How To Start Vegetable Garden Business
Vegetable garden business could be classified as a recession proof business idea. The reason is that, vegetables are part of the daily nutritious meals of our time, starting from soup, salads, and other nutritious stew that keeps us healthy. Vegetables are in constant demand because most doctors recommend that it has high nutritional value and has to be part of our daily diet. For those interested in farming, vegetable farming is a profitable business. The good thing about vegetable garden is that the start-up capital is low and the lead-time between planting and harvesting is not very long too. Moreover, it can be grown all year round which means that you have something to sell all the time.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur and would like to go into vegetable farming, take my word for it, it is a lucrative business hence you should go into it. Apart from the low initial capital, it has a high-profit potential. But to be certain that you are going into a lucrative business, you should carry out a feasibility study and conduct proper market research before you commit resources to the vegetable business.
The vegetable farming business requires just a little capital to start and you can gain a larger profit from it. So to help do this business and gain from it, the tips below will help you to know how to start and make profit from the vegetable farming We are ready, if you are, we are going to outline below steps you need to follow to set up and run your vegetable business to achieve your goals. Here you are:
How To Start Vegetable Garden Business
- Decide which kind of vegetable you want to cultivate
- Choose a location and test the soil
- Plan your garden beds
- Invest in basic garden tools
- Prepare the soil for planting
- Choose the right seeds or transplants
- Plant with care
- Pests and disease control
- Nurture your garden
- Harvest your yields.
- Sell Vegetables Directly to the Customer
- Choose a market that works for you
- Design your stand
- Hand out the recipe that uses your produce
- Set up a roadside vegetable stand.
- Allow customers to pick their vegetables.
- Engage in community-supported agriculture
- Sell your produce to a cooperative or grocery store.
- Build a relationship with a local chef.
- Sell jams, jellies, and baked products made with vegetables
Decide which kind of vegetable you want to cultivate
Decide which vegetables you want to grow since not all vegetables are marketable in the commercial quantity you would like to profit from. You should grow the vegetables your family loves to eat and some others too. The favorite vegetables you should want to grow are something you would like to put in your best effort to see them grow. Vegetables you are likely to produce and sell in large quantities include eggplant, Spanish asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, green vegetable, cauliflower, and so on.
There are so many vegetables to select from and making the right choice will open the way to a successful farming business. Also, you should consider the vegetable that is consumed and sold around your community, that way, as a small farmer your output will easily be sold.
Choose a location and test the soil
Choosing appropriate farmland is very important in this type of business because planting on a suitable soil will give the right yield. It is also important to select farmland and test the soil and its properties so that you choose the best soil that will suit the kind of vegetable you want to plant.
In as much as it is vital to choose suitable farmland, you must also consider the following factors when leasing or acquiring farmland:
- The soil type
- The human population in the neighborhood.
- The topography of the land
- Access to sunlight and water.
The best soil to plant vegetables is the humus soil because of the high nutrient in it that helps vegetables to grow properly.
Planting of the vegetable can also be done at home if the land is available. It makes sense for a small entrepreneur to start small at home and gradually raise the scale of operation when you lease or acquire your land.
Plan your garden beds
Once you have decided where your vegetable garden should be, you should also decide on the type and size of your garden bed/s. It makes sense to have raised beds because it is easier to work in the garden as well as being attractive. However, raised beds are more likely to dry up faster; sunken beds can be used instead to collect available moisture in very dry areas.
Consider making your garden in beds of plants and not in single rows. Ideally, beds should be 3 to 4 feet crossways. But it should be narrow enough to allow you to get to the center from either side. Moreover, beds should not be more than10 feet long so that you shouldn’t be tempted to footstep into the bed and compressed the ground.
When planting on the garden beds, plan to minimize walkways while maximize growing space. With this in mind, place plants in rows within the garden beds.to save time and money. Then you need to add fertilizer and soil amendments to the planting area to enhance the quality of the soil.
Invest in basic garden tools
Procure the right working tools to make working in your garden a pleasurable one. The right tools make working in your garden a bit easier and you will always want to enter your garden and work. Some of the basic garden tools include the following, but always strive to get all the tools to help you make working in your garden a wonderful experience.
- Scuffle hoe
- Garden hoe
- Leaf rake
- Dirt rake
- Hand tools
- Garden Shovel
If you go for metal tools, it is more likely to save you time and money since they will last for longer. Besides, keep your working tools in good condition to make them last longer. If you are not sure how visit the “Cleaning and Sharpening Garden Tools”.
Buying the necessary equipment for your vegetable is solely dependent on the scale of your operation. Therefore if you plan to operate on a higher scale, you are likely to need the following equipment:
- Tractors
- Planters
- Manure spreader
- Capable bakkies
Suitable farming equipment helps to enhance the productivity of your garden.
Prepare the soil for planting
For plants to grow and produce good fruits and vegetables, you must plant in a deep, well-drained fertile soil rich in organic matter. Healthy and fertile soil will yield good crops. Once you start the garden, gradually you will learn how to keep the soil healthy since it improves from time to time, both in disease and pest resistance, and even on nutrition.
Choose the right seeds or transplants
Some plants do well when directed seeded in the garden and others that do well when transplanted. If you are in doubt, visit the seed starting calendar. Starting your transplant helps you save money. If you prefer to grow specific varieties, you may need to grow your transplants from seed, especially heirloom varieties.
Plant with care
When planting, always read the planting instructions that are contained on the seed packets and transplant containers for direction. Follow the direction on how to plant; put it into practice and try it out, if you get it right, the rest will fall in place.
Other things being equal, you should plant seeds about 3 times as deep as the diameter of the seed, unless the planting instructions say otherwise. You must make sure there is enough sunlight since some seeds require light before germination can take place.
When transplanting, however, transplant is done at the same level of depth they were growing in the pot but there are exceptions to this rule. Vegetables such as tomatoes are planted deeper.
It is advisable to exercise caution when planting vegetables such as peppers, cucumbers, okra, tomatoes, etc. which requires heat to grow.
Pest and Diseases Control
All crops including vegetables can be affected by pests and diseases. For this reason, it is imperative to make regular checks on your crops for pests and diseases.
It is no good to apply pests and disease control without checking the extent it has affected your farm and the damage that has been done. So you have to determine the level of damage before applying pests and disease control measures.
One way of checking in the crops for the presence of diseases and pests is to set traps for a particular pest and constantly check on how far the crops have been affected.
You may use some of the following ways to set traps for pests in your farm; Pheromone which attracts male insects and Sticky yellow traps that serves as a rap for insects such as aphids or thrips. Traps make it possible to track the presence of pests on your farm and gives indication levels of the presence of pests on the farm.
Some of the traps you can use are the Pheromone trap (a hormone that attracts male insects) serves as a trap for pests like a diamondback moth, and Sticky yellow traps that serve as a rap for insect-like aphids. Traps help the grower to know the presence and indication levels of the pest on the farm.
Pest and disease control can be done with the use of resistant varieties, including biological controls, cultivation, trap cropping, chemical application, management, and cultural methods.
Nurture your garden
When planting, apply the right volume of fertilizer for maximum growth. Moreover, free the garden of weeds with a scuffle hoe when they are small to allow the plant to grow unhindered.
It is also important to water the farm and plants need about one inch of water every week within the period of the growing season. Don’t depend on the rain because it might fail, so when it does, you must water the farm. You must water the farm on average, not more or less. To be on the safe side, do check the soil before turning on the tap. Over wet soil can ruin the seeds by causing the seeds and roots to rot. To avoid this unpleasant situation, you can add foliar feeds like compost tea while watering to give plants extra nourishment.
Plants that are distressed or deficient in some ways can attract bugs. So keep your plants healthy and always nourished; it is likely to reduce or keep bugs at bay. If you experience problems, you can seek for an organic solution instead.
Harvest your yields.
Harvesting your vegetable crops should have been one of the things you took into consideration when deciding to grow vegetables. Your harvest may require getting laborers for assistance, though it depends on the scale you are operating and the type of vegetable crops you have on the farm.
You can harvest your vegetables with the use of the following means:
- Harvesting by machinery: Using machinery to harvest your crop minimizes the use of hired laborers but the procurement of the machine can be pricey
- Harvesting by hand: If you are operating on a small scale, you don’t need a machine to do the harvesting for you; family members can be of help. But if you operate on a large scale, there is a great need for laborers, but how perishable are the crops should be considered too.
You must remember that not all crops can be harvested completely at the same time; some crops such as snow peas, eggplant, squash, and asparagus require pruning and harvesting by hand nonstop and this type of crops may keep on producing for a long time.
The planting and harvesting of vegetables are not a difficult exercise in comparison with other crops because vegetables are highly perishable. This means that before the harvesting begins, the buyers should be ready to prevent the vegetable from deteriorating and thereby affecting the quality adversely.
Sell Vegetables Directly to the Customer
To start making money from your harvest immediately, one way of doing so is to sell vegetables directly to your customers at a local farmer’s market. It is a good idea to scout around to different markets before the planting season. In this way, you will be able to locate different multiple customers that can buy your produce.
It is also advisable to speak with the people running the market if you wish to get more information on what makes a farmer eligible to sell in the market. These rules invariable will be different from markets to markets hence you must talk with the people and get connected.
Each farmer’s market also operates in a different atmosphere. For instance, some markets take care of the working class and on the move customers while other markets adopt a community approach to entertain customers with local music, games, and sometimes film shows.
Choose a market that works for you
Sell your vegetables at a farmer’s market.
Once you have chosen a market that suits your purpose, you will need to make your booth conspicuous enough to get your products sold. You must apply different marketing tactics to get your products noticed and sold. Here are different marketing approaches you can adopt to attract customers to your booth and with the right attitude to handling customers’ orders, you will get customers to come back to your booth every week.
To test the market and have a sense of the volume of business you are likely to attract every week or month, you must start small to be able to learn and progress through the ropes.
Design your stand
Put up your wares on a decorated table with signs of the names and prices of your products. The prices you sell should be moderate to sell out the vegetables in record time. Since vegetables begin to lose value after harvest, you shouldn’t take so long to sell them out. Make the vegetables as visible as possible as well as making it attractive.
Hand out recipes that use your product
Find your niche: It may be helpful sometimes to specialize in a specific product that use your products to produce, for instance, using cucumber or lettuce to prepare varieties of snacks. Or you can package your vegetable in your unique brand and label them accordingly for a premium price if they are packaged without blemish.
Connect with the customers: Be courteous to your customers with a good sense of humor. Tell them jokes and stories about different ways your vegetables can be used to prepare different types of snack products. Give them the history of your garden and how vegetables are farmed; all these gimmicks are attempts to connect to the customers on the growing process of your vegetables.
Set up a roadside vegetable stand.
Whether your farm is located close to a busy road or not, you must make a stand for your vegetables at a roadside unless it is strictly prohibited. In that case, you should find another convenient busy place on the roadside to sell your vegetables to workers going back home in the evening. The advantage of this is that you sell the vegetables as soon as they are harvested, and you save costs too.
Always be on the right side of the law by being familiar with the government regulations regarding the sale of fruits and vegetables at a roadside stand. You may consider these tips if you want to take full advantage of your roadside stand:
- Make your roadside stand as visible as possible
- Make efforts to have space where cars can park for a short time.
- If at all possible, cite your stand close to your farm to enable customers to have a first-hand view and information about your farm.
- To make your stand attract a greater number of people, decorate it with flowers, label your products, and have some garden tools in place.
- If you have vegetables with blemishes, you can dispose of them at discounts.
Allow customers to pick their vegetables
Allow customers to pick vegetables of their choice instead of placing restrictions on them. These customers usually use vegetables for a different kind of sauce such as jams and often they buy vegetables in bulk.
Also do put the local governing council of the area into the picture of your roadside business to see how you will fit into the roadside business without any restrictions attached, and whether you can provide onsite washrooms and washing stations for your customers.
To prevent damages to your products, you may need to demonstrate how to pick the vegetables. Once this is understood, the customers are likely to follow suit.
Engage in community-supported agriculture
Be part of community-supported agriculture (CSA) which enables you to receive payment for your vegetable upfront while your customers receive freshly harvested vegetables each week from a pick-up location. They could also go to the farm to pick their share of the crops. This type of marketing has the advantage of encouraging customers (community members) to patronize local produce.
To attract and gain customers, you can invest in a community-supported agriculture advertisement for your business.
You can create a forum for your customer’s interaction by producing a weekly newsletter to provide your customers with information regarding how you produce crops and their weekly vegetable allocation.
It is necessary also to have a parking lot around the place as well as signage for your customers.
Sell your produce to a cooperative or grocery store.
If you are operating at a relatively large scale, you can package your products for grocery stores and cooperative societies. This gives you the option to sell in large quantities particularly if you are located far away from the customers’ market. Packaging your vegetables for these buyers is preferable since it enables you to concentrate on running and maintaining the farm. This is a great option if you are typically a farmer and are not comfortable taking up the marketing role.
Build a relationship with the local chef.
Connect with the local chef and restaurants and see how far they can patronize your farm. Network with them and let them know the advantage of saving money on transportation as well as serving fresh and local food.
Provide some vegetable samples to the restaurant owners and chef for them to try your vegetables and see how far you both can work together. You can go the extra mile by inviting them to your farm to see how you grow your vegetables. Also, find out from them both if there is a special vegetable they would rather prefer so that they can be grown. Be ready to serve them since it profits you both: you sell to regular local customers and they save transportation cost when they buy from your farm.
Sell jams, jellies, and baked products made with vegetables
If you know that products such as jellies, jams or baked products were made with your vegetables or similar vegetables, then become a seller of such products and use them as a springboard to market your vegetables. It makes business sense to sell products made with your vegetables or similar ones because it helps you attract a wider market when you those products to boast of your local vegetables and ingredients. What you need to do is to find out what the government regulations are regarding your cottage food laws so that you can comply.
Conclusion
The bottom line for every business is profit or profit related goal. In the case of your vegetable garden, not only does growing vegetables save money for your family as you spend fewer dollars at the grocery store but it can make you money also in the long term. Remember to build a bigger garden or greenhouse to grow a huge farm of vegetables and connect with the local vegetable farmers to know more about the best vegetable and the right season to grow certain types of vegetables.