This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

HORT PROFITS

Thanks to everyone who let me know what "Horsetails" are, and how
much I really don't want it!!!!



Carmel,

You ask about turning a profit, etc...

I think that you can possibly make a profit, very soon, in the
horticulture business. It depends on what you want to do, and how
much garden stock you have to start up with, and whether you start
with cash up front.   But if you want to grow without much overhead,
you should start small, and reinvest to make the business grow.  You
can actually keep you earnings as low as you want by contantly
reinvesting.  Or you can get a loan, and be paying that back little
by little as you grow.  There is a farmers loan in some states that
you might look into.  My niece got a very low interest loan to start
her wholesale perennial business in NH.  She and I took different
paths.  She pays a loan, which was scary on some cold winter months;
I buy nothing that I cannot pay cash for so at least did not have a
loan to worry about.

But, we really have not heard just what aspect of horticulture that
you (and the others who asked) want to do, and the avenues are so
different.  Landscaping is mostly labor with upfront machine costs,
reputation that has to be earned, and maybe hiring help. You can buy
the plants you need with the money the homeowner gives you up front.
Nurseries need plant stock. You can buy them as starter plugs,
bareroot stock and  grow them on in pots, and sell;  or buy in plants
already grown in pots, (in some locals) and sell that way.  Then
there are farm nurseries that the plants, as they grow and divide,
become stock.

{  A nursery also has to have a lot of other investments....building,
tables, greenhouses, pots, soilless mix, carts, etc....I still only
have makeshift hoop houses, and the pots sit on makeshift tables, and
the ground! ...for now. }

I think that Gail and I were a lot a like in our approach.  We have
grown little by little.  And have reinvested a lot.  But where she
has more land available, she could 'grow' more, <BG>, and lack of
land here pushes me into more design work.  We both started with our
gardens.

I guess what I am suggesting is that overhead determines how soon you
get a profit, and how much you can earn.  Why don't you, Carmel, and
others, give us some of your ideas of what aspect you want to get
into, and we might be able to hash things around a litlle more!!!!

Hope this helps

Bobbie B in MA
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index