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3 Best Plants to Start a Garden Center Business

Garden centers fort worth

Starting a nursery center can be a great way to transform your passion for plants into an income stream investment. Nurseries have become a popular financing tool, particularly in the small-scale sector. And it’s highly attributed to the combined interest in “green” consumer trends and DIY projects.

An estimated 75% of all U.S. households engaged in DIY lawn and gardening projects in 2015 both indoors and outdoors. Certainly, this shows just how much important garden and backyard spaces mean to people. When people think of landscaping products, the first point of reference is their local garden center.

Garden centers serve both residential as well as commercial landscaping needs with a wide range of plants from perennials, trees, bulbs, shrubs, roses, grasses to climbers. Therefore, if you are considering starting a productive nursery center, you need to specialize in plants that not only on demand but do well in your region.

Here are three types of plants to start your garden center business.

1.Ground Covers
Nothing transforms a dull space and minimizes garden maintenance like ground cover plants. They have an average net return of $20 per square foot, another reason why ground covers make the ideal nursery crop. With little maintenance and ability to conserve water, ground covers are the best plants to landscape as they help reduce soil erosion and keep the soil moist.

Apart from being a high-value plant, ground covers are also easy to cultivate and easy to sell. Most of these low growing perennials are sold in pots, and you can choose to wholesale them to other growers or landscapers. Examples of ground covers you can have in your nursery center include creeping phlox, lamb’s ear, Corsican mint, miniature brass buttons, mazus and blue star creeper. Most of these plant blooms and forms a sturdy carpet of vibrant floral color and interesting leaves.

2.Ornamental Grass
Few plants compare to ornamental grass when it comes amazing textures and visual impact. These plants are becoming a popular choice for most modern landscape designs as ground covers, in borders or specimen plants. Ornamental grasses grow in a range of sizes from as low as six inches to 20 foot, and unlike other grasses, they’re meant to grow freely, meaning no mowing whatsoever.

In addition to their striking form and beautiful colors, ornamental grass requires less maintenance and can withstand a wide range of conditions even during the dormant winter season. They also easy to grow, propagate and sell. Examples include desert plains fountain grass, Mexican feather grass, Toffee twist sedge, Golden Japanese forest grass and Bue oat grass.

3.Landscaping Trees and Shrubs
Other high-value crops to grow in your nursery center are trees and shrubs ideal for landscaping. They have a ready market and attract high profits due to their popularity among the landscapers. You can either grow them from the ground or in specialized containers, which can range from 3 to 5-gallon sizes.

With these three high-value crops to consider, you are sure to have the best and most productive garden nursery where you can turn your venture into a successful financial engine.

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Landscape design ideas Landscaping companies

Four Reasons to Keep your Landscaping Company through the Winter

Landscaping products

As the temperatures drop and your beautiful green garden is covered in snow, many homeowners cancel or put a temporary hold on their landscaping services. After all, what do you need landscaping companies for in the winter months? There are actually many useful reasons to keep your landscaping company on throughout the winter months.

To handle the snowfall

Many landscaping companies shift to a snow removal service in the winter months. There is no more grass to cut, so in order to keep their customers, they offer them snow removal. If you live in an area with heavy snowfall, having a dedicated snow removal service can be very beneficial. You no longer have to worry about layering up and hurting your back to remove snow in the morning. You can easily come and go, without worrying about your car getting stuck. Also, because landscaping companies come on a regular schedule, you don?t have to worry about multiple snowfalls building up and leaving you stuck in your house.

To help with privacy and heat

Many of the same advantages that you get from professional landscaping products in the summer, you can also get in the winter. Placing tall trees and bushes around your house can increase your household privacy, while also decreasing your utility bills. Over the next couple of months, you are likely to see an increase in heat bills. When you plan your landscape design, you can block some of the cold out. When summer rolls back around, these same designs will keep the sun out and reduce your home cooling costs. Tall shade trees block light effectively. In fact, they can reduce your summer bills by as much as 20%.

To get a landscaping discount

When you sign up with an established landscaping company, you are often charged the premium price. The company already has a list of customers and they are unlikely to offer you a discount. However, because many of these customers place a hold on services in the winter months, you can usually get a discount if you keep the services all year long. In fact, some landscaping companies will offer a significant discount if you pay ahead for the entire year of services. They can count on your business and you know that your lawn, whether grass or snow, will always be taken care of. It is a win win situation for everyone.

To prepare your house for sale

Selling during the winter months presents a lot of challenges. There are not as many buyers and it can be more difficult to sell a house when the buyers cannot see the full exterior. With regular landscaping services, however, you know that your snow and ice will always be taken care of. When customers come to view the house, they will get the best version of it, even with it being winter. A properly maintained exterior can sell the house for a higher cost and at a quicker speed. You might even see a positive ROI on your landscaping costs. About 97% of real estate agents recommended landscaping as a top five home improvement recommendation responding that homeowners can usually expect a 215% return on investment.

More homeowners are focusing on the landscaping of their homes. Lawn and garden spending reached a reported $36.1 billion dollars in 2015, according to recently released results of the annual National Gardening Survey, bouncing back from a five year low in 2014. Professional landscaping can take your home?s exterior to the next level, both in the summer and winter months.