How to Earn Extra Money from your Garden
We love our gardening around here. Something about connecting to nature and getting your hands dirty. Working in the garden gives the kids and I a great chance to work together towards a common goal that benefits the entire family. Thie kids have a love of vegetables that you can only really get when you appreciate what you have. If you are anything like our family you have put a large sum of money into your garden and you may be finding yourself looking for creative ways to make money from your garden.
Selling extra produce
When you have an overabundance of produce coming out of your garden you tend to find yourself looking for ways to get someone to take some of it off your hands. While we love to can for the winter sometimes we get a bit over-enthusiastic or we land ourselves with a large bumper crop that leaves us with extra produce. The local farmers market is a great way to unload some of that extra produce for a bit of extra money. When we run a booth for one of the other projects we love that we can put any extra produce from the garden up for sale as well. Planting a large bed of perennials like strawberries is a great way to make money year after year.
Selling cottage foods
When we lived in a state that had lovely cottage food laws allowing us to make and sell products from our garden like my fresh strawberry jam it was a great way to use up the excess from our garden. While the state laws here do not allow me to sell without a commercial license I still get to shower friends and family with jar after jar of our homemade strawberry jam and the sweet mulberry jam. I charge just enough to cover the cost fo supplies for the jars sold and our personal collection so it can grow for the winter.
Sell plants and seeds
Once you master starting plants you can make good money selling young plants to local gardeners. If you are like us and have large gardens packed with herbs that need thinning regularly you can find a lot of extra money in selling the extra plants. Simply post in your local buy sell trade and gardening groups on Facebook.
Likewise, you can also sell seeds you save at the end of the season. If you grow heirloom seeds you are holding on to a commodity many local gardeners are looking to purchase. Getting a hold of heirloom seeds that are proven to thrive in your area is a great way to ensure a thriving garden and providing them is a great way to make extra money from your garden.
Teaching others gardening skills
Are you a striving gardener that has been growing a large beautiful garden for many years? Many materials are looking to get back to their roots and learn sustainable skills that help them thrive and make a better impact on the world. Gardeners with skills needed to make gardens full thrive means that we need help as much as possible. Help your community of gardeners grow by offering your own garden classes. You can do this right from your own backyard or talk to your local library about hosting gardening classes. Simple topics people are willing to pay to learn, include growing plants from cuttings, planning a garden in a tight space, building raised garden beds, and improving your garden soil for a thriving garden.
Making extra money with your garden is a great way to help your family make extra money and work towards growing your emergency fund, paying off your mortgage quickly, or starting to invest.
