Flowers

Why not simply grow flowers? People with no access to a cottage garden thirst for flowers. From flowers in full bloom for birthdays and Mother's day to flower arrangements for restaurants and hotels. How many businesses could brighten up their reception area with some fresh flowers?

Then again, in the Spring, there is the possibility of selling live flowers arranged in hanging baskets. You can plant and hang them around your own house and sell them as they come into bloom.

When the growing season is ended and if you have blooms you did not sell, there is always a demand for dried cottage flowers as the ingredients for crafts.

Lastly, did you realise that some flowers are not only pretty but edible? What an exotic line to sell to an adventurous local restaurant!

Pond Plants

If you are into garden ponds and especially if you have a small business creating them for people, then supplying "Water Plants" can be a good source of extra income. If not, you could always offer them to other Pond manufacturers & nurseries.

There are lots of people with ponds and they are all potential customers for fresh water plants with each new season, when they worry about the quality of their water.

You can grow the plants in your own wildlife ponds with very little maintenance and when you thin out your ponds in the spring, sell on your surplus.

Specialty and Unusual plants

Where you cannot compete in bulk with commercial growers, there is always room to make some cash growing special or unusual cottage plants.

You will have to do some careful research on their care and maintenance, but the financial rewards are there. For example there is a big demand at the moment for specialty chilies, especially the ornamental and red red hot varieties.

Others plants you might consider include medicinal plants, Ginseng, Orris, gingers or if you have the room and time, even specialised timbers or hedgerows for crafts materials like walking stick blanks.

Growing specialised timber is not as silly as it first sounds. It will take decades to mature but as it grows it becomes more valuable. If you are looking to add value to some land, a stand of exotic or specialist timber could be worth hundreds of pounds a little way down the road, even while still immature.

Making Garden Art

This is a vast area from making garden gnomes with concrete in latex molds to creating original works of art that sell for hundreds of pounds. People have built up substantial businesses from their cottage garden shed, just producing paving stones and path edging.