Cash Dig up the
Don’t throw the big bucks out with the weeds when you start getting your garden in shape, advises Kylie Klein-Nixon.
My garden is thriving ... with weeds. I’ve been letting it winter over for about a year now, and it’s time I got it sorted out.
When you tackle something like an attic or garage, you startwith a good, old-fashioned clearout, where you sort everything into keep, sell, donate and send-to-the-tip piles.
It’s no different for gardens, where old tools, furniture, ornaments, and even ‘‘waste’’ such as mulch and compost could prove to be a small goldmine lurking in the undergrowth, maybe even earning you enough to fund your gardening plans.
The bargain hunters are ready to pounce, too: There’s been a huge uptick in the number of greenfingered Kiwis seeking gardenrelated items on websites like Trade Me, Facebook Marketplace and Neighbourly Market since summer really kicked off.
Tool up
Trade Me spokeswomanMillie Silvester says that in late November the website experienced a 25 per cent increase in user searches for gardening tools.
Secondhand pots are also in demand, with 14,000 searches in one week leading up to Christmas. Among them, the good old terracotta pot was the most popular, followed by outdoor pots and plastic pots.
We’ve all got a few terracotta pots lying around that could be scrubbed up and either put to good use or sold for a bit of ready cash.
Over at Neighbourly, one person’s garden waste is another’s garden opportunity.
Members have had luck selling or giving away landscaping leftovers such as bark, soil, mulch, manure, hay and fertiliser.
Even large rocks, old bricks, pebbles and stones have a value.
So, don’t just bin your garden waste and landscaping leftovers – someone mightwant to take them off your hands.
Get cooking
Kiwis started searching for outdoor furniture well before Christmas, says Silvester, citing 28,000 searches in just seven days in late November.
‘‘If you’ve got some outdoor furniture lying around that you are no longer using, it’s the perfect time to sell it.’’
Although garden ornaments can sell, it’s a bit more hit and miss. But one ornament that will dowell, if Trade Me prices are anything to go by, are wine barrels, a rustic garden accent that’s as useful as it is attractive.
Whole wine barrels, which can make decent features, leaning tables and water-storage options, fetch between $150 and $300 a pop, while half-barrels, which make great planters, and evenwater features, can go for up to $200 for a large one.
People like these to look weathered and authentic, so even if it’s a bit grotty it still could be worth something.
Plant the seed
One item in your garden that could be a real cash crop are the plants and seeds in your backyard.
‘‘Plants are popular all year round,’’ says Silvester, ‘‘but we always see searches for plants and trees grow during spring.’’
Before Christmas, there was a 25 per cent increase in searches for all sorts of plants on Trade Me. One seven-day period saw 32,000 searches for lovely green things.
Over on Neighbourly Market, people often request cuttings, seedlings or rooted propagated plants.
‘‘Sometimes this is for large plants or specific flowers,’’ says a spokesperson.
‘‘We notice members sell some plants or cuttings from their garden seasonally.’’
Tapping your own garden for plants is not a simple task, but it can be done.
Cactus and succulents are probably the easiest plants in your garden to propagate and sell online.
‘‘They can be propagated by separation or leaf cuttings,’’ says Katie MacLennan, who sells plants she has propagated and grown from seed via livingwithplantsnz.co.nz.
‘‘If you have any of those plants already in the garden, they may have had heaps of babies by now. You can break them off from the mother plant and start propagating.
‘‘You could make a $2 each plant, at least.’’
Another plant that might be growing wild in your backyard, dependingwhere you live, is monstera. This darling of Instagram can easily be propagated from stems with nodes at the bottom.
MacLennan suggests checking out YouTubers like Kaylee Ellen, a
British plant enthusiast who specialises in rare plants, for more tips on propagating.
As ever, ask before you take cuttings from plants that don’t belong to you, even if it looks like they’re growing wild.
Cash crops
You can also plan now to cash in next season, by letting some of your plants and flowers go to seed or create new bulbs over the summer.
Flowers such as dahlias, irises, tulips, hyacinths, alliums, gladiolus and crocuses all grow new bulbs and tubers each season that can be split up and grown into new plants or sold as is.
Vegetables also offer great seed and seedling opportunities. It’s possible to get up to 10 or 15 garlic plants from one bulb; the seeds of pumpkins, cucumbers, marrows, beans, peas and peppers of all kinds can be dried and replanted or sold as is.
Some of the easiest plants to propagate are herbs, which in some situations will grow like weeds. Mint is fantastic for this.
You can also try your luckwith German or lawn chamomile, not to mention parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.