Green Thumb? 5 Plant Gigs and How to Start Each

Cleaning garden pots and tools

Paid to garden: five plant jobs for a neighbor, simplest first. Number five: cleaning garden pots, about $17 an hour on one wage table. A brush, dish soap and a bucket from home, and your neighbor pays directly. You brush the loose soil off each pot, then wash it in soapy water.

Then you rinse them clean and let them dry. A stiff brush knocks caked soil off shovels, spades and rakes. You wash the tools with a strong stream of water, then dry them. They hang up in a dry place.

By our count, the end of every season brings this job back. Flyers at the local garden shop are one way to find a first client. Gardening gloves protect your hands from cuts and soil. Next, a job that starts with tiny seeds.

Starting herbs from seed

Number four: starting herbs from seed, about the same rate on another wage table. Thyme, basil, sage and chives are great choices to start indoors. You need seeds, a seed-starting mix and small pots with drainage holes. You wet the mix until it feels like a wrung-out sponge.

Each seed goes about twice as deep as it is wide. Your first client can come from asking everyone you know. Say Iris sows six small pots of herbs for a neighbor in two hours. By our count, two hours at $17 and twenty-five cents is $34 and fifty cents.

If practical guides like this help you, subscribe. Every official page is linked below. Next, bulbs you plant now for flowers later.

Planting flower bulbs

Number three: planting flower bulbs, $18 and eighty-two cents an hour on a landscaping wage table. Planting bulbs with garden tools is on that job's official task list. Good bulbs are plump and firm, not soft or moldy. The neighbor usually buys them, and a hand shovel comes from home.

Each bulb goes two to three times its height deep. The point goes up, and the root plate goes down. Watering after planting settles the soil, but too much can rot the bulb. A small poster in a shop window is one way to find a client.

Say Tom plants a neighbor's bulbs in three hours. By our count, three hours at $18 and eighty-two cents is $56 and forty-six cents. Buried glass or roots can hurt a hand, so the shovel does the digging. The planting season depends on where you live, so check yours.

Next, kitchen scraps that turn into soil.

Setting up a compost bin

Number two: setting up a compost bin, the same $18 and eighty-two cents an hour on that table. Raking, mulching and composting leaves are on that job's task list. A wire bin, a wooden bin, a plastic bin or a small open pile all work. The bin goes in a handy, well-drained spot with water nearby.

Good compost mixes dry browns, like leaves, with fresh greens, like food scraps. Fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and eggshells usually go in. Meat, dairy and greasy food are best kept out. One official tip is sending your invoice early and following up if it's late.

Say Lena sets up a bin and shows a neighbor what goes in, in two hours. By our count, two hours at $18 and eighty-two cents is $37 and sixty-four cents. For a heavy bin, you bend at the knees, or ask for help. Next, a job that gives indoor plants room to grow.

Repotting a houseplant

Number one: repotting a houseplant, $19 and twenty-seven cents an hour on a grounds wage table. That job's official page covers indoor plants in hotels and malls too. Roots growing out of the drainage holes are a sign it's time. The new pot is only one to two inches wider than the old one.

The neighbor usually buys the pot and the potting mix. You gently knock the plant out and look at the roots. It goes into fresh potting mix at the same depth as before. You press the mix around the roots and water right away.

Garden soil isn't a good choice, since it doesn't drain enough. Say Omar repots four houseplants in two hours. By our count, two hours at $19 and twenty-seven cents is $38 and fifty-four cents. You open potting mix slowly, away from your face, with a mask and gloves on.

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