If you have a lot of plants in your yard, have you considered making money off of them by selling their fruits or growing them in groups in potted plants so that you could sell them? I'm thinking about doing this, since I have been given aloe vera plants by my aunt, and I have seen some local sellers selling it too online. Have you tried doing the same or you intend to do that? You can make money out of something that you get for free.
We have varied plants around the house, edible and ornamental. I always have seedlings of most of my plants like the sugar apple, cashew, mango, lemon, etc. Those seedlings are my stock for giveaways to those who need seedlings. Someone had suggested that instead of giving away those seedlings, why not sell them? A 6-month old seedling of mango can be sold for $10 and the other seedlings may cost more. Hmm, that got me thinking because people usually come here during the Christmas season. And the most popular planting material now is the Bangkok banana. More than 10 people have already asked me for planting material of that banana. Let me see if I can convince myself to sell my seedlings.
@Alexandoy, You can simply take photos of your plants and just post an ad in olx.ph and just wait for someone to contact you. Trying to sell stuff to your friends and relatives can be a bit awkward and embarrassing, so it would be best to sell them to strangers.
Sadly, we do not have a yard. In city living we've space constraints. As I'm too keen to see plants around me so have transformed our terrace and balconies into small gardens. I grow some kitchen veggies and have a few decorative and flower plants in my garden. Had I have a decent space I could have thought to generate some revenue out of selling plants.
You are right with the awkwardness. But another reason why I am thinking of selling my plants is because when I ask the people about an update of the seedling I gave them, I often get an answer that the seedling did not prosper. My wife said that if I would sell them the seedling then maybe they will take good care of it. And that is the usual case here, getting the seedling for free has lessened the value. I remember last month when someone from the municipal hall had a fancy on our Bangkok banana. he wanted to buy a planting material. What I did was to get one for him, placed it in a plastic pot. He will be coming back next week for an official visit (he brings gifts to senior citizens courtesy of the mayor). I hope his banana is okay otherwise I would sell him the planting material in case he would ask for another.
In my area, you can easily just set out a couple baskets out with fresh fruit and people will purchase them quickly. We used to do that back then. We grew guanabana fruit and since they were very expensive and rare around those parts, we sold them fairly quick. It wasn't too much money but enough to live a bit more comfortably.
We have a flourishing banana crop in our yard which we occasionally harvest to sell. This is very convenient for us due to the fact that bananas do not require much husbandry in terms of inputs and its a perennial crop which only requires occasional weeding and manure application. I am considering growing passion fruit on our fence that encloses our compound to fortify it and subsequently venture into growing vegetables which is quite economical in view of the sky rocketing cost of food.
I see people in flea markets here selling their grown plants and fruits all the time. I bet they do make a descent amount from them unfortunately I can't do that since the yard is shared and the children cut out the plants. Even the plants that are not too rare here are sold for q good amount so I guess doing this will help me with my tough situations.
This is a very good area to venture into, we once had a very rich garden at the back of our house we didn't develop it to such that we can sell some of the produce. Actually the plants in the garden were totally for our consumption. It helped a lot then as it drastically reduced our purchase of certain foodstuffs like vegetables, yams, melon in the market. I am looking to starting a big garden or farm again, on both subsistence and commercial levels.
At home we have a very limited space for my wife's garden. She grows orchids, roses, and other ornamental plants. Every year she sells them during All Saint's Day. People all walks of life make it a tradition to visit their loved ones to memorial or public cemetery. They bring along with them flowers to offer for their dead. That is a good opportunity to earn an income from selling flowers grown in the backyard.
Well I really wish that I could expand my options and start getting an income from my backyard, but I am not sure that there is anything back there that someone would pay money for.
@Alexandoy, What city are you from? My dad is also a senior citizen, but he never gets to receive any gift from the mayor. And yes, you are right to sell the plants if the people seem to take it for granted, but be prepared, since it might cause annoyance or resentment, since they know you personally and they will feel "offended" that you charge them.
I am from the town of Cainta province of Rizal here in the Philippines. I celebrated my birthday last December 4 and I'm still waiting for the delivery of the mayor's gift basket. Sometimes it comes very late even by a month. But I can go to the municipal hall to claim that gift if I can't wait for the delivery. I’m also thinking about the surprise of the people when I charge them for my plants because they know me as a very generous person. But I have resolved that I should put value to my plants because I love them.
@Alexandoy, So the mayor there is more generous than our mayor here. That is unheard of in our city. What items do the gift baskets contain? Fruits? How often do they bring you gifts? And yes, I think you should indeed charge them accordingly if you feel that they are just neglecting what you gave them. But don't be surprised if they ask for a discount, lol.
Yes, I make money from the plants and trees I have in my garden. I grow vegetables for my needs, however, when I have surplus I sell my produce. I also have fruit bearing trees such as pomegranate, guava, papaya, mango, lemon, lime etc. After we have to out heart's content, we send to friends and family, and surplus to the farmers' market.
I got a lot of fruit trees around my house which I planted a few years back. Some of them already started flowering. But I haven't thought of selling them till now. May be in future when they are big enough it can be a source of money too. I am witnessing a sudden surge in plant nursery business nowadays and people are really enthusiastic to buy plants from those nurseries. Sometimes I feel that the plants are too costly in private nurseries. I use to buy them from a Government operated farming nursery and the plants are really cheap there.
That sounds like a good idea with a good collection of flower and fruit plants in my garden. However, I have never thought in these terms so far but I sold some guavas and mangoes this summer to retailers. In fact most of these fruits were going waste as children of the area were plucking them even when they were not yet ready to eat so I appointed a few fruit sellers on 50-50 share basis. I think I can do well in nursery business with my kind of facilities of land and plants.
@Ray1, Yes I'm also reminded of the children that I see picking fruit from random trees of random homeowners. I think that's equal to stealing, lol. If one produces a large amount of fruits, then it would be quite profitable, especially since there is no investment on their part.
You can say that but the investment is certainly there as you have to water them properly, keep the area clean, use compost or other chemicals to save them from diseases and have to provide manual labor to save them from children. So I think the best way is to sell them on contract basis and share the profits.
@Ray1, Yes there would be some sort of investment, but it's not really a large amount. And besides, you're doing it already for yourself, so that you can maintain your plants, so you're not really going to go out of your way to spend money, since you're doing it primarily doing it for yourself, so it's like hitting two birds in one stone.
