Samll Business- Building Organic Veggie Gardens

[Dace]

I have been toying with the idea of creating a small business around building veggie gardens for people. Most people want to buy organic and a lot would like to have their own gardens, but with so many dual income families time is a factor.

Please tell me what kind of holes you can shoot into this idea....
Building raised beds, filling with organic matter, planting with organic heirloom seeds/seedlings and the service would/could include weekly or bi-weekly tending.
Keeping in mind that I am in a warm winter climate so we can grow all year long.

Also considering seasonal flower plantings...again targeting the dual income families who want a nice flower bed/entry way but do not have the time or knowledge to know what to plant when.

Any feedback would be much appreciated....I would like to build my own little business around something that I love...it is either gardening or cooking!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

There is at least already one person doing this in CA -- they grow veggies in other people's yards and sell the food back to them in CSA form (or something like that). Apparently they were getting more requests for this service.

Keep in mind that you will want to keep as local as possible because driving or taking public transportation to each location can eat up a lot of time and money.

You probably would require a business license in any cities that you would be working in . . . each city requires a different license and that could also add up to be cost prohibitive.

Best bet is choose a place where you know there is already a lot of interest in this type of service and start small.

Another thought . . . will you transport your own tools to each spot or will the homeowners provide tools at their location?

 

[patandchickens]

First thing to come to mind is that it will be a LOT more expensive to create and tend ten or twenty little gardens all over the city than to create one single one of your own from which you sell the produce -- thus I would fear that the economics would work out with it being much more expensive for your clients to do it that way rather than simply buying organic produce that others have grown. ESPECIALLY with the price o' gas these days. You'd want to run the numbers, in a hard realistic pessimistic kind of way, to check this out.

The 'tending' part would have to be a big part of it. Veggie gardens even more than 'landscapey' gardens, just preparing and planting is such a small part of the process... if people lack the time or enthusiasm or knowledge to prepare and plant themselves, they are probably also going to lack the carry-through to care for things well enough to produce a crop, which the way people are is likely to result in hard feelings (and bad word of mouth) against *you*, unfortunately.

My sister was taking a series of courses to certify her as a garden designer or landscape designer or some such thing (kind of on the back burner at the moment) but she said that one thing her instructors said more than once was that it is really REALLY best to try to run a maintenance service not just a design service, not for the economics per se but because people will get grumpy at YOU, the designer, when they fail to take care of your product and it soon starts looking crappy. Unfortunately, with the price of gas right now it may not be the best time to be in the maintenance-service business either :/

So I think you would want to do some serious hard research into the costs of it before leaping in (it would be a shame to get a coupla season-long contracts that end up LOSING you money... or just do it as design-and-setup-only and end up making enemies).

OTOH if you could make it work I can see where it could be quite enjoyable

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Dace]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts....I agree a small local with limited drive time is crucial. Being the gardening geek that I am I never considered that it may be more cost effective for someone to just buy organic.

All good points thank you

 

[poppycat]

There is actually a business in my area that plants, and maintains veggie gardens in peoples yards and does all of the weekly maintenance on them for a monthly fee. From what I understand they are doing very well. I would guess the demographics of your area would dictate whether it was feasible or not. I know that folks around here want organic, home-grown veggies but they don't have the time or the know-how to execute a veggie garden. So they just outsource it. It sounds like an awesome job if you could get it going.

 

[Dace]

There is actually a business in my area that plants, and maintains veggie gardens in peoples yards and does all of the weekly maintenance on them for a monthly fee. From what I understand they are doing very well. I would guess the demographics of your area would dictate whether it was feasible or not. I know that folks around here want organic, home-grown veggies but they don't have the time or the know-how to execute a veggie garden. So they just outsource it. It sounds like an awesome job if you could get it going.

I think I am in the right area for this, mostly upper middle class, dual income families with more money than time for things such as this....but would enjoy having a garden.

Anybody else have any input or see potential draw backs?

 

[vfem]

All I know is we are OVERRUN with landscapers here. Its insane how many people manage all areas of it here. INCLUDING veggi gardening! Its the 'in thing' to have them in your entire yard now... front / back / side. They use every inch of space to live off of. Not sure what they charge... but people are getting paid for this.

 

[sht4luck]

I have benn toying with the same idea for a while now. I just got a sunset magazine october issue. In it they have an article "Urban farmer for hire". He charges $50 consultation, 750 installation,25 weekly maintenance which includes a harvest box. I guess he rides his bike it sounds like, and has a big waiting list. You might be able to do a design service for the do it yourself type people. gas suuuucks. good luck