Make Money by Growing Stuff

The month of February I'll be offering a money-making tip every weekday. Here's the one for today:

Make money by growing stuff.

What kind of stuff can you grow to make money (that's legal, mind you)? Here are a few ideas:

• Vegetables. You can not only start a garden to save yourself some money on food costs, but can sell your surplus to friends or at a farmer's market. (Or you can trade your veggies for another product/service to save yourself money.)

• Fruits. These take a bit longer to get going, but once fruit trees are established, they can provide a tremendous amount of fruit that can be sold. Our neighbor has two cherry trees that aren't even tended that well that produce tons of fruit each year.

• Flowers. You can sell those roses as well as save yourself some money by growing them.

• Plants. It's fairly easy to divide many common plants. Buy some, grow them, divide them, and sell a portion of what you've been able to divide.

And while these aren't "growing" ideas, here are some related "down-on-the-farm" money makers (and money savers):

• Raise chickens. And sell their eggs.

• Become a beekeeper. And sell honey. Friends of ours do this and make a nice side income.

So, any other ideas for growing stuff (or anything related) to make money?

Comments

[F]

Fruits could work indeed.

But generally speaking, not vegetables. I used to have a vegetable garden, as a hobby. Although I have never tried to calculate my hourly wage ($ vegetables / hours worked), it must have been way below minimum wage. Alright, the garden was organic, so I spent significant time weeding, but even with pesticides there's plenty of work to do.
I know quite a few people who actually lose money on growing vegetables because their harvest doesn't cover their seed, fertilizer, and other costs.

[Miss M @ M is for Money]

I have a small vegetable garden but I don't produce enough to sell. I have traded with friends/co-workers for items I didn't grow. We do have several pomegranate trees on our property, the birds tend to get them before we do. I was thinking I should net the trees this year to save the fruit and find a buyer. Poms are expensive in the store.

[Broke Wall Streeter]

NJ will soon become the 14th state which allows medicinal use of marijuana after the bill passed the state Senate. The Governor will sign the bill if it passes the Assembly. I better pick up some Miracle Gro.

[Sarah]

Good points, but important to remember that you won't get rich this way. As a very small-scale backyard beekeeper, honey sales barely cover my costs (but the quality of the honey is out of this world, so I think it's worth it. And I spend almost nothing other than beekeeping costs for holiday gifts. :)

[Norma]

Just an interesting little fact...the world's bee population is dwindling. It's a mystery where the bees are going. My boss, as a side business, invested $25,000 in bees. They did wonderful until about 2 years ago. They've lost over half their bees.

Google it...