At this point I’ve covered a lot of information about practices to refine one’s mental state, achieve peace of mind and reach a higher level of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. If you follow the practices discussed in previous posts it will be possible to rise above the suffering mark and be an overcomer. As this blog is about mental mastery I will in future post expand on practices related to mastering one’s mind, but now I’d like to share a way to not only achieve greater physical wellbeing, but at the same time make some money. The greatest part about it, is that it is easy, rewardable and can be as lucrative as one desires based on how serious they are about it.
We all know that eating more fresh fruits is healthy. This water-rich source of nutrition is not only good for us, but fruit tastes great. And home grown fruit is so much more delicious than store bought. If you’re fortunate enough to have even a small back yard you can start producing your own fresh fruit and making money. I’ll show you how to make it work. Doing so will not only provide you with great produce, it will save on grocery money and you can make money from your plants.
As an example, take for instance a hardy kiwi, this type of plant can grow in almost any climate and it can produce up to a 100 lbs. of a delicious edible smoothed skinned fruit the size of a large grape. Each year you can take hundreds of cuttings from just one plant and sell these cuttings in 2-1/4 inch pots on ebay.com or amazon.com for 10.00 + shipping. Soil can be bought by the yard at most local landscape supply stores and pots of this small size can be purchased for pennies.
While you will need to learn a little about taking and rooting cuttings, the process is not hard to do and one can learn it in a matter of a couple hours of online research. Basically, your taking a cutting from your stock plant, dipping it in a rooting hormone and sticking it in moist sand until it roots. While some plants differ in the time to take cuttings, and some are easier to root than others, it’s not rocket science. A great site that you could check out to learn more about taking cuttings and setting up a backyard nursery is mikesbackyardnursery.com
I suggest getting started with a bunch of fruiting shrubs that are hardy in your climate zone, such as hardy kiwi, grape, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, jostaberry, honeyberry and currants. These shrubs will start fruiting within the first 2 to 3 years. They are incredibly nutritious and delicious and you will be able to take tons of cuttings from them. They also don’t take up a lot of space around your yard. From each cutting your should be able to net about 5.00 to 7.00 per plant during the same year that you root them. Another great thing is that whatever does not sell in the first year gets moved up to a larger pot the next year and sold for twice the amount. You can’t lose.
Before you start selling your little baby plants, you will need to get a business license and a plant license. Each of these will run about 50.00 per year. Your plants can be sold online as well as through plant yard sales and at farmer’s markets if your willing to put in the effort.
Now, I’d like to share a website with you where you can source wholesale plants from. In the beginning while your just getting started in the process of learning the ends and outs of taking cuttings, you may want to flip plants. What I mean by this is just buying them wholesale, bare-root or liners, (i.e. cuttings with roots) pot them up and sell them for a profit.
Although you won’t be getting food from your plants, it might make sense while your edible stock shrubs are getting started. The website is oan.org, which stands for Oregon Association of Nurseries. On the site your can do a plant search and find the wholesale nurseries that supply most liner plants starting around 1.00 a plant. It is feasible and realistic to turn these around for 10.00 or more the same year. Your can also find many wholesale plant nurseries online throughout the US that are happy to sell you liners.
In Conclusion, If you have even a small yard space you can get started growing fruiting shrubs and take thousands of cuttings from them to sell every year. In fact by cutting back your shrubs while taking cuttings, you will be stimulating your shrubs to produce more shoots and subsequently more fruit. These fruiting shrubs can also provide you a surplus of fresh, delicious and nutritious produce that you can enjoy throughout the growing season or frozen to carry you through the dormant parts of the year.
With a little investment of time and a relatively small amount of money you could have a back yard nursery providing you with some or all the income you need to thrive. Check out the websites discussed in this post to get you started. It’s simple, fun, and can provide for a healthy lifestyle that does not require working an hourly job.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. If you find this information beneficial please subscribe and follow along as we journey towards better mental health and a greater quality of life, Thank you, John
Mentally Sound 