Quit Your Job, Grow & Sell Plants Instead!

If you're in a job you don't love, I can relate. I spent 20 years in corporate jobs, managing meaningless things. I hear from a lot of people who would like to step away from these kinds of jobs, and get back to farming (veggies, flowers, animal husbandry). My kick is ornamental landscape plants. Whichever route interests you, I think there's something special about local agriculture. Customers are looking to connect with and reward local growers - and I think this makes for nearly unlimited opportunities for specialty farms and nurseries. In this video, I'll tell you four lessons I learned while transitioning towards the nursery business, and I hope you might find them helpful if you're considering making the leap.

If you find these videos useful, here are a few things you can do to help us out:

[caravanlifenz]

"I spent 20 years in corporate jobs, managing meaningless things."
I love your honesty and your bravery for giving that up to live a peaceful life with your family.

[leslienichols]

Definitely agree with not waiting. " do want you can, with what you have, where you are".

[OkikaHawaii]

Starting my horticulture program at Colorado State University this fall. I’ve been growing from seed and propagating for years and love to garden a ton. I’ve always dreamed of having my own nursery. This is my step towards that finally. I’m 38 now so thankfully starting now will give me a few decades of living my dream. I have a mini nursery in my backyard starting up. I live in Kailua Kona Hawaii.

[littlesuzie]

Honestly Jason, I could listen to you talk all day long! You’re so articulate, and informative, and I really learn so much from every video you put out. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

[garymcdermott]

You Sir are not only a fine Rose Grower, also an exceptional entrepreneur. always enjoy & learn. thank you !

[thsluglord]

When i got laid off over the coof, i decided i was well and truly done with the nonsense of the modern world and workplaces. Ever since ive been independendtly employed doing lawncare and landscaping and ive been gardening at home, and doubling my gardening every year so far. I think i really want to start my own nursery or something along these lines. Started just growing vegetables and stuff, and this year ive moved onto blueberry bushes and roses on top of all my tomatoes, peppers, peas, beets, etc.

I took 12 rose cuttings yesterday to try and root into new plants, maybe THIS is the first step of my future rose nursery i never knew i was going to start?

[bryonyhellis]

I love the reminder to not only start small, but to just actually start! I have been saving glass jars for my cut flower displays and sowing seeds into yoghurt pots. Now I just have to start telling people to watch this space for seedlings, herbs, eggs, rabbit manure and cut flowers, it’s definitely hard to commit to producing!

[Jan-R-]

Been following you for 3 years and I can’t help but feel proud of your progress and achievements.

[Green.Country.Agroforestry]

I'm 2 years into starting a permaculture nursery .. on a shoestring budget (but we're barefoot 😁) and at this point, it is more about gathering propagation material and developing skills for me. YouTube lets me show people, potential customers and friends, how far along we have come in that journey - and I've already made a few sales. I've shipped more plants than I have sold, and mainly the reason for that is to make sure that when I ship live plants to a paying customer, they will have the best chance at arriving in a healthy state, ready to transplant .. and I can get updates on those plants as time passes, to see how they are doing. 🌼🌳 I've THOUGHT about ordering in plants to get a jump on sales .. but I know everything about every plant that goes out NOW, and I could not say that if the plants came from another nursery, especially one that deals in bulk. If it takes longer to get to profitability, so be it - I want to be able to stand behind my product.

[EvolutionWendy]

This is just the right video for me. I'm a scientist, my first job was working in three greenhouses growing plants to test herbicides on. I was never happier growing plants there! We even had a rice greenhouse.

Fast forward 40 years, I'm disabled and growing plants in my little quarter acre. And I've never been happier! It's my first year working the soil that has lain follow on my family's home for 40 years.

My first goal was to get the bees and insects back, which are only 10% of what they once were in California.

Well that went overboard because we didn't have enough beneficial predators. I'm now nurturing the beneficial predators and I'm keen on propagating plants, extremely keen.

My number one goal is to get the insects back, I'm so saddened that we're at a 10% level compared to when I was a child.

But I have to sell all the plants I'm excited to propagate, The silver leaf sunflowers that are drought resistant, the milkweed plants that are so essential for the butterflies, borage...

In suburbia in California it's a landscape of home Depot plants which are dreadfully uniform. My urge is to grow real plants, nurture beneficial insects and support the bird populations.

[kathiesimpson]

Great video, Jason! Thank you. This will be my first year selling plants from my small backyard nursery. It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time, but I’m ready. Your positive outlook is so reassuring and inspiring. I really needed your message today. Happy growing!

[christinemeutzner]

I love and admire that you actually write written responses to so many of the comments! How kind and considerate.

[mikethemoneyman]

I love your vibe, Jason. You do great work, you are genuine, and you are likable. Keep it up! Thank you for the information and inspiration!

[megrandmomjean]

Jason, I love the fact that you share your knowledge with others. I'm hoping you will soon be able to ship to the U.S., as I would like to help support your business.

[troyclapsadle]

Looks like you are definitely taking this move seriously. Everything looks really nice and your advice (me being a former self employed business person) is spot on. I enjoy watching your journey and wish you great success. I have learned allot from your experiences and have applied much of your advice to my personal garden journey. Always looking for your new videos. Thanks and keep it up.

[ticktock]

Enjoying your videos. Been researching and testing for 2 yrs. Starting as a part-time retirement venture. God bless!

[gwbuilder]

Just start! Is the best advice.
The sooner you start, the quicker you begin to realize what your actual skills are and what you need to learn.
I completely agree.
If you don't know where to start...
Get some seeds, a small bag of potting soil, some coffee cups or other small containers, and get those seeds in there.
We all start the exact same way and the more we try, the more we learn to do more.
As a 5 year old kid I started planting seeds from whatever fruits and vegetables we got from the grocery store or off our trees and stuck them in the ground. Growing up in farm country I just watched what the farmers were doing and my dad. I tried it and sometimes it worked and other times it didn't, then I would try to figure out what happened. Too much water, not enough.
One thing I learned right away was that soil will grow stuff....
I never used fertilizer, just the soil in the yard.
However, I did understand that all the winter leaves and grass clippings got spaded into the soil every year, because that was one of my chores, and wherever I spaded, that soil was always dark black and full of huge night crawlers. When I used that soil, my plants did much better.
Of course today we have so many resources to draw from.
Well done Jason!
Watching you develop your place of influence on your farm and here on YouTube is a pleasure to watch and be a part of.
All of the different milestones you are achieving really blossom into some very interesting new things.
Although I have several decades of experience in growing, I always enjoy learning a different perspective or way of doing similar things.
I hope you realize how many different types of growers you have influenced just in this video alone.
As I read through the comments I see people inspired to take the next steps from thinking about it to actually getting started.
What a great compliment to you.👌
Hopefully people will watch this video multiple times because there is so much information and experience that you have shared here.
I may be running an 85 acre diversified farm, but everything you mention here is absolutely true no matter what a person might want to grow, produce, and sell.
There is no one answer for everyone, but the information will definitely help sort out which parts will apply to a particular plan.
By the way Jason, you are a good teacher. You are able to express your thoughts in a way that anyone listening can use that information quite easily.
I really appreciate the confidence and positive notations for success and you make sure to acknowledge the community that has supported you all along the way.
Very

[overgrowthplanet]

I have to work on my “Selling of the plants” part

[LibertyFallFarms]

Jason, I love watching your videos! I have watched you for a couple years now. I had my first official plant sale this year… It was a flop.. but that is ok! That is how we learn and grow! It gave me a feel of what works in my area. Since my April 6th sale, I tried a couple different tactics that gave me success! I am currently sold out of plants that I am willing to part with. I am propagating twice as much for next year plus adding a few more varieties to offer. Thanks for the advice and encouragement that your videos provide! I can’t quit my job yet but I’m well on my way!

[stephanieyourfavoritehowto]

This may have been the confirmation I needed. I’ve been spending time thinking on what it is that I could do that I enjoy enough to forge through the challenges of owning my own business. I’m good at a lot of things, and have started businesses around them. However, they don’t succeed because I may be good at it, but it’s not anything I’m passionate about. Gardening is different. I’ve always loved the outdoors, the Trial and error process of growing, and the work involved. This may be my path. Today I start!