About Us: Cultivating a Fulfilling Retirement

Hello! We are Larry and Martha, a couple planning on working in retirement but only on things we truly enjoy such as growing plants to sell, among dozens of other things. We are here to share our version of what we see as a rewarding retirement. We’ve spent decades balancing careers, family, and our love for the outdoors, and now, as we approach retirement, we’re excited to share our journey with you. Yes, we are literally Growing Our Retirement! This website was started to help others who have similar interests and would like to follow our successes and hopefully infrequent failures. Especially those considering starting backyard plant nursery to partially fund or financially contribute to a retirement income.

Once financially more free we intend to dive into our passions, the outdoors, gardening, growing things, firewood, heating with wood, building, running a business and making enough money to live comfortably. In 2001 we stumbled upon a Mid Century Modern home with a 1936 era passive solar design home. Being on 11 acres, having a pond and us falling in love with the property, and the smaller but super unique home, we bought it.

Our Retirement Vision

As we transition into retirement, we plan to immerse ourselves in activities that bring us joy and fulfillment. Our primary focus will be running our plant nursery, a venture that combines our love for gardening with the ability to generate income. This should also provide us with plenty of important exercise! Alongside this, we’ll manage our rental property, sell firewood, and maintain our farm assessment through woodlot management, ensuring a diverse and stable financial foundation.

Staying Active and Engaged

Retirement for us isn’t about slowing down; it’s about pursuing our passions with renewed energy. At a time when many people are slowing down, we feel released to do all the many things we are interested in. We will continue creating content for our YouTube channel, Growing Our Retirement, sharing insights on plant propagation and nursery management. Our 11-acre property will be our canvas for various projects, including numerous planned home improvements, possibly an addition, and building a barn, this should all keep us plenty busy. For the house it’s always about keeping the Mid Century Modern theme intact. In 2022 we rebuild a deteriorating pergola over the bluestone patio we added in 2002.

Exploring New Avenues

In addition to our nursery, we’ll own two eCommerce websites—BertoiaPads.com and EamesBikini.com—which are related to the mid-century modern style. These platforms allow us to earn some extra income while pursuing our aesthetic passion, we love Mid Century Modern.

Staying where you are in retirement.

After exploring many options for our upcoming retirement we found most of our priorities such as family, Church, a home we love were all right where we already were. We decided not to leave New Jersey where housing costs, including taxes, are very high. We always wanted to grow trees, plants, or something on our property but never got to doing it or had the time. The idea kept coming up and we decided to start testing. We needed to decide if we had the time, while still working, to start a backyard nursery and we did! Now that we have started our #1 piece of advice is start a business before your retire. We also decided we wanted to be working in retirement, at least part-time. So, we got started early which may help keep us on track to really retire.

Our Unique Home

We live in a 1936 passive solar, mid-century modern style house designed by Roger Duvoisin, a renowned book illustrator who also designed his own home – our home. This unique house not only reflects our appreciation for the outdoors but also serves as a perfect backdrop for our retirement activities. Of course any home built 80-90 years ago comes some joys and sorrows – we need to keep making upgrades and renovations. With any changes to the house or if we add a much needed barn, we would want to keep the design consistent to the original.

Our Backgrounds

We have both done many different things in our careers. I did a lot of landscape design and construction in my younger years but went in to sales and marketing in finance, then manufacturing. For 10 years we owned a successful new and used sporting goods business that later included a 25,000 sq ft indoor hockey rink. Martha is formally trained in interior design and worked in that field.

Later, after our children were older she went to work at a small college where she has done everything from Financial Aid to Event Management. Martha is now working at a newly established, local, regenerative farm. We have done a bit of everything and that is because we have worked a long time, each of us around 40 years. That is a lot of experience but not different than many who are soon to retire. If you have the desire to grow plants and some life experience, you can make money with plants or we would encourage you to follow any skills or passions you might have

Why working in retirement works for us?

Well, it just isn’t us, we want to stay active and productive. We have been good savers, own some rental property, own a small online business and of course will have Social Security income. We see the benefits of having a backyard nursery or any work in retirement as follows:

• Having a Plant Nursery Retirement Business means extra income that will let us continue to build (Or preserve) our savings.
• Inflation and being too dependent on Social Security are both of some concern.
• We might outlive our savings – we have a good shot at our 90’s but hey a lot can happen.
• We can do what we love – I would not call much of what we plan to do anything but a labor of love.
• The work involved is mostly light work and the exercise is a welcome plus for us.
• We think building up a good size backyard plant nursery is a good retirement investment.
• There is a chance one of our 4 children might want to take over a thriving nursery business someday.
• We prefer to leave our savings invested for a few extra years rather than draw it down. 

Why we started a plant nursery before we planned to retire.

We have started our backyard nursery as much as 3-5 years earlier than we need to make any money from it. The hope is we will and that would help us save even more for retirement. It is certainly best to start a business before you retire if you have any plans for an income from the business. Certainly we wanted to test our plans and see if we can grow what people want to buy. We have been learning a lot! We also wanted to absorb any start up costs and mistakes while we still have a strong income. Each year we sell more plants and it has been snowballing to a point where the day jobs are getting in the way!

It also makes a lot of sense to have as much income as possible before retiring. We plan to retire some debt and build our nest egg before pulling the plug on our steady incomes. Lastly but most importantly we wanted to get 3-4 years of plants paid for and growing before going full-time. Our goals are fairly lofty but we hope to have at least 10,000 plants growing before pulling back from our jobs.

As we plant every year but also sell some plants so this may take 2-5 years. Along the way we will share our experiences and information including articles like our Backyard Nursery Resources Guide.

Do you plan to be working in retirement?

Many people might be considering working in retirement with a plan to scale back their at current position. Some may decide to work part time. If you love your current job or know of one that you would love, go for it! A good 35% of those over 65 work part-time. If you think you should or want to work in retirement consider some options.

Many people could run a small business doing something they love and make money at it in retirement. That could be any number activities where you have some expertise or where there is a need. This includes learning to make money with plants and How to Start a Plant Nursery! We would say to do something you love. Your new work doesn’t have to be a huge money maker or career type activity. We will share our journey in order to encourage you to start a backyard nursery. Or maybe you would prefer to grow flowers, bees, vegetables, fruits, nuts, or honey.

Maybe you might add some side hustles to your main activity as well, we have. What we don’t hope you will do is take a part time job of drudgery and spend your retirement in regret. Be encouraged, there are many ways to enjoy working in retirement!

Sharing and Learning Together

We are committed to sharing our experiences and knowledge both here and on our YouTube channel Growing Our Retirement. Our goal is to help others explore their own retirement dreams by sharing our experiences about starting a plant nursery and all our other activities around the property. We invite you to follow along and share your thoughts and experiences too!  We also aim to learn from others in the community, exchanging ideas and strategies to mutually enrich our journey and yours.

Preparing for the Future – Join Us

Join us on this journey to cultivate a fulfilling retirement. Whether you’re interested in starting a plant nursery or learning about property management and financial preparedness, Growing Our Retirement offers the resources and community support you need.

Join us as we Grow Our Retirement, one plant at a time!