I have begun working on a business plan for Coteau Valley Farm Nursery. I realize it's long-in coming and should have been completed before I ordered plants or gained a nursery license. It kind of goes well with my impulsive ideas not to have made one before opening the business, sometimes I am not very well-planned. I have had ideas and plans in my head but nothing is written down on paper. It has not caused too much damage to the business as it is mainly just me who runs the business and any family members I can pull into the equation to help. I do want to organize things a bit and write some goals down and perspective plans. These plans are supposed to be your "living blueprint" for what is going to happen with your business from this day forward, a plan! I think of it as a little reward system, it reminds me of stickers for doing something good as a child. Well, I guess it's not so juvenile but it is a pat on the back system if you reach or meet or exceed your goals. I guess it can show you how you have grown your business and you can write down some things you may definitely want to avoid or attempt. I do have a lot of plans for the future of the nursery like supplying annuals. If you can believe it, annuals are my favorite plants. I started out container gardening. I learned early on how to add shock and awe to a container using a lovely array of colors and shapes with annual plants. I even once won the yard of the month contest for the neighborhood where I resided. However, back then, I do recall always thinking they were overpriced and did not last as long as I thought they should. I can't change the time period they survive, but I might be able to offer a lower price to customers. I hope to learn how to grow annuals from seedlings and then offer different trailing vines, petunias, sweet potato vines, and things of the like. I also would like to try my hand at growing vegetable starters. My goal is to offer wholesale prices to my customers, quality, well-cared-for plants. We also have been looking at building a passive solar greenhouse on the property, possibly 20' by 48'. Potentially begin planting early next year and be ready for the growing season in 2024. Maybe we will have some vegetables growing all winter while the temps are soaring well below freezing or perhaps a lovely rose on New Year's Day! :) Passive solar is supposed to be literally amazing to use in cold climates, making them a warm oasis of heat. I have heard of people growing in far-north climates all season long things like lettuce and tomatoes. I viewed one greenhouse that was 70 degrees while being -20 outside. Shocking what passive solar can offer to a nursery, all the growing possibilities using our glorious Sun. Coteau Valley Farm is just warming up and I plan to write that down on my business plan and many other ideas that I can high-five myself for accomplishing. Let me know your thoughts and stop by soon, we still have some nice perennials and grasses. We might even have a sticker for you.
Coteau des Prairies
South Dakota Hobby Farm
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