Earn Money Based on Your Garden Knowledge

If you already know how to garden, then you're probably already giving away tons of free advice to friends and family. But does it ever feel like your advice goes in one ear and right out the other? One thing I've learned over the years is that people who pay, pay attention.

That's why, back in 2015, I started selling my garden knowledge to strangers, people who hear about what I'm doing and want me to come teach them how to start their own gardens. These people pay me, they pay serious attention to what I say, and they have incredible results.

You can achieve these same kinds of results for the people in your town. You can take all your experience in the garden and turn it into a meaningful business that doesn't just pay you, but also helps people in your community learn how to garden and build productive, beautiful gardens just like yours.

You can work as a garden consultant on the side, or you can turn it into a full-time career. Today I'm going to teach you how you can make money by offering garden consultations.

What Happens During a Garden Design Consultation?

If you've been considering whether to become a garden consultant, then you've probably heard me talk a lot about garden consultations. But what exactly is a garden consult?

Practically speaking, a consultation is an hour-long meetup with someone who either doesn't yet have a garden or who wants to improve their current garden setup. Most consultations occur at the client's home, but if you're working for a local business, you might meet in a community space like a park, a hospital, a business park, a restaurant, or a school.

During a consultation, you'll outline the essential components of the garden setup. If the client wants a kitchen garden, for example, you might go over the importance of raised beds, well-draining soil, sunlight, and access to a water source.

Knowledge is really at the heart of the garden consultation. And this is what differentiates consultants from all the other landscapers and garden service providers out there. The garden industry already has plenty of people who mow and blow and go. It also has plenty of supplies that people can buy for their garden. And yet people still fail at gardening all the time.

The way to make a name for yourself in your area is by promoting consulting as a way to fill the gap between garden products and garden services. What's missing is guidance and an understanding of why things need to be a certain way to make the most of our garden spaces. 

You can fill that gap with a consultation.

Picture a client you're meeting for the first time standing in the middle of a wide path. In front of them, the path branches into dozens of smaller trails they can choose. Some of these diverging paths are bumpy, some smooth, some climb high, and others descend. There's one path that's largely hidden past the first turn.

People often say they want more choices, yet actually standing there with so many different options before them can be debilitating. What they really want is for someone to draw them a map of which paths they should take to get where they want to go. As a garden consultant, you can draw them that map during your initial consultation. You can simplify the way before them so that they can narrow down which paths they might choose. You're essentially becoming their guide and helping them move from a place of confusion to finding the right path to get them the results they want in their garden space. 

Doing garden consults is one of my favorite things. I love dreaming and planning up gardens with people who are excited to make the garden a big part of their everyday life. When you go on these consults, you get to remove the doubt and the confusion and overwhelm and really simplify the process for a new gardener or someone who's ready to take their garden to the next level.

Let's look at the steps you'll follow for each garden consultation.

The Steps of a Garden Consultation

Step One: Book the Appointment

The client can book through your website or via text or phone call. You'll settle on the time and place to meet up with them. Some consultants like to send a survey or form to gather information from the client before they meet. No matter what, you should receive payment during this very first step.

Step Two: Pack Your Bag

Packing your garden consultant bag is pretty important because you want to have all the essentials with you once you get on site. The most important thing to remember to bring along on a garden consult is a measuring tape so you know how big the space you'll be working in is.

Beyond the measuring tape, you want to bring a notebook and a pen. I personally love bringing an iPad. I use this to take pictures and then draw designs on top of those photos so the client can really start to see what the garden could look like.

It's also great if you can bring some pictures of gardens that you've done or gardens that you'd like your client to look at. That way, you can start to get a feel for what piques their interest about the garden. I bring along a printed portfolio of gardens that my company has created.

I also like to bring along some informational material. I created a "52 Harvests a Year" notebook for gardening here in Nashville. It shows the client what's possible and gives them a really good sense of what they're going to be planting and harvesting each month once their garden is set up.

Step Three: Introduce Yourself and Guide

Now it's time to meet your client and begin the actual consultation. You'll introduce yourself and ask them to lead the way to their outdoor space.

You'll do most of the talking during the guide section of the consultation as you explain how the correct garden setup is key to their success.

Step Four: Measure the Space

I invite the client to flip through my portfolio and informational material while I begin assessing their space. You'll locate South in terms of their landscape, note any tall structures that might obscure light from a future garden space, and take measurements of different location options. If the space is large, you may need the client to help you hold the measuring tape.

Step Five: Gather Preferences

It's now time to listen to the client to get a better sense of the garden they'd like you to create together. Ask about their preferences, how they currently use their space, how they'd like to use their space. Do they come out this door often? Do they ever look out that window? This type of information will inform you how you can design the garden so that it flows with their everyday traffic patterns and fits into their existing landscape. The last place you want to put a kitchen garden is way outside of their normal activity or sight lines. That's pretty much going to ensure that they'll use the garden less and less, instead of more and more.

You'll also want to ask questions about the client's purpose for contacting you. Are they hoping to eat healthier? Get outside more? Do they want a beautiful garden space that's maintained for them? Make sure you understand their motivations and expectations for how they'll be using the garden in the days and months to come.

Step Five: Talk Options

As you near the end of your hour together, you'll discuss options with your client. I like to take some pictures with my iPad and then draw on the pictures. You can also just use a piece of paper to sketch out different layout options that you've come up with based on the possibilities and limitations in their space. I generally try to give the client three to four options. Discuss the pros and the cons of each different design, and highlight the distinctions so they can make an informed decision about which design feels best for them. I love when a client's face lights up when they see a particular design.

Step Six: Wrap It Up

Wrap up the consultation by discussing next steps. Let them know some ballpark numbers of how much a garden may cost. If they're paying you to complete a formal design, then let them know when they might expect to receive it. Make plans to follow up from there. Talk about dates for completing the project if you're going to be helping with the installation in any way.

I leave clients with a copy of one of my books, either Kitchen Garden Revival or Leaves, Roots & Fruit. This shows them I'd love to be by their side throughout their journey to becoming a gardener. You don't have to leave them with anything other than the promise that, as their consultant, you can keep them growing.

What Happens After a Consultation?

Some consultants only ever do consultations, and that's where their relationship with the client ends. Most of our consultants, however, look for ways to continue working with the client. They aim to build a relationship that'll last for seasons to come. If you'd like to continue working with a client after the consultation, there are several options.

DIY Installations

The first is to coach a DIY client through their garden installation. Offer to create a formal garden design for them, select garden materials, and have everything delivered to their home. You can charge a fee for the design and add a markup to each piece you bring to them. (That's typically on top of the price for the consultation.) Even though these clients are taking on the work themselves, they can still benefit from your expertise.

DWY Installations

The second options is a DWY installation, where the client does the installation with you. These clients pay you for your ongoing time during the installation or planting process, plus any designs and materials you bring to them.

DFY Installations

The third option is to do a turnkey installation for your client. These clients want the whole thing done for them, and they're willing to pay a premium to ensure their gardens are put in the right way the first time. You would either do the work yourself or contract it out.

Garden Coaching

Lastly, after installation, some clients want you to come back once or on a regular basis to coach them so they know what to do in their gardens each season. Kitchen gardens are dynamic—they literally change every single day, and plants come in and out on a 90-day schedule. This sets us as experienced gardeners up to have an incredible business that doesn't just have one touch with the client, but gets to serve them again and again and again.

Consultations Are Easy to Work into Busy Schedules

When I started working as a garden consultant, I had four little kids whom I needed to get to preschool, pick up from elementary school, and cart to the many activities every night. The only time I could fit work in was between 9 am and 12 pm four to five days a week.

This consultation model was absolutely perfect for me. I could drop my kids off, head to a home, do a consultation, and then pick up my preschooler right at noon. Then if I was going to do any other services for a client, I could take my preschooler with me to buy supplies and drop materials off at a client's home. I was done in time to spend the after-school hours with my older children and cook dinner.

The Consultation Business Model

Now let's talk about how much money you can make doing consultations.

To figure out your business model, you should consider how much you want to sell, what your price will be, and how much time you want to work. In this case, let's keep it super simple and say we're not going to offer any other services beside the consultation. I want to show you how you can actually make $5,000 a year just doing consults.

It'll take you about two hours total to do one consultation. If you charge $100 for a consult (a good starting price point), you'll make $50 per hour. To make $5,000, you'll need to therefore do 50 consultations in one year. There are, of course, 52 weeks in a year, so you could set a goal of doing one consult a week for the entire year and give yourself a two-week break.

If you have freezing cold winters where you live, you could absolutely double this and do two consults a week for 26 weeks out of the year. That way, you can take the rest of the year off (though we do have coaches who do consults in freezing temps!).

You may find that instead of a steady stream of interest, you have busy seasons and slow seasons. But essentially, you only need to sell 50 consultations in order to make $5,000. If each consultation takes you roughly two hours to complete, then you'll need to spend 100 hours total completing those 50 consultations.

Of course, if you continue to work with your clients after the consultation, then you won't need 50 clients. You may only need 25. If you do turnkey installations, you really only need a couple to earn $5,000 in straight profit.

I began with this model and ended up making $100,000 a year. Once I figured out how to fit consultations into my everyday schedule, I expanded my business to offer garden coaching, garden installations, and garden maintenance.

What's the Profit Margin for Garden Consulting?

The profit margin for a garden consultation is huge because the only real expense you have is the gas to get yourself to the client's house. Once you're there, you're just talking to the client. You don't need to pay for materials or labor.

That means you take home almost all the money the client pays you. That's why I had a major tax surprise after my first year in business.

Could You See Yourself Going on a Garden Consultation?

What do you think? Would you be interested in meeting 50 people who want to become gardeners and then grossing $5,000 simply by sharing your garden knowledge with them? I mean, does that sound like a good deal for you?

I don't know about you, but it definitely did for me. Back in 2015 when I was trying to bring in some money for my family but not lose precious time with my kids, this was my dream job. And then it became the job that let me make my dreams come true.

Garden consulting is a service that more and more people are looking for. So whatever you do, I encourage you to make the most of your garden knowledge!

If you love this idea of garden consulting, then you've got to check out our Garden Consultant Certification program. In this program, we equip you to use the Gardenary method to grow a profitable garden consulting business. We've trained over 1,300 consultants to date, and we're currently accepting applications to join. Don't let this moment pass if garden consulting might just be your dream job!