Are You Starting A Garden Center? Here Are 8 Steps To Ensure Success

Let's dispel the myth that starting a garden center is much the same as starting a garden. Your garden relies solely on your choice, what you prefer, how resilient you are with getting your hands dirty, and, in most cases, the size of your home yard or balcony. And even though you don't have the guarantee that your efforts will bear thriving plants or vegetables, the peace, healing, and satisfaction in the art itself are worthy. Now, starting a garden center, on the other hand, doesn't afford you the luxury of failure. You must be dedicated and knowledgeable. Your expertise as a gardener should assist customers visiting your garden center in deciphering specialized plants, pesticides
, products, and gardening tools. In addition, you must know how to start and run a successful business. So, as you can see, this is an art that is not reserved for the fainthearted, albeit still possible. But how? Here are eight steps to help you start a thriving garden center.


Start With Gardening

A garden and a garden center are not mutually exclusive – you need a garden for your garden center to exist. And as mentioned, customers that visit your garden center, whether running an online retail garden business or a brick-and-mortar one, expect you to be an expert in gardening. Therefore, it is imperative to learn what it takes to build a garden from the ground up. This is how to start a garden:


  1. Decide What To Plant And Where To Plant

In business, this means choosing the type of product or service you want to sell and the best location for your target audience. This could range from plant and vegetable seeds, growing plants and flowers, offering gardening services, or offering all three choices. By and large, the types of products and services you choose to plant and sell in your garden depend on certain factors like:

Here's why:

The climate, sunlight, and soil in your region affect how well the plants grow. Additionally, certain plants grow better in specific seasons, meaning your choice affects whether you will be in business seasonally or throughout the year.

If seasonal, you might also be required to replant or wait for your plants to bloom once their season is back. For example, annual plants like sunflowers, cosmos, and marigolds bloom best in summer but need replanting in Spring.

On the other hand, perennials like daylilies, pansies, and Russian sage bloom for a shorter period but return every year. Therefore, you only need to prune and weed the soil as you wait for your seasonal plants to bloom again.

Customer preference is equally important because they impact your revenue and sales directly. Therefore, you must consider what they would prefer to purchase. Let market research help you
 determine best what plants to include in your garden based on customer preferences.

Consequently, once you decide the type of plants and flowers to include in your garden, it becomes easier to determine where to plant them. For example, find a business location within a shopping complex building with ample light for house plants.

But if you want to handle landscape clients, an open garden might be a better location to showcase your products and expose the plants to the direct sunlight they need to thrive.


  1. Add A Garden Bed

Choose the type and style of your garden bed depending on your region. A dry region requires a sunken bed since it traps the moisture in the soil and reduces the rate of drying out. A raised garden bed is more appealing to customers but can dry out quickly in dry areas. It's best to have a raised garden bed in a wet region.

Choose the design of your garden bed
 based on your space as well. A vertical garden, for instance, is excellent for small spaces. Containers and grow bags also fit well in small yards. Remember to arrange your garden bed to allow you to move around and tend to your plants easily while leaving space for the plants to grow.

The type of plants you choose also affects the growing space you leave because overcrowding denies your plants a chance to thrive. The arrangement should also reduce the walkways but increase the growing area. This means ensuring each bed is narrow enough to reach the center from any side and three or four feet apart from the next garden bed.


  1. Test And Prepare Your Soil

Remove any weeds and sod and have the soil in your garden tested. Finding out how acidic, rocky, and texturized your soil is is vital to ensure it has the proper nutrients for thriving plants. You also need to determine whether nearby structures like roadways affect the quality of your garden soil.

Depending on the type of plants you choose, build the quality of your soil to reach the correct pH levels and nutrients. A well-drained, fertile, and deep soil that has organic matter and perfect space for roots are preferred for most plants.


  1. Plant And Nurture Your Garden

You have the seeds, the suitable garden space with the right soil, and gardening tools. It is time to plant. The rule of thumb here is that you must plant the seeds only three times as deep as the seed's diameter. Ensure your potted plants are in pots that can accommodate the type of roots for your specific plants


Know The Keys To Start A Garden Center

Learning how to garden gives you insight into the needs of your customers. And with your newfound knowledge, it becomes easier to define the characteristics of the type of garden center you start. That is, you can easily:


  1. Identify Your Target Audience

What part of gardening gave you more joy? Was it choosing the seeds and plants for your garden or the process of getting your hands dirty? Did you enjoy the entire process from start to finish? How can you harmonize the best parts of gardening with your customer's needs? Do you have sufficient knowledge to meet those customer needs?

Answer these questions and quickly identify your target audience. For instance, starting an online plant seed retail store might be a wise investment
 if you prefer not to get dirty. But if you enjoy the process of enriching your soil, planting seeds, watching them grow, and taking care of them, target customers with these needs.


  1. Plan For Different Seasons

Knowing what plants to grow in your garden center makes it easier to plan for low and high seasons. This enables you to manage your cash flow or reinvent yourself during low gardening seasons.

For instance, during winter, when plant sales are low, offer nuggets of wisdom through blogs, websites, or video content on social media that your customers can use to care for their plants and gardens. This helps your business grow, and you can incentivize this knowledge to earn more cash throughout the year.


  1. Immerse Gardening Knowledge And Expertise

You learn as you grow – literally, which gives you the specialized knowledge you need to serve your customers and satisfy their needs.


Start Your Garden Center

Finally, demand for gardening and gardening products is currently high - Americans spend on average $48 billion on gardening and lawn equipment annually
 – so what you are left to do is:

You will also need a POS system to help you run your new business more efficiently and keep your customers returning
. Our Erply garden POS system is incredibly excellent because it grows with your business. For instance, as your inventory management becomes more complex with an increase in demand, our POS system works in tandem by ensuring you don't run out of stock. The POS also automates your processes, like your payment process. You can learn more about the Erply POS system here
.