Growing Plants for Fun and Profit

Turn your love of plants into an enjoyable and profitable home business. This course provides information on licensing, site preparation, equipment, how and where to find supplies, how to select and produce plants, how to produce quality material, and how to market your product.
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6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs
Starting  July 13, 2022
Offered in partnership with your preferred school

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Growing Plants for Fun and Profit

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Course code: gpf

Turn your love of plants into an enjoyable and profitable home business. Learn how to grow and market plants on a small scale without major capital investment. In an area as small as 1000 sq. ft., you can generate thousands of dollars' worth of plant material in a single growing season.

This course is your practical guide to licensing, site preparation, equipment, how and where to find supplies, how to select and produce plants appropriate to your climate zone, how to produce quality material and, most importantly, how to market your product.

What you will learn

  • Learn how to make the transition from gardener to nurseryman
  • Understand climate zones and how to set up suitable growing grounds
  • Learn the three major propagation methods used in nursery production
  • Examine starter plants and obtain guidelines on what you should grow
  • Learn about annuals, bulbs, vegetables and herbs and discusses organic production
  • Understand how to grow and market perennials, shrubs, roses, vines and small fruits
  • Learn the methods for producing and maintaining quality plant material
  • Gain strategies for succeeding in the wholesale market and directly to the public

How you will benefit

  • Turn your love of plants into a profitable home-based business
  • Learn how to begin your nursery business with only a small capital investment
  • Gain additional gardening skills that will benefit you both personally and professionally

How the course is taught

  • Instructor-led or self-paced online course
  • 6 Weeks or 3 Months access
  • 24 course hours

In the first lesson, you'll meet other gardeners who've successfully made the transition to nurserymen. You may be surprised to discover that, within the small space of a backyard, you can produce significant income by growing plants. You'll also learn what permits and licenses you may need as you get started.

In this lesson, you'll take a close look at climate zone maps to help you figure out what plants will grow best in your region. Then you'll learn some easy ways to prepare your growing grounds. Finally, the lesson will show you ways to create inexpensive microclimates that will help you start your plants and expand the varieties you can grow.

In this lesson, you'll learn what production supplies you'll need and how to find wholesale sources for them. The lesson will discuss cover containers, soil, fertilizer, and labels and then talk about why it's important to keep track of your expenses for tax purposes.

Starting new plants is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences for gardeners and nurseryman alike. The process of starting new plants is called propagation. In this lesson, you'll focus on the three major methods used in nursery production: propagation by seed, cuttings, and division.

This lesson will teach you one of the most valuable lessons in this business: How to reduce the waiting time involved in growing plant material. You'll learn what types of starter plants are available and how to find wholesale sources. You'll also be given some valuable guidelines to help you decide what to grow. Afterwards, the lesson will talk about how to find additional sources of information and business networking opportunities through nurserymen associations and trade shows.

In this lesson, you'll focus on growing annual flowers and bulbs, paying special attention to market timing. You'll learn how to create high-value items such as color bowls and hanging baskets. The lesson will then discuss vegetable starter plants and herbs. Specializing in organic growing will help you tap into a lucrative area of the nursery trade, so the lesson will fill you in on all you need to know about organic growing and certification.

In this lesson, you'll focus on one of the hottest topics in gardening: The particular group of non-woody plants that nurseries call "perennials". You'll become familiar not only with the favorites, but with the wide variety of perennials available. The lesson will then go over some detailed information about specific perennials, including how to grow them and how to time them for market.

This lesson covers woody plants—such as shrubs and vines—that form the more permanent plantings in a landscape. You'll pay particular attention to roses because they're among the most beautiful and profitable shrubs. In addition, you'll learn how to grow small fruiting shrubs and vines for specialty markets.

Trees may be the largest members of the plant kingdom, but they're also among the easiest and most profitable to grow. In this lesson, you'll not only learn how to propagate landscape trees, but how to greatly shorten their growing time by buying bare-root seedlings and finished bare-roots. The lesson will conclude with a discussion on fruiting and flowering trees.

Whether you're growing plants for fun or profit, you'll want to produce quality plant material. This lesson will provide guidelines for quality standards. You'll learn about pruning, staking, and training plants into special shapes and forms. It will also talk about methods you can use to ward off diseases and pests.

If you're like most gardeners, growing plants is the easy part—marketing is the real challenge! This lesson will begin with a discussion on wholesale marketing. You'll learn all you need to know to do business with discount chain stores, local retailers, and landscapers, and then explore consignment selling, contract growing, and business-to-business Internet options.

The final lesson covers retail marketing, or taking your product directly to the public. You'll learn how to advertise inexpensively and effectively so you're not just growing plants, you're growing your business! The lesson will explain what you'll need to know to sell your plants from your home or garage sales, certified farmers markets, and flea markets. It will also discuss selling your plants to government or public agencies.

Michael and Linda Harlan have been involved in the nursery industry since 1968. In 1985, they began a backyard nursery on a half-acre that grew into a successful 12-year business venture. The Harlans then shared their experience by publishing a self-help book entitled Growing Profits: How to Start and Operate a Backyard Nursery. Michael has been teaching a course on this subject matter through the extension services of local community colleges for the past four years.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 8 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Instructor-Led: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.
Self-Paced: You can start this course at any time your schedule permits.

Instructor-Led: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends.
Self-Paced: You have 3 month access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period.

Instructor-Led: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
Self-Paced: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period.

Instructor-Led: The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks plus 10 days (24 days total) to complete the final and finish any remaining lessons in your course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.
Self-Paced: Because this course is self-paced, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

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