I am considering doing some 'backyard growing' but in a slightly different context. I am a landscape designer and I'm finding it difficult to have certain plants I want/need for a landscape we're installing at the time I need them. Certainly we could mail order them but my boss rarely gives me enough time between obtaining the 'downpayment' from the client and the beginning of the job. It's also a little risky to buy plants unseen for a client job. My yard- no big deal if it is a little ragged but that won't work for a client install when they are paying top dollar for instant gratification.

I wouldn't grow all the plants for the jobs we do, just certain ones which are harder to get based on season- fall bloomers in spring, spring bloomers in fall and xeriscape perennials. I'd start with maybe my 10 stand-by plants which I can legally propagate. I wouldn't be marketing them to anyone but our own company and I have total control over which plants we use on a given job.

I have worked for a commercial greenhouse in the past doing propagation but it's been about half my life ago! LOL! I know the biggest pitfall of a market growing business is not having the market figured out. I've got that part. What are the other potential problems I may encounter but I'm not seeing right now? Also, how long would it take for the typical perennial to grow from a plug to gallon container size vs. seed grown to gallon size? I've been involved with parts of the process but not so much the start-to-finish with the same plant kind of thing.

I'm not expecting to make big bucks doing this (though a little extra will be nice). For me it's more about availability of the specific plants I want, when I want them. I'll start small and stay small.