Nursery Management – Having a plan for your Backyard Plant Nursery

Having a Nursery Management plan is a big step toward success and the enjoyment of really producing and selling beautiful plants. Once you have moved past initially Starting a Backyard Plant Nursery, you will want to get even more organized. Every nursery follows a calendar each year just as plants follow the weather and the seasons. Here are our activities by the season and month.

Winter Nursery Management Calendar

January

In New Jersey January is typically pretty cold and there can be snow on the ground. That doesn’t stop us. Here is what we are doing in January.

Often we are ordering plants for the next Fall already and anything we still need for Spring. This is pretty late to be ordering plants for Spring but sometimes we are still ordering.
Starting to order pots and containers for Spring. We sometimes find sales in January before everyone else is thinking spring. You of course can’t run out of things like pots, so make sure to order in your containers.
Taking hardwood cuttings from plants around the property. Jan and Feb are great times to stick hardwood cuttings to root.

February

By the end of February we will have ordered and received all our containers for all the spring bare root plants that are coming in. For us this is mostly trade gallon plastic and 3 and 5 gallon grow bags See our Backyard Nursery Resources Guide for some great sources.

- Around the end of the month we will order sand, compost and perlite to make our potting soil. See: Viagrow VPER4-2 4 cu ft Perlite 2-Pack – White
- Continue taking hardwood cuttings from plants around the property. February is an ideal time as we are 6-8 weeks from warmer weather. During this time the cuttings will develop callouses and then can start growing roots when the warm weather begins. Starting cuttings earlier seems to allow rot to occur.
- Sowing any seeds we may wish to start. Winter Seed Sewing is ideal especially if the seeds need to stratify.
- Since we also sell firewood, winter is a good time to split and stack wood for the next year. This keeps us very busy Dec to March.

March

While it is still winter until March 20th and we can have plenty of snow, we keep busy.

- - Finish up any hardwood cuttings we want to take.
  - All containers, potting soil, fertilizer and pre-emergent weed preventer have been received, organized and are ready to go.
  - Time to also check supplies for weed mat / weed fabric, watering hoses and sprinklers. Locate and check all tools and dirt scoops.
  - If we are expanding we try to prep any new ground and lay down weed mat before we are too busy potting up plants.
  - March is a good time to rearrange plants in the nursery too. Its time to make more room for more plants.

Spring Backyard Nursery Management Calendar

April-May

This is our biggest planting season. We might be potting up plants every weekend and will plant around 2,500 plants in 4 to 8 weeks. This isn’t a lot of plants for a full time commercial nursery but it’s a lot for people with day jobs. We haven’t actually retired yet. Here is what we do.

We will spread plant deliveries from 4-6 suppliers over all of April and into early May.
Since planting almost every weekend it’s also time to line up some planting helpers. We ask our youngest kids and also around Church to find some young people who want to earn some extra money.
It’s a couple months spending much of our weekends mixing potting soil, potting up plants, placing them out to grow.
All plants including newly potted are fertilized by mid May.
We are finished with all bare root potting of plants by mid May or earlier.
We sell plants March to June. So, we are placing ads, taking orders and holding plant sales on the weekends. This takes time and is the main reason we need some extra helpers. Sales come first but plants need to be potted. Since we haven’t quite retired yet it’s also a time to take some work days off.
A typical Thursday-Sunday is planting 2 days and selling on Saturday and part of Sunday.

June

Before June we are finished with all planting but still selling some plants.

By June we will probably have placed a lot of Fall plant orders. We have learned to get orders in early along with any required deposits. No plants, no profits!
June is typically the start of when we need to be watering a lot. This goes all the way through the end of August and even into September.
We don’t do any transplanting or potting of bare root plants from June to late September. Generally not even any up-potting to larger sizes. This is only done when plants are dormant.
The middle to end of June is when the big box stores have 40-50% sales. We watch for these and have a hit list we are looking to buy. See our article to learn to Build Your plant Business from Clearance Sales.
Start ordering bare root plants for Fall in May. Yes, 6 months in advance is about right.

Summer Plant Nursery Management Calendar

Mid June through early July is a time for Planting and Propagation for us. After the current year’s growth has hardened off a little it is time for taking and rooting softwood cuttings. Softwood cuttings taken in June or July are ideal. This timing gives the cuttings time to root, be potted and be established enough for winter. Some plants will root pretty well in 6-12 weeks so by September|October many are ready to go in pots.

Spruce trees are pruned and shaped in June. This is the ideal time to nip off the ends of the current year’s growth so the plants will branch out. This makes a denser plant and is best done before buds start forming for next year’s growth.

August

This month is all about watering and weeding. Very little selling is happening.

We will order and receive pots and containers in August for Fall Planting.
It is also time to order compost, sand and perlite to make more potting soil for Fall. We might also need to buy fertilizer, weed mat and anything else we need for Fall.

Fall Plant Nursery Management Calendar

September

This can be a good selling month especially if you have nice plants left from the Spring. We will also have some plants that were not ready to sell in the Spring but are now ready. It is also a great time to plant. Customers should be encouraged to plant in the Fall so plants avoid being transplanted right before the hot Summer months. Plants planted in the Fall also have a good change to settle, roots to grow and become established before fighting the hot Summer months.

Late September starts our Fall potting and planting again.
Start ordering plants for Spring in September. Yes, 6 months in advance is how you make sure you will get what you want.
Pot up all the softwood cuttings that were taken in June/July so they are ready for winter.

October

The middle to end of October is the second time each year when the big box stores have 40-50% sales. We watch again for these and buy lots of off-patent plants that we can up-pot and resell or take cuttings from.
October is a big planting month for us. We prefer Fall planting as plants are able to be established without having to fight the summer heat.

November | December

We finish up all bare root potting up of plants.
Place any additional orders for Spring even though it might be too late.
We do a tally of everything planted and that has been propagated for the year. This goes into a spreadsheet with the costs recorded. We also project out to when these plants will be sold. This is done so we can see what our future revenue looks like. Sometimes we will find we will have too many plants coming ready for sale or not enough. Keeping records and making projections is part of good Nursery Management.

You may also find our articles on a 10 Year Plant Nursery Business Plan helpful or How to Make Money With Plants in Retirement.