How to Make Your Garden a Cash Crop

Most look upon vegetable gardens as a hobby, a way to get some exercise, or even as a passion. Those with large gardens also how much money they can save growing food instead of buying it.

But gardens can also prove to be genuine money makers. Even small patio gardens can produce big profits. Here are a few proven ways to score some cash from your garden:

Sell produce on roadside stand. You see these roadside stands through out rural America. There's the unmanned stand, the vegetables and the locked cash boxes. Somewhere on the stand, a sign points out the prices of the produce. Growers use the honor system, trusting that customer will pay for the veggies. Despite no one ensuring payment, most customers pay - and pay the amount requested on the sign. If you don't have a cart or a place to put one, ask local growers to put your stuff on their carts. Or, if your friends and/or relatives want to get in on the action, you could pool your produce and build a cart to put it on.

Develop and write recipes. Most gardeners are also cooks. Why not use your garden and some of your cooking skills to nab a few bucks? There are a ton of places that accept recipes - and will pay you for them. Check out the most recent edition of Writer's Market for mass-market magazines that accept recipe submissions. Don't stop there, though. Enter your home-grown concoctions in recipe contests. You might even decide to self-publish a cook book (or e-book).

Showcase your gardening techniques. Most gardeners want to be better gardeners. Why not reveal your gardening techniques for money? You could write a gardening column for your local newspaper or write similar articles for lifestyle magazines. Another way to score some extra bucks is to teach continuing education classes on how to garden better. And if your produce is award-winning, why not try to win cash awards at festivals and fairs?

Take and sell pictures of your produce. Ever see a picture of a vegetable or a group of vegetables? Someone got paid for that picture - why shouldn't you? If you have a good eye (or know someone who does), take and sell produce pictures. Take a bunch of pictures with your electronic camera (close ups, groups, arranged by color, size, etc.), then market them. Who buys pictures of vegetables? Greeting card manufacturers, magazines and newspapers are good places to start. The pictures you haven't sold to those outlets may find a home at a stock photo company (they don't pay a lot per photo, but you'll make for it in volume). There are various places online that buy stock photos - run a query and check them out.

Bottle and sell your products. If you have an entrepreneurial mindset, a large quantity of vegetables and a few bucks to start the enterprise, you might want to bottle your garden-fresh products. While cracking the grocery store market to get shelf space is extremely difficult, there are other ways to sell your stuff. You'll have a much easier time nabbing shelf space at gourmet stores, locally-owned convenience stores and at farmers markets. You can also sell online either through your own website or on one owned by someone else.

Don't just settle for fun and savings from your garden. Branch out and squeeze every red cent from your home-grown produce. It's a great way to make your passion pay.