A Profitable Green House For You
Although the number of home greenhouse owners is increasing every year, the total still is relatively small. But I believe that most gardeners would like to have a small backyard greenhouse. The original cost of a modest-sized structure is within many a gardener's budget. Why, then, don't more of them have a greenhouse?
It is probably because they think that even if they can afford the original building cost by doing most of the work themselves, they will not be able to meet yearly operating and maintenance costs.
For years this idea kept me from enjoying a greenhouse. But one day I had an inspiration. Why couldn't a little greenhouse be run for profit, or at least on a self-supporting basis?
If this could be managed (even though the income paid only the running costs and upkeep), a greenhouse would not have to be a luxury. I thought of my plant-collecting friends who often asked me where to obtain rare plants. And I thought, too, of various growers seeking to buy hard-to-get plants in quantities not large enough for a big commercial house to bother with perhaps no more than a hundred or so plants or bulbs of a rare kind for which usually the only sources are in foreign countries. I realized that in my home I had grown all of these out-of-the ordinary plants, so I felt reasonably sure of my ability. I simply lacked space to produce them even in small quantity. With a greenhouse, however, I knew I could supply these rare items- yes, and offer other exciting things, too. The more I thought about it the more certain I became that a greenhouse could be put on a paying basis. My "inspiration" soon became an actuality: I built a greenhouse.
Through experience I have learned that a profitable greenhouse is not necessarily a high-priced one.. But whatever you plan to spend (or have already spent), you'll find that your outlay can be completely recovered in earnings from a single plant project. I did it-and you can, too.
There are many types of greenhouse to choose from. There is the low-cost (often heatless) pit greenhouse; the lean-to; the attached-to-the-dwelling greenhouse; and the free-standing greenhouse which often has a handsome exterior. The outside design, however, no matter how beautifully executed, is of minor significance when it comes to profits. In greenhouse growing, it's the interior that counts.
Building your greenhouse can be a family project, or you can get professional help to erect all or part of it. A cement contractor built the foundation and walk for ours, and we did the rest ourselves. Your first profit-making greenhouse can cost you as little as $75.00, or it can run into hundreds and even thousands. You can build with inexpensive second-hand materials from an old dismantled greenhouse, buy all new material, build a plastic greenhouse or construct your house with completely or partially prefabricated sections.
What to Grow
Your very first year of under-glass gardening (a term that now means under-plastic, too) can show a profit, even if you are not an expert gardener. Indeed, the plants that are easiest to grow may be the very ones to click in your neighbourhood. Wax begonias, ivy, marigolds, philodendron, petunias, coleus, and cacti can be real profit-makers. Today every city has supermarkets, dime stores, and roadside markets, and these are all potential outlets for such plants. In Minneapolis, some of the drugstores carry small plants, and there are cafes where you can buy a pretty pink begonia as well as a blue-plate luncheon.
Many new home owners know little about gardening but welcome colorful plants if they don't cost very much. These may or may not be profitable enough for local florists, but suit to a T your kind of business.
Mail Order& The Internet
Your choice of profit-making plants may be dictated somewhat by your indoor gardening experience and the time you have spent as a hobby gardener or collector. As you gain experience your horizons will widen.
Many amateurs have learned through round robins (correspondence groups) what collector friends through the country are buying or trying to buy. If you plan to go into the mail-order business, it would be a good idea to join one or more of these groups. They will give you some good leads. Some garden magazines and many of the plant societies sponsor round robins. Membership in plant society round robins is free with membership. The addresses of various plant societies will usually be found at the back of any magazine which sponsors round-robin groups
If you enjoy growing uncommon or exotic plants the so-called collectors' items and yours is a small community where sales for these would be limited, you can solve your dilemma by carrying on a mail-order business. Doing business through the mail and via the internet need not be difficult.
