A Side Hustle For The Green-Fingered: Starting A Gardening Business

As you probably know already, side hustles are all the rage these days. Almost 40% of Brits have a side hustle to help them keep up with the cost of living, which makes them a rather impressive average of £210 each week.

Source: Statista side hustle statistics 2025

Lots of people are looking for a side hustle they can do online, in the comfort of their own home - but on the other hand, all that staring at a screen can’t be good for you!

If you’re looking for a healthier alternative, that gets you out in nature and forces you to exercise, gardening’s a great option.

There are all sorts of ways to make money from your garden - and you’ll probably find that it gives both your mental and physical health a boost, alongside making you some much-needed extra cash.

In this article, we’ll talk you through some of the best ways to make money from gardening, how to start your new gardening business, and the main advantages and disadvantages of gardening as a side hustle.

If you’re a keen amateur gardener toying with the idea of monetising your hobby, but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in exactly the right place!

Ways To Make Money From Gardening

There are more ways than you might think to make money from gardening. Offering your own services as a gardener is the first option most people think of, but that’s by no means the only one available to you. Here are some of the most popular ways to make money from gardening:

• Offer gardening services. It’s the most obvious option for a reason - tons of people have gardens, but insufficient time or expertise to make them look their best.

• Grow and sell fruits and vegetables. If you’ve got plenty of space for it, you can grow your own produce to sell locally. This has the benefit of allowing you to work from your own home, whenever your schedule and the weather suits you. To sell your homegrown produce, you can check out local markets, or even set up a mini stall in your front garden in good weather.

• Grow and sell plants/seeds. Again, you’ll need a reasonable amount of space in your own garden, but you can consider becoming your own mini plant nursery. Selling seeds or seedlings can be particularly lucrative, as they don’t take up too much space, but you can also offer full grown plants to keen gardeners in your area. As with selling produce, though, you’ll need to find places to sell your plants, which can make this option a little trickier.

• Design gardens. If you’ve got more of a passion for design, and less of a passion for getting wet and grubby, you could sell your services as a garden designer. The benefits of this are that you can charge more for your services, have the satisfaction of planning out gardens from scratch, and don’t have to do any of the hard labour. The downside is that you won’t get much repeat business, as most people won’t want to regularly redesign their entire gardens.

• Offer garden consultations. This can encompass garden design, but is a more general service. You might advise customers on how to go about creating raised beds, for example, or on the best way to make use of a certain space. As well as this, you can offer to source materials and even arrange sub-contractors to carry out the work, giving you an additional profit margin.

How To Get Started With Your Gardening Business

1. Decide what you want to do. Before you can do any detailed planning, you need to know what your business will be! Settle on your business idea, whether it’s garden design, selling soft fruit, or artistic lawn mowing, and build your side hustle from there.

2. Research. Primarily, you need to research the costs involved in your chosen side hustle. For example, if you’re offering to do garden work for your customers, you’ll need to know the costs of transport, equipment and insurance. If you’re planning to sell plants, meanwhile, you’ll need to consider the cost of seeds or seedlings, soil, fertiliser, and any general gardening equipment you don’t already have. 
You should also check how much your competitors are charging for their services, to help you establish your own pricing.

3. Acquire supplies. Make sure to buy everything you’ll need in advance, so that there’s nothing to stop you hitting the ground running when you launch your business. That said, it’s best not to splurge on unnecessary extras right at the start, to keep your initial outlay as low as possible.

4. Work out your prices. Decide on your prices in advance (check out the section below for guidance on how much to charge) so you’re not put on the spot when you book your first job.

5. Market your services. If you’re planning to sell plants or produce once they’re grown, this step may need to come a bit later, once you’ve actually got some items to sell. However, if you’re offering gardening services rather than selling plants, you’ll need to advertise your services to get your first gardening clients.
You can try marketing yourself locally to begin with, perhaps to friends or neighbours. You can also look at posting in local social media groups, or going old school and putting an advert in local shops to let your area know you’re in business.

6. Start work! Hopefully, your stellar marketing tactics will result in your first customers pretty quickly. And once you’ve got a few jobs booked, you’ll probably find that word of mouth gets you more interest, so long as your customers are happy.
If things go really well, you could even consider scaling up by hiring additional help to keep you on top of your packed schedule.

How Much To Charge For Gardening Services

This will of course vary depending on the exact kind of services you intend to provide.

If you’re planning to offer gardening services yourself, from general maintenance (including lawn mowing, weeding, hedge trimming etc) to seeding and planting, your services are typically worth £15-£30 an hour, depending on your area and the exact kind of work.

Bear in mind that you’ll need to factor the costs of equipment, travel and insurance into your overall rates.

For gardening consultation or design, you can usually charge a higher rate. Your exact prices will be dependent on the nature of each job - which may vary significantly - so you should perform extensive research to establish the most appropriate prices for your work.

If you’re growing and selling plants or produce, meanwhile, you’ll be charging per item, rather than by the hour. Check out how much similar items cost at places like farmer’s markets or garden centres to inform your own pricing.

You can probably get away with charging a bit more than a supermarket or garden centre, as people are often willing to pay more for quality, homegrown items - but avoid hiking up your prices too far, or you’ll start putting people off.

Tips And Trips For Success With A Gardening Side Hustle

• Capitalise on your expertise. If you know all there is to know about gardening, you can focus on selling your knowledge rather than your labour. Gardening consultations are increasingly popular, and you can charge a higher hourly rate than for basic gardening labour.

• Do what you enjoy. On the other hand, you may well want to start a gardening side hustle simply because you enjoy gardening. If so, and you’d rather spend your time outside with your hands in the soil than inside with a spreadsheet, there’s no reason to force yourself to consult if you’d have a better time doing the work yourself.

• Focus on what you’re good at. Gardening and landscaping are often lumped in together, but most hobbyist gardeners don’t have any particular landscaping skills, and the reverse is often true as well. Unless you’re sure you can do a great job of both, stick to your skillset.

• Go the extra mile. If you’re a new business, you can’t do too much to make your customers happy. Consider throwing in a small extra as a free surprise, or plant out a decorative pot without being asked, to convince your customers you’re the best gardener they could wish for.

• Experiment. Naturally, you’ve got to stick to your customers’ wishes, but where you get the chance, play around! You might try out plants or techniques you’ve never used before, or branch out in stylistic terms with geometric patterns in a rock garden.

Pros And Cons Of Gardening As A Side Hustle

Other Great Side Hustles To Earn Extra Money

If you like the sound of earning extra money from a new side hustle, but you’re not sure about spending all your time outside in the rain, there are tons of alternatives available to you!

You could make money transcribing audio or try your hand at copywriting if you prefer the idea of working from home, or perhaps consider stock photography if you’re good with a camera.

Or you could always give Matched Betting a go. It’s a great way to make money without ever having to set foot outside in the cold, with the potential to make £300-£1000 a month!