Yard sale idea - $ell pieces of plants you're dividing anyway

patandchickens

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
2,537
Reaction score
2
Points
153
Location
Ontario, Canada
Obviously this is not an original idea, but since it took me this long to figure it out and do it, perhaps it might be of use to mention it for others' use too:

We had a yard sale, mainly to get rid of some unneeded chairs and chainlink fencing that were taking up way too much room, but also some spare horse equipment, outgrown toys, etc. It finally dawned on me a few days ago that I could also offer potted-up pieces of plants that I was already needing to divide (or reduce, or move, or entirely remove).

I already had a good supply of old pots available, piling up in the garage. And you know, it doesn't take all that much more time and energy to put a piece into a pot instead of move it elsewhere in the yard; and although it's more time consuming than tossing things on the compost heap, the actual amount of time involved is miniscule. I probably spent as much time writing out label information (on extra-wide painters tape) as I did potting things up.

It was just an experiment - though I did put 'plants' on the yard sale signs I put out - and I figured that whatever didn't sell, I would just unpot and move to wherever I'd originally been going to move it, or the things that I don't want at all (like the mint and catnip plants that I basically weeded out of other beds) I could take to the playgroup I go to and offer free to anyone dumb enough to want them.

I actually ended up selling about half of the stuff I potted up -- some nice things, like some interesting Campanula punctata cultivars, but also some really stupid stuff like mint :p I believe I made $16 on plants. That's not a high fraction of the entire yard-sale profits, but it is $16 I would not otherwise have had. (Ooo, hey, I can buy more plants now <vbg>)

So you might really consider it.

Amusingly, I also had several people stop by to ask what the heck that *thing* is in the front yard (the chicken tractor), plus one gentleman who knew exactly what it was and was hoping it was for sale. LOL - had to disappoint him, the hens would be most annoyed to be evicted. If I was thinking faster, I would've tried to talk him into some of my extra Golden Campine cockerels, though :p


Pat, who got a tremendous amount of weeding and planting done while hanging around in the front yard between 'customers', so there's that, too :p
 

herbsherbsflowers

Garden Ornament
Joined
May 25, 2008
Messages
126
Reaction score
0
Points
84
Location
Covington, GA
Sounds like you had a good sale. I like the idea of selling plants. I've got lots of stuff that could be divided and sold. Maybe I'll have to do that soon.
 

Rosalind

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
816
Reaction score
1
Points
109
Location
Massachusetts, zone 7a
My brother used to sell divisions of his water lilies for $5 each whenever he had a yard sale. After a while, he said he made more on the water lilies than anything else.
 

Reinbeau

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
1,233
Reaction score
1
Points
134
Location
Hanson, MA Zone 6a
That's a great idea, Pat, my problem is gathering up all of the stuff around here to get a yard sale organized, and then digging and dividing up all the plants - I can't even get seeds in the ground right now! :gig I am going to take pictures of my iris and divide them up this August, maybe I'll try to pull together a yard sale then.
 

Tutter

Deeply Rooted
Joined
May 12, 2008
Messages
865
Reaction score
4
Points
104
Location
N. California
I like that, too. :)

Another thought is Freecycle. I see a lot of extra seeds, and divided plants given away, and they go really quickly! You don't make money there, but what goes around, comes around. :)
 

sparks

Garden Ornament
Joined
Nov 24, 2007
Messages
124
Reaction score
0
Points
94
Location
Eau Claire, WI
We just did that for Relay For Life @ the hospital I work @ and raised $650. Everyone brought in some extras and it was great. :happy_flower
 

Buff Shallots

Garden Ornament
Joined
Nov 21, 2007
Messages
218
Reaction score
8
Points
94
Pat, that's a great idea. Makes me think our neighborhood needs to unite for a street-long yard sale. I have some leftover "Red Lightning" tomato seedlings I'm not going to put in the garden (thanks to other EasyGarden advice about that hybrid)...
 

OaklandCityFarmer

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Mar 28, 2008
Messages
949
Reaction score
18
Points
142
Location
Zone 8B, Oakland, CA
Buff Shallots said:
Pat, that's a great idea. Makes me think our neighborhood needs to unite for a street-long yard sale. I have some leftover "Red Lightning" tomato seedlings I'm not going to put in the garden (thanks to other EasyGarden advice about that hybrid)...
Pawn them off and use the same marketing techniques Burpee does!

Seriously though, just yesterday we had a bunch of friends over for a birthday-garden party and they were so impressed by us growing stuff in the city that they wanted their own plants. So, I cut, divided, potted and wrapped and they walked away with plants and I kept about $50. Not bad if I say so.
 

Latest posts

Top