[Music]
[Laughter]
what is going out of run welcome to
another very exciting episode right here
on the my gardener Channel super excited
about this episode because it's gonna be
a little bit different than our normal
episodes but it's one you all have been
asking for and it's how do I make money
with my garden well know for the longest
time we have never made this a priority
of ours and it still is not a priority
but in recent months we've been able to
make a little bit of money and I figured
it'd be good times just film this
episode because I know there are a lot
of people that are looking to make money
doing what they love
now I'm not referring to making a living
with your garden there's a lot of
channels out there one being I mean if
you're looking at doing urban farming my
favorite channel of all time would be
urban farmer Curtis Stone and recommend
checking out his channel she's a great
guy hey chill out blue jays are out so
in this episode I'm just gonna show you
how to make a little side money because
in our garden we primarily grow for
ourselves friends family and our soup
kitchen we believe in supporting
community and so we try to do that as
much as possible but even then after all
of that is said and done we have a lot
of produce that we can sell one crop we
were able to make a fair amount of money
this year planting is lettuce lettuce is
a terrific crop to grow for for it's
sellable value because a lot of
restaurants locally are looking now for
those those locally grown crops lettuce
is something that is in high demand
because of salads garnishes burgers
sandwiches mean you name it it's got
lettuce on it and a lot of these
restaurants if you're living in an area
that is becoming more health-conscious
it's it's kind of on the up and up it's
trying to be trendy
the trend now is locally grown it's
locally sourced and it is
health-conscious so salads are something
that a lot of more people a lot more
people are looking to you know are
looking to eat and looking to
incorporate in their menus whereas it's
also very difficult to source them in
areas like where we live because there's
not a lot of people growing them so
restaurants are forced to go with a
company like Gordon food services or
other restaurant supply companies
that just kind of give you whatever
they're harvesting it's usually been
shipped hundreds of miles it's usually
not locally grown at all and it also is
usually really expensive because it's a
perishable item so we've been able to
actually grow this spring mix here we
throw in just a very of different
lettuces and we've been able to get
about six dollars a pound for our
lettuce that is a terrific price for
this area and normally I mean the market
prices use about 450 to $5 but because
we're giving them a premium we're
cutting it same-day and delivering it to
them when they need it it's really great
because we were able to make a little
money on the side so that's just one way
that we've been able to make some money
with our garden let's go to the second
way we've been able to make a little
money all right so the second way we
make some money as it's starting to rain
pretty pretty hard now so we're gonna
make this quick is with herbs herbs are
a great moneymaker because of the fact
that they are perishable and they are
expensive
cilantro here where we live is about a
dollar fifty a bunch and we're talking a
small bunch so we're talking about maybe
about this much or so it's close to a
buck fifty at our local grocery store
now obviously restaurants are buying
this in bulk but it's very expensive and
it's very perishable because it can't be
you know it can't be flash-frozen it
can't be it's not good dehydrated it has
to be used fresh so restaurants a lot of
Mexican restaurants will will buy this
stuff fresh we actually have a Mexican
restaurant just down the road that we've
been selling a bunch of of this for
about fifty cents per bunch and that's I
mean that's a real good amount you know
that's a real good price for for this
much and you know when we when we
harvest our our cilantro we like to give
them first dibs on on the quality so
we'll pick a bunch we'll let them kind
of pick through there the stuff that
they like the best
and then the rest will just use fresh or
will donate to local soup kitchen but we
pretty much grew this block we harvest a
little bit for us but we pretty much
grew this block solely for retail
because Chile for resale because I mean
it just grows so easily and we had the
space anyways we figured
why not plant a crop that we can make a
little make a little money on and this
is a great one so this is a good dollar
this is a good dollar item that you can
make a quick buck on but also basil
let's go talk about basil basil is one
that every restaurant seems to use
whether it's an Italian restaurant or
whether it's just a deli that's putting
it on their sandwiches or whether it's I
mean we've had boutique drink companies
that want to add them to like their
lemonade's and things like that so we
have sold so much of this basil it is a
great moneymaker and one that really has
been an asset to us because if you cut
it back and it regrows it grows all
season long it's so easy to take care of
and the the caveat here is that you can
grow varieties that are not sold at your
local your local restaurant distribution
company or even your local grocery store
prime example we have our dwarf Greek
basil we have our spicy globe basil we
have our our purple ruffles basil we
have we have lemon basil lime basil Thai
basil great for Thai restaurants really
hard to source high dollar item folks
we're making on our on our basil here
we're selling we have about 12 plants
we're making about $10 a week selling
our basil and that's just like stuff we
have on the side when we want to sell it
we sell it if we don't have any we tell
them we don't have any and it's that
simple you really don't you're not being
contracted to source this stuff on a
weekly basis there's a lot of
restaurants that will do that so they
have regular inventory but I simply said
hey I'll call you at the beginning of
the week if we have some to sell and you
want to buy some great if not that's
fine too and that's one of the real nice
things about being a home gardener is
its flexible and if you can find a
restaurant that's flexible with you it's
a total win-win situation so that's been
a great moneymaker for us and has
definitely really helped to to give us a
little cash on the side which is which
is always nice and finally the last
moneymaker in our garden has been edible
flowers this is one that is so commonly
overlooked because it is an extremely
high dollar item extremely perishable
item at that so we have been selling two
different types of edible flowers
the first one you can all probably guess
what that one is very common edible
flower I got one right here
squash blossoms
these are commonly stuffed or fried or
used as garnishes very very high-dollar
item another thing that we've been
selling very very frequently our
nasturtium flowers mr. sheean flowers
are extremely peppery they're great uses
garnishes they're delicious and you know
and you can sell these pretty readily to
restaurants the caveat with that is you
have to have a high you know a high
dollar menu restaurant most mom-and-pop
restaurants won't even know that these
are edible or even consider putting them
on their menu we're very blessed to
about 30 minutes away have a gastropub
one that is very well known throughout
the country and it's it's been really
nice for us to build ourselves some of
those edible flowers to them because
they put them on their menu they
typically keep things really seasonal so
when they do have them seasonal they're
forced to source locally and since
hardly anyone grows them locally we've
pretty much said hey would you ever
would you ever have any interest in
getting buying some of these and putting
them on your menu and they said
absolutely we already do we just have a
hard time sourcing them so if you can
provide them we'll buy them and that's
been real nice because those I mean just
even a few flowers is gonna be about a
buck for a cluster of probably 10 or 15
flowers so those are kind of those those
real special items they're usually also
candied which is another thing people
can deal Ike borage flowers and put
those on desserts and salads and things
like that we're not growing in a barrage
this year but last year we grew some and
it produces unbelievably and you can
make a lot of money doing that
the next thing - I was gonna mention is
make sure to make sure it's a win-win
situation don't go in there with the
mindset of I'm gonna make a quick buck
and I'm gonna get as much you know much
dollar I'm gonna get as many dollars out
of what I'm growing as possible talk to
them first and say hey we'll be a win
for you so that it's a win for me you
know don't you have to understand the
food industry they make about 15 to 20
percent margins if they're really lucky
on their food 15 and 20 percent margins
is there
low it's really low it's about 15 cents
15 to 20 cents on every dollar is is
actual profit for the for the business
that's very very low so I would
encourage you to just talk to them first
and see what would be comfortable for
them work out a price because not every
places is the same what the prices we're
getting are not the prices you'll be
getting so just some ways that we've
been able to make money here on the on
the on the homestead with our garden but
now I want to talk about two other ways
you can make money that are obviously
pretty pretty self-explanatory but ways
that you can definitely make some money
all right the next way you can make some
money with your garden is by selling
compost compost is an awesome resource
and is one that a lot of gardeners and
many gardeners actually buy because they
don't have a great way of either
producing compost or maybe they live on
a small lot where composting is not
allowed and compost is something that we
need to grow our plants and many
gardeners pay top dollar between twenty
and thirty dollars a yard so if you're
someone that's producing a lot of
compost more than you need sell it
there's nothing wrong with putting an ad
up on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace
or offer up I don't know I mean there's
a lot of different places to sell stuff
and you can put compost up there no
one's going to I mean no one will judge
you for selling something people sell
far weirder things and compost is like I
said something that is everyone's you
necessity when it comes to growing
plants so make sure to think about that
if you're someone that lives out in the
country that produces a lot of manures
through your animals and food scraps and
yard waste and animal feed and tons of
stuff like that can be broken down that
can then be turned into compost
and and resold and it's a great it's a
great moneymaker I mean 20 to 30 dollars
a yard this right here is about a yard
and a half
now again I'm using all of this on my
garden but this is not that big of an
undertaking to produce this this took
about two months time and and if I you
know if I sold just this and someone
took me two months time if ice
this for $30 which I easily could
without a doubt I can easily sell this
for $30 that's like 15 dollars a month
extra money on the side so again just
you you use your brain and get creative
with different ways to make money this
is a certainly not on the realm of
possibility for some people I know
especially those living in the country
and the final way is with starts now
obviously I don't have any start started
but we've done this in the past we've
done this even recently we sell starts
because we grow so many more seedlings
than we actually plants in our garden
because it's smart to have some backups
but when you don't need those backups
there's a lot of other people that do
and they're willing to pay top dollar
for them starts are a great way and
probably one of the most common ways
people make money with their garden
because the fact that you can sell a
tomato seedling for two bucks you can
sell a pack of four lettuce ceilings for
for a couple bucks and people will buy
them now I'm not saying you have to do
this but it's certainly a great way that
if you're starting stuff you're buying
seed starting materials you can help
cover some of the cost of seed starting
and help offset the cost of your garden
or even put a little money back in your
pocket so these are great ways to make a
little money with your garden and like I
said there's probably a lot more other
ways as well but it's just something
that you can that you can take and and
utilize and if you did use it great if
not I hope you at least enjoy this video
if you did make sure to give this video
a huge thumbs up it really helps me out
and also let me know in the comments box
below other types of videos you'd like
to see I'd really be curious about some
things that you'd like to see because
the gardens starting to wind down and so
content is it's getting harder to harder
to find those beautiful nuggets but I'm
still trying for you because every time
I come out I think I could do that I
could do that video for them so I'm
doing this for you it definitely helps
if you throw down a couple comments to
help me out so as always I hope you all
enjoyed I hope you learned something new
this is luke from me on my gardener
channel reminding you to grow big or go
home
we'll catch you all later see ya bye