Gardening and Landscaping
Count every cost, pay for your time, and price with confidence.
Selling half a tray for $8 can feel like a win—until you count labor. Price from real costs, not hopeful guesses, so your backyard growing work can pay you.
Add seeds, soil, trays, water, electricity and overhead per growing cycle, then divide by the number of trays. Your true break-even also includes labor.
List direct supplies, variable utilities and allocated overhead in a spreadsheet. Include seeds, growing medium, labels, lights, heating, equipment and pest control.
Measure minutes spent seeding, watering, trimming and packing each tray, then convert them to hours. Multiply by a realistic hourly wage to price your labor.
At $15 an hour, 0.25 hours of work costs $3.75 per tray. Include setup, cleanup and admin such as invoicing, deliveries and customer calls—not just growing.
Aim for 40–60% above break-even for restaurant wholesale and 80–100% or more for retail. At a $4.50 cost, that means $6.30–$7.20 wholesale or $8–$9 retail.
Instead of cutting your price, offer bundles, reliable delivery windows or exclusive varieties. For a lower price, propose a minimum order, weekly delivery or seasonal blend.
Track spoilage, repeat costs and local competitors. Avoid undercounting labor, admin and shrinkage or offering steep starter discounts; spoilage is a real cost of selling.
A market grower tracked 45 minutes of weekly packing, added a $0.50 handling fee per tray and offered chefs a weekly box. Within two months, her hourly income doubled.
Price each tray from complete costs, including fair pay for your time and room for waste. Then protect your margin with dependable service instead of reflex discounts.
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