Short Course Starting a Backyard Nursery
This short course is a guide for the person attempting to start or run a small nursery, herb or flower growing
enterprise as a backyard operation on their larger property. It endeavours covers the most important topics you need to get you started.
Use this course as a starting point. Study the nursery industry and its sectors in your region – see what is and isn’t feasible. Look at what plants and related products are currently in demand.
Consider opportunities open to you – for example:
- You may start small, propagating, growing potted plants and selling at a local market
- You may start by propagating herbs for sale, but also growing some, harvesting and producing some herbal products
- You may propagate flowers, selling potted flowering plants; or growing in the ground, then harvesting and selling bunches of flowers to a florist or at a market stall.
Nurseries, herb or flower farms that have humble beginnings on just a few dozen square metres of land; can eventually develop into a large, full time business.
This short course covers eight lessons:
Lesson 1 Introduction and possibilities
Introduction
Form of product
Growth stage
Quantity
Selling
Lesson 2 Management and organisation
Management and organisation
Selecting the site
Choosing what to grow
Layout
Managing manpower, equipment and materials
Developing a nursery stock list – an example
Nursery stocklist worksheet
Lesson 3 Propagating techniques and equipment
An overview
Sexual propagation
Treatments
Asexual propagation
Propagating structures and equipment
Nursery irrigation techniques
Propagating beds
Shade houses
Lesson 4 Propagating materials
Containers
Containers
Potting mixtures
Labels
Lesson 5 Plant health problems
Diagnosing problems
Minimising the likelihood of problems
Treating a problem
Chemical controls
Minimising chemical use
Biological controls
Lesson 6 Propagation – seeds and cuttings
Where to plant
Pre-germination treatments
Handling seedlings
Pricking out seedlings
Propagating ferns
Cuttings
Practical exercise
Budding and grafting
Layering
Propagation of specific plants
Ornamentals
Annuals, bulbs and perennials
Fruit and nut plants
Herbs
Growing on
Potting up plants
Lesson 7 Starting a small herb or flower farm
Herb growing
Herbal products
Growing flowers for profit in your backyard
Lesson 8 Management
Starting a nursery
Market research
Planning
Work scheduling
Operational flow charts
Nursery profile
Costing your production
Practical exercise
Hypothetical case study
