials to Sell
Now you need some plants to sell, but if you’re a gardener you’ve got plants already. Identify everything you already grow and see what might be popular choices for people to purchase. By visiting your local garden centers you can see what the popular plants in your area could be. Or talk to your local garden clubs and find out what gardeners would be interesting in planting more of. Keep in mind it will be hard to compete with box stores and local garden centers at first so identify plants that people are looking for but can’t find! Fill the need and you will succeed.
Once you have figured out what plants to begin producing (and this may involve some trial and error experimentation) you need to begin to actually produce plants for sale. Fortunately there are several ways to do this.
- Cuttings
- Division
- Seeds
The three methods above are the easiest ways to get started. For more on how to propagate the plants visit this post on Plant Propagation. There’s a lot of info on that page that will help you figure out which methods you want to use.
You can collect cuttings from your garden, a friends garden, or anywhere you have permission. Seeds can be collected from nearly anything or can be traded for from other gardeners. For a low cost strategy go in with another gardener ordering the same seeds and split the packets. Most seed packets come with more seeds than a single gardener needs. Of course that may cost you a little money and isn’t absolutely free.
Roll Your Earnings Back Into Your Business
In the beginning don’t expect to make a profit but plan to build a business. Take the money you earn through selling the initial plants and put it back into your business. Begin buying soil, better pots, new varieties of seeds, stock plants for the garden.
The best thing to spend your money on is quality soil. You can make your own with the raw ingredients or find a soil that is ready to go right out of the bag. Mixing your own soil is the cheaper route usually but is much more labor intensive.
You need to acquire new stock plants on a regular basis with your earnings. If you have a variety of plants for your stock plants you can increase sales to repeat customers who come back to you because you have new and unique plants to add to their gardens. Before you get a new plant try to determine if it is something that is a desired plant for gardeners in your area. A new variety of a popular plant might be just the right type of stock plant to add to your garden.
Where to Sell Plants
Once you have plants you need to find a way to get the sold. I sold most of mine at a farmers market but did sell some for delivery. You can sell them at home as a garage sale style plant sale. Social media locations like Facebook marketplace can be a great place to sell plants too.
You could even approach local markets or nurseries and try to sell the plants wholesale. If you go the wholesale route you will need to be able to show them a copy of a nursery certificate. Check with your local agriculture departments to see what kind of certificate you need. There will be fee attached to the growing certificate and inspections.
Places to Sell Plants
- Farmers Markets
- Garden sales at your home
- Online sales
- Social media
- Wholesale to local nurseries
- Roadside stands
- Landscapers
I hope these thoughts help you if you decide to start your own nursery. While starting a plant nursery can be a lot of fun success requires hard work, dedication, and a solid strategy to sell those plants.
