What will I be doing?

If your garden grows well, consider offering your green thumb—and your knowledge—to others for money. A gardening service selects, plants and maintains vegetable plants, flowers and shrubs. There are many ways to turn your talents as a gardener into a profitable home-based business. You may design flower gardens for the front entrances of a local businesses. You may offer answers to questions about eradicating garden pests. You may do soil analysis, give classes on better gardening, or even tend a garden for folks on vacation. Use your imagination.

What will I need to start?

To offer a professional gardening service you must know more than other people do about raising a successful vegetable or flower garden. What you will need to start, of course, is lots of experience with gardens. You’ll also need some resources such as books on plants and their care. You may need some gardening tools. It will help if you’ve taken advanced courses on plant care, especially ones that offer certificates. The more you know, the more you will profit.

Who will my customers be?

Most individuals won’t pay you very much for your gardening services. You can offer consumer classes, answer questions through a newspaper or magazine column or answer questions for customers of a local garden shop. But most of your business will come from businesses. Companies who can profit from well-designed grounds, flower beds and related plantings will be good customers. You may even participate in their care, depending on what type of gardening service you offer. A garden service sold the idea of planting and maintaining a large vegetable garden on one company’s vacant property, then donating the food to local charities. Everyone benefited.

How much should I charge?

Gardening services use a rate of $20 to $40 an hour for pricing their work by the job or on long-term contract. A local newspaper may pay $20 (and offer lots of valuable publicity) for a weekly gardening column that takes you an hour or less to write. A garden shop may pay you $100 for a four-hour Saturday clinic on gardening. A business may pay you $1,200 a year for selecting and maintaining a flower bed in front of their office.

How much will I make?

A gardening service certainly isn’t a get-rich-quick business. However, watching for opportunities to promote your business can pay off. A gardening service that specialized in designing colorful flower beds gave the owner a chance to write and illustrate a book that has earned more than $10,000 in royalties.

You can make $20,000 to $40,000 a year with a successful gardening service that is well-marketed to businesses and individuals in the area. Equally important, it can be a satisfying occupation that brings happiness to you as well as to others.

How can I get started?

Start today by looking for opportunities to sell your gardening services in your area. Look at the weekend section of local newspapers for ads, resources, ideas and opportunities to find and help customers. Make a list of services you’re qualified to offer to others, then list those who may best benefit from them. And watch your gardening service grow!

The SIC code for gardening services is 0782-06.

How can I use computers to increase profits?

Gardeners use computers to communicate with experts on the best selection, maintenance, and use of specific plants, shrubs and trees. They use professional forums to discuss diseases. They order stock from regional nurseries. And they promote their services via the Internet.