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Old November 23, 2017   #21
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
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100% of my financial proceeds go to me, but one of the best things about growing plants for sale is being in the position to give a lot of them away. Every year, I always end up growing a lot more than I can sell, and then always seem to find a place to donate a lot of plants. One year it was a children's home, and another year it was the state prison. This past summer, a new community garden went up in my town, and they got a lot of plants from me.

You'll also make a lot of friends with loyal customers who will come back next year and remember you, even though you might not remember them. I especially enjoy selling dwarf and container plants to customers who would otherwise be past the age where they were physically healthy enough to garden. Where I live, the soil is good, so growing a tomato in a container is a rare thing and most people don't even know it is possible, especially growing one that tastes good. Each spring, I have an older gentleman track me down to get his favorite dwarf tomato variety (Mano). He is in an assisted living facility, and I can tell it gives him great joy to not only be able to grow tomatoes, but that they "taste the way a tomato ought to taste, " as he puts it.

Just this week, when visiting my grandma, I met another assisted living home resident who couldn't wait to buy a lot of my flowers next spring, after she saw some pictures. The catch is that I have to plant them all in the garden they keep for the residents. I laughed and told her I would. I guess I will end up learning how to landscape.
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