Selling plants?

[OverWyreGrower]

Mr OWG and I had a small brainwave yesterday...

I've sown way too many plants for what we'll need originally, and still need to plant more later in the year.

I've got enough plants to give some to family/friends who would like them, but will still have plenty.

My sister has just bought a pet shop locally (in Kirkham) and is due to officially start running it next week.

Our idea is this:

We sell various veg plants and herbs for around 50p-£1 each (tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, lavender, rosemary, mint etc) in her shop.

We provide signs, a stand for the plants etc and a little float (the money will be kept seperate to her takings obviously)

We'd even thought about using a shop in our local village also.

We're not after making huge amounts, but we reckon that selling a few plants will pay for the seeds and compost and pots that we've bought this year and give us a tiny bit extra.

What do you think?

[WiZeR]

can't see any problems. Have you priced up the actual cost of compost, seeds, labels, pots, etc? Make sure you are not making a loss.

[OverWyreGrower]

We got all our original seeds, compost, pots etc for "free" this year as I used some garden centre vouchers that I'd been given as a present.

We've since bought a few more bits and pieces, but not huge quantities of stuff.

[WiZeR]

yeh sure but if this is successful then you want to make sure it makes money, even if you are donating your profits to charity.

[WiZeR]

Here is an example:

50 X 3 LITRE PLASTIC PLANT POTS on eBay = £10.00 inc delivery. That works out at 2p a pot

I buy 75 litres of compost for £4.00 from our allotment shop. That's 18.75pence a litre.

So 1 pot full of compost = 76p

A Pack of tomato seeds 50p for 65 from Alan Roman = let's call it a penny a seed.

77p

Plant labels 100 for £4.00 on ebay, that's 4p each

So far it works out 81p per plant and that is using the cheapest prices I could find. If you sell each plant for £1.00 then you get 19p profit on each one. Not including your time, or water costs. So you can see how it works out.

[Flummery]

Hope you didn't REALLY mean £50 - £1 - No problem with making a profit there then! Otherwise, I agree your production has to be sustainable. If it's going to cost you 76p to produce and you make 50p you might as well compost the surplus.
Having said that - they're spare at the moment and it might be a bit of fun. Wouldn't want to put you off that. Go for it.

Flum

[OverWyreGrower]

Hmmmm, I see...

Hadn't thought about it quite like that...

Will go back to Mr OWG and make sure he's not done any spurious accounting...

[OverWyreGrower]

Hope you didn't REALLY mean £50 - £1 - No problem with making a profit there then! Otherwise, I agree your production has to be sustainable. If it's going to cost you 76p to produce and you make 50p you might as well compost the surplus.
Having said that - they're spare at the moment and it might be a bit of fun. Wouldn't want to put you off that. Go for it.

Flum

I didn't mean £50!! Have altered it to read correctly!

Thanks!

[sewer rat]

Don't sell anything in a 3 litre pot !! Most veg you will buy from a GC will be in a 3" or 4" pot or in packs of 12.
I know I'm a bit different now but I can produce a tomato plant for sale for 11p, not including labour.
This is the cost of the pot, the compost, the seed and the photo-label.
It might be worth buying some photo labels - have a look at floramedia or suchlike on the web. Kev, the owner of my local GC says the label sells the plants !

[WiZeR]

SR my calculations were very quick and admittedly a bit lazy. Could you break down your working out?

[WiZeR]

Also what size pot if not 3 or 4"?

[smallblueplanet]

Here is an example:

50 X 3 LITRE PLASTIC PLANT POTS on eBay = £10.00 inc delivery. That works out at 2p a pot.....

Most stuff you buy from the garden centre is in 9cm pots - thats not a lot of compost.

[NOG]

Any you will need to register with the Inland Revinue

[WiZeR]

no not necessarily. There is an earnings threshold before you have to make any declaration. I doubt the scale that OWG is talking about would go anywhere near this.

[mazel-bee]

You say that you don't want to make much and just cover costs??
Well, my pennies are really tight and last year I planted too many veg seeds. I also love making herbs. I took them to a boot fair. £1.00 ea. or 3 for £2.50, I was really pleased to sell out and make £70. I covered my garden costs for the year and a bit of extra pocket money. I am going to do it again this year to help put towards my wedding and my garden.
Good Luck