Sold another garden yesterday

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Sold a late start SFG yesterday for cost of materials plus $8 an hour labor and sold the woman back up seedlings from my greenhouse restock for 50 cents apiece. Helped my budget and she didn't have to get out with her metal hip joints fighting a garden setup.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 11, 2002

Answers

Jay

This is a great idea, and I intend to steal it, and offer it in my area.

You might as well forget about driving 1000 miles up here and reaping the rewards.

Thanks for all your thoughts on things!

-- Rick in Southwest WV (Rick_122@hotmail.com), May 11, 2002.


You can't steal it. Its farm produce and I posted it on Countryside last month. All you can do is "run with it". A bit of advice though, knock the racks together at home and truck the 4 X 12 rack to the site to speed up the on site job and not disclose how easy it is to knock it together. You can easily get $100 for $40 investment and a few hours work.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 11, 2002.

I saw it when you posted it. As I recall, some nay-sayers said you couldn't get people to pay for this service! Ha!!

-- Rick (rick_122@hotmail.com), May 11, 2002.

SFG? I missed this. Would you mind explaining, or sending me to the appropriate post? Thanks!

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow1@aol.com), May 11, 2002.

Square Foot Gardening

-- Jodie in TX (stanchnmotion@yahoo.com), May 11, 2002.


.....o...k. ;) (this is like pulling teeth) LOL, I'll do an archive search. Sorry, I guess I'm daft...I got nada on SFG's.

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow1@aol.com), May 12, 2002.

Patty,

I build a 4x12 foot form out of 1x6 inch untreated birch and two 2x2 braces to form three sections. I then truck it on site to the customer and fill the three sections with a mixture of topsoil, peatmoss,manure and wormcast. I also add a cup of active vermicompost for a worm culture.

I use seedlings from my backup stock to plant this SFG garden for them per the book. I give them a copy of the book and three 4x4 scraps of carpet as winter covers and a water bucket and handtool set to work it (these I purchase for $1 apiece at our local dollar tree)

I compute material costs plus 10% and charge $10 an hour on-site labor . I charge 25 to 50 cents per seedling or a flat $2 seed cost, their choice. This puts their initial season costs at between $100 and $150,depending on their choices. However, the setup is good for 5 seasons or so.

While I am paid for my labor, my main goal is to establish a strong seedling and vermicompost market for my nursury in the coming years.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 12, 2002.


Why birch, Jay? I've never heard it has any especial rot resistance, nor commonly seen it available as anything but veneer. Is it commonly available in Alabama, or do you have a private source, or what?

Sounds like a good idea, anyway. As you know, I haven't been around any forums much lately, and I missed seeing anything about this.

-- Joy F (Southern Wisconsin) (CatFlunky@excite.com), May 12, 2002.


Its cheap and untreated is all.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 12, 2002.

Joy, Being a fellow northerner I don't think Birch would be very practical up here. My xe and I used to mayk raised beds and SFG beds out of roughsawn Cedar or Pine, both are cheap and readily avalible up in this part of the world, and can be bought treated or not. You could use Cedar that is not roughsawn too, it is just cheaper if it isn't finished. Cedar tends to have rot resistance too!

Susan

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), May 12, 2002.



My fingers are working faster than my brain. That is supposed to read "my ex" and "make".

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), May 12, 2002.

I just figured it was "keyboard dylexia". I avoid use of ceder because it repels a lot of benificial bugs.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 12, 2002.

Oh! Ok, very good idea! I'll check it out, book and what not. Thanks!

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), May 12, 2002.

Jay the Cedar I use is NOT the aeromatic sort it is just swamp Cedar. Jay besides it also repels the bad guys too, maybe.

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), May 12, 2002.

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