Extra income streams

[dazz675]

green metropolis actually calculates postage for you, dont know how good site is though, maybe should have stuck to tried and tested sites you mentioned

[TwoDo]

The other thing I *might* do, is sell plug plants on ebay. A friend of mine started to do it with squash seeds that she retrieved from the compost bin, put there by accident the previous day, and even though one person complained about the packaging and she had to refund the money, she made about £50. Thinking of using lupin seeds that I got from a holiday cottage this year, plus aquilegia seeds from my own garden, and yep, I'll buy some squash to eat and keep the seeds!

Commercial squash are often F1 hybrids - if they are the seeds will not breed true - so you'll want to be careful.

One thing that you might consider growing and selling are some of the specialty plants used for forest gardening (an up-and-coming trend). There seems to be a market for them on ebay. Things like the Siberian Pea Shrub and Ground Nut are ridiculously easy to grow but quite hard to find (at least they were when I wanted some - everybody was sold out). Also consider selling things like sweet chestnut and walnut trees. To propagate them all you need to do is collect a couple of carrier bags full of nuts, stratify them by keeping them in your fridge for 3 months and then plant them out in the spring. Sell them as bare rooted seedlings in the autumn to keep your shipping costs down or perhaps wait a year and do it the next autumn.

Perhaps if you grow the hard to find specialty plants you might have people actively searching for them by name - and this may save you the trouble marketing them. Just a thought.

[Arzosah]

TwoDo, I like that, thanks! I've been out this afternoon collecting sweet chestnut! And now I might stick some in the fridge to do their thing instead of eating them all

[jansman]

Bloated imperialist capitialist pigdog ..erm ..pig! Could I have half a stone of tatties please and a dozen eggs?

Lil, cannot bag'em quick enough. Jan gets fed up of folks knocking the door. We went to the pub yesterday lunchtime and in the crowd one of my customers said "you had better serve the spudman first!"
My lovely Wife was embarrassed. Not me! That comment got me a couple more customers. Ker-Ching!( sound of till).

Joking apart, these little schemes do not make vast amounts, but they are low tech and no or low cost. For me , it puts my name out there. Especially as our village is now very full of incomers. I do not do e-bay or anything like that( do not know how/too much faff) I would suggest to anyone to start simple. Blimey, go and get some spuds in and do my trick- just not near me!

[itsybitsy]

Also I am buying sacks of spuds from the farm for £8 , splitting them into 2.5 kg bags and just undercutting the co op( and saying so!) double me money on that! And the customers think I grow 'em myself!

That's the kind of twisted, deviant salesmanship tactics that I would employ myself. Absolute genius!

Rampant Capitalism in action Itsy!

It works for me. If it's not nailed down, I'll flog it!

[jansman]

Itsy,Ding- Dong!

[TomW]

Cracking idea jansman. Might just steal it lol. Hoping to grow a lot of our own stuff next year so this could be a way to earn a bit ahead of time to pay for setting up. Cheers for the idea!