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Home » Backyard Nurseries » Starting a Backyard Nursery in August

Starting a Backyard Nursery in August

Updated : August 27, 2015

4 Comments

If you are starting your backyard nursery in August, there are a number of things you should be concentrating on. In the next 8 to 12 weeks there will be some deals on rooted cuttings and liners on the Backyard Growers Business Center Buy/Sell board. If you buy them now and just plant them in a grow bed, which is really nothing more than a garden, sometimes raised, sometimes not. If you have really poor soil it’s better to build a raised bed, which can be nothing more than good topsoil.

August is really a good time to get started, you have all fall and winter to prepare some area, plenty of time in the fall to buy plants that you can take cuttings from next spring.  And over the winter many of our members sell bundles of unrooted hardwood cuttings.  All you have to do is dip them in rooting compound and stick them in a flat, a pot, or right in the ground and they’ll root next spring and be ready to pot come mid summer.

Inside the Backyard Growers Business Center we have a Buy/Sell Area that is an awesome place to buy and sell plants.  You can buy at wholesale prices, but buy in smaller quantities if you want.

September is one of the best months for buying rooted cuttings and liners in the members area.  Many growers don’t like shipping in the hot months of the summer so they hold off on all of their sales until September.  Lots and lots of awesome deals to be had.

Plant the plants that you buy in a bed, then next June, maybe even this winter, you can start taking cuttings from them. Keep them in the bed until you don’t need them for cuttings any more, then dig them up and sell them for a lot more than you paid for them.  Make sure you read, “Small Plants, Big Profits from Home” it’s in the Backyard Growers University. That book is the bible of the business side of growing.

Some things grow easily as hardwood cuttings, other things not so much, so ask in the members area before you waste your cuttings.

Start stock piling hardwood bark mulch so you can mix your own potting soil.  I have a few Potting Soil Secrets that I’ll share with you. You’ll need a lot more potting soil than you think.

mist 4

Intermittent Mist System

If you can swing it, Get a Propagation System as soon as you can so you have it ready to go next June. Right now you could use it until cold weather sets in, but for sure, get one long before June.
In the spring and summer the parts to make these are difficult to find.

21 Plants that are Easy to Grow and Sell Like Crazy

The following 21 plants are really easy to grow and they sell like hot cakes. They always have been really good sellers and they always will be really good sellers. And this list is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to plants that you can grow and sell that people want to buy.

Now don’t get overwhelmed. Just pick one or two of these plants to start out with.  And click here for propagation techniques for most landscape plants.

1. Forsythia

2. Red Weigela

3. Varigated Weigela

4. Pink Flowering Weigela

5. Red Twig Dogwood

6. Fragrant Viburnums

7. All Flowering Viburnums

8. Potentilla

9. Dappled Willow

10. Pussy Willow

11. Daylillies

12. Hosta

13. Heuchera

14. All kinds of Perennials

15. Armeria

16. Boxwood

17. Japanese Hollies

18. English Hollies

19. Rhododendrons

20. PJM Dwarf Rhododendron

21. Hydrangeas

22. Rose of Sharon

23. Dwarf Alberta Spruce

24. White Dogwood trees

25. Chinese Dogwoods

26. Blue Rug Juniper

27. Gold Flame Spirea

28. Gold Mound Spirea

29. Ornamental Grasses of all kinds

30. Crimson Pygmy Barberry

31. Rosy Glow Barberry

Okay, that’s 31 and I could go on forever.

Here are some plants for warmer zones, 8,9, and 10

Fragrant Tea Olive,

Gardenia,

Camellia,

Azalea,

Jasmines

Palm trees

Tropical Hibiscus

Burgundy Chinese Fringe Flower

Bogainvilla

Owari & Hamlin Oranges

Satsuma

Kumquat

Azalea (out the wazoo down here)

Crepe Myrtle (ditto)

Lilies

Camelias

amaryllis

hybrids such as Blossom Peacock and Papillo

Japanese Pieris

Satsuma’s

Star gazer lilies

Crape Myrtles of all kinds

Gardenia varieties-evergreen

Azalea varieties-evergreen & deciduous(native)

Camellia varieties-evergreen

Fragrant Tea Olive-evergreen

Nandina varieties-evergreen

Loropetalum/Chinese fringe flowers

Chase Tree

Abelia -so many new exciting varieties -good for zones 6-10!

Viburnums

Daphne

Cleyera-evergreen

Burning Bush/ Euonymus varieties…

Spirea -especially Bridalwreath, Little Princess, Goldmound…

Butterfly Bushes

Jasmines (vines-Carolina, Confederate)

Confederate Rose

Lady Banks Rose

Anise (check out Florida Sunshine)

Holly-Soft Touch/Sky Pencil/Youpon/Burfordii….

Crape Myrtles

Japanese Magnolias(Saucer, Betty, Royal Star…)

Southern Magnolias

Dogwoods

Red Buds

Japanese Maples

Evergreen hedge trees/shrubs

Leyland Cypress

Murray/Arborvitae

Japanese Cedar(cryptomeria)

false cypress(Chamaecyparis…)

Junipers-Blue Rug, Sargentii, Blue Point,…

Trees:

Chinense Pistache

Fruitless Mulberry

Weeping Willow

Live oak

Red oak

Catalpa

Vitex (or Chaste Tree)

Desert Willow

Shrub:

Nellie R Stevens

Wax Myrtle

Red Tip Photinia

Korean Boxwood

Radicans Gardenia

Loropetalum

Yaupon Holly

Perennials:

Salvias

Sedums

Butterfly Bush

Reeves Spiraea

Van Houtti Spiraea

Vines:

Honeysuckle (coral)

Crossvine

Star Jasmine

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Comments

  1. Edward says

    August 27, 2015 at 9:49 pm

    Mike,

    After you have prepared a bed, how long do you leave it to “Settle” before planting ? Pls

    Edward

    Reply
    • Mike says

      August 28, 2015 at 7:37 am

      Edward,

      No time at all really. As you plant more than likely you will be walking or crawling in the bed, that will pack it down enough. If you want you can prepare the bed, the water thorough to get it to settle down, but I’ve never really done that. As soon as the bed is ready I start planting. Be sure to mulch good or use a pre emergent herbicide for weed control. Actually both, the pre emergents work much better when applied over mulch.

      Reply
  2. Beth says

    August 21, 2015 at 12:36 pm

    Hi Mike,
    Something is wrong with the top of my Lavender Twist Redbud… it is all branch and no leaves. Looks a little odd especially to my neighbors. I cut the seedlings off in early summer thinking this would help. I love this little tree. How can I fix my bald redbud?
    Hope you can see the pictures.
    Thank you,
    Beth

    /Users/mbfraser/Desktop/IMG_2318.jpeg
    /Users/mbfraser/Desktop/IMG_2316.jpeg
    /Users/mbfraser/Desktop/IMG_2317.jpeg

    Reply
    • Mike says

      August 22, 2015 at 8:02 am

      Beth,

      Probably a bit of winter damage. As long as the tissue below the bark is healthy the tree will mend itself, all you have to do is keep trimming for shape. This is how you test to see if a plant, or a branch on a plant has died. Just scratch the bark of your plants with your finger nail. If the tissue below the bark is green and firm your plants are fine. If the tissue is brown and mushy that part of the plant is dead.

      If the top part actually is dead you’ll have to remove it, then train a new branch to a stake to get that height back. Google teaching a lavender twist redbud to be a tree and you’ll find a video that I did.

      Reply

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