If you are like me then you already enjoy home vegetable gardening. For me it is relaxing, educational, a good source for decent exercise but most of all rewarding. I am not talking financially rewarding, but rewarding in a sense of, at the end of a growing season I have something to show for all my efforts and that is plenty of fruits and vegetables.But what if you want to take your home vegetable garden to the next level and say use it as a tool to earn some extra income. Maybe you just want to earn enough to pay for the seeds you buy, the water you use and the fertilizer you need to make everything grow.
It is possible, but just like anything else in life it takes work. So before you get started the first thing I recommend is make sure you are having fun with it. Don’t just do it because it makes you money, you can get any type of second job for that. Do it because you love it, brings a smile to the face and makes you happy. When this happens the money will follow.
The first way you can earn some extra cash is your own roadside stand or a stand at your local community flea market. When you harvest your vegetables you can set yourself up a little stand and sell it by the weight, quantity or whatever is easier for you. To get an idea of what you can charge for your vegetables, take a ride to your local grocer and see what they charge and make it comparable. If your harvest looks good and healthy, and priced right, you should have no problem making some sales.
A second way to earn some extra cash at your local flea market is to sell plants after they have germinated. It is a way for you to supply other home vegetable gardeners. If you have the space to germinate seeds indoors during the cooler months, transfer them once they have sprouted to pots, then you have everything you need to make a dollar or two per plant. Of course the larger the plants the more you can charge, but I will say there is a cut off for price and size. A dollar or two for a three to six inch plant is ideal and tomato plants do the best.
Who knows how to grow plants better in your area then you right? Well put that knowledge to the test and host a one day home vegetable gardening clinic for say five to ten bucks. You can go over which plants you grow, your success stories and so on, passing along your knowledge to others. The downfall is you will need a place to host it. Now I know our local library will let you use their rooms for a small fee as will the local schools, so start there first.
As you can see none of these methods mentioned above are out of the ordinary or crazy ideas. They are straightforward ways to utilize the skill set that you already have with home vegetable gardening and using that skill set to make you a few extra bucks.
About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the Rest of Us, available where gardening books are sold. Sign up for Mike’s vegetable gardening newsletter at his website: AveragePersonGardening.com and he will send you a free pack of vegetable seeds to get your garden started.
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