Here is a collection of books teaching you learn how to start a business or how to make money gardening. Books covering all topics from landscaping as a business to market gardening, growing to sell, will be displayed below. You may also want to check out the Landscaping section for more information on landscaping, this section is more for the money end of it.

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20 Secrets For Landscape Contractors
by Robin Tulleners

20 Secrets for Landscape Contractors may not sound like the kind of reading LASN should be sharing with its readers. Yet, the advice that Robin Tulleners outlines for his readers is sound advice for service businesses, small or large. In addition to helping Landscape Architects understand the position of Landscape Contractors in the marketplace, the book will help them with their own sales and marketing plans.

Claiming that the tips in his book helped him increase his profits 335% in 3 years, Tulleners offers strategies to increase business methodically for increased profits and to build relationships with clients to retain them in a favorable fashion.

Landscape Estimating Methods (Means Landscape Estimating, 4th Ed)
by Sylvia Hollman Fee

Answers all your questions about preparing competitive landscape construction estimates, with up-to-date cost data.

Updates the landscape material, equipment and methods to the latest used in the industry. Includes up-to-date cost data and information budgeting for landscape maintenance and determining the cost of the landscaping over its full life cycle. The book is an essential tool for landscape contractors and designers who are striving to accurately estimate the cost of their work and prepare proposals for clients. It is also an important reference for facility and maintenance managers responsible for developing budgets for creating and maintaining their landscape projects.

Landscape Construction
by David Sauter

This basic guide to landscape construction provides step-by-step instructions, beginning with legal requirements, elementary construction math, and site preparation, for installing most landscape elements, such as lighting, walls, stairs, wood structures (decks, seating, and platforms), water features, and bridges. Sauter, who has served as the coordinator of the Kirkwood Community College Horticulture Department, incorporates b&w photographs and drawings to highlight the tools and equipment needed for the job, as well as to illustrate the processes involved and the finished products.

Lawn Aeration: Turn Hard Soil into Cold Cash
by Robin M. Pedrotti

I started a lawn aeration service 6 months ago, i just got this book four days ago, i followed the sales instructions given here and my sales percentage changed right away, i wish i have bought the book prior to starting my company, i could have saved lots of time and money. -- Ancizar Marin Owner Sunshine Lawn Aeration Pembroke Pines, Florida

Landscapes Estimating & Contract Administration
by Steven Angley, Edward Horsey, David Roberts

"Landscape Estimating and Contract Administration" can be used for students at technical schools and colleges who are studying landscape design, installation and maintenance. It is also an excellent reference manual for managers with landscape contracting companies, and landscape architects and designers.

Plan Graphics for the Landscape Designer with Section-Elevation and Computer Graphics
by Tony Bertauski

This book describes how to create a residential landscape plan drawing for presentation. Clearly written and highly illustrative, it takes advantage of tips and techniques that many designers have learned over the years. It serves as a resource for ideas, illustrates the use of symbols and textures, and also includes a section on the use of computer software in landscape drawing. Topics include presentation graphics, tools for accurate plan drawing, line drawing, good lettering, symbol drawing and symbol category descriptions, defining the ground plane (turf, hardscapes, mulch, and groundcover), plan drawing, color techniques, section-elevation drawing, and computer graphics and landscape drawing software. For residential landscape designers and architects.

How to Start a Home-Based Landscaping Business, 4th
by Owen Dell

Have you ever dreamed of starting your own home-based landscaping business? Have you been hesitant to put your plans into action? This comprehensive guide contains all the necessary tools and strategies you need to successfully launch and grow your own business. Author Owen Dell shares his experiences and down-to-earth advice on every aspect of setting up and running a thriving home-based landscaping business. He shows you how to purchase the right tools, estimate start-up costs, price services, and stay profitable once in business. He even offers tips for surfing the Internet to obtain valuable resources and marketing your landscaping services on the Net. From painless record keeping to savvy marketing techniques, his step-by-step methods are practical, innovative, and easy to understand. (7 1/4 x 9 1/4, 336 pages, profit-and-loss worksheet, site inspection and bid worksheet, sample bid, tips on effective selling, equipment and materials loading lists, sample employee skills test, charts)

Lawn Care & Gardening: A Down-To-Earth Guide to the Business
by Mickey Willis, Kevin Lawn Care Rossi, Gardening Rossi

This expanded second edition tracks major new trends in the landscape maintenance business and tells how computers and the Internet can lighten the workload and boost earnings. As before, its chatty writing style makes complex subjects easy and lays out the theory and practice of better professional gardening. A big section on estimating and bidding goes step-by-step through a reproducible set of forms.

Author Mickey Willis and her husband have built and owned a successful middle-sized company for well over 10 years. She knows profitable landscape maintenance and shows where personal and money paybacks are to be found in good environmental practices.

The appendix adds a job description and company policy manual. It includes more print and online sources of trade information, as well as of tools, equipment and supplies.

What was very good just got a whole lot better!

Start Your Own Business: The Only Start-Up Book You'll Ever Need
by Rieva Lesonsky (Editor), Inc Entrepreneur Media, Entrepreneur Magazine (Contributor)

A collection of tips and strategies for creating a business from scratch, offering help with every stage of development of the business. Shows how to conduct market market research, develop a system for bookkeeping and taxes, create a winning business plan, delve into e-commerce, and more.

Make your dreams of starting a business come true! Packed with expert advice, this book demystifies the start-up process with plain-English answers to the most commonly asked questions about starting a small business.

Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow
by Andrew W. Lee, Andy Lee, George Devaul (Illustrator)

Having read many books on marketing, I feel qualified enough to tell you that this book delivers much good marketing advice. In this book there are many examples of what successful market gardeners have done. If you want to "sell what you grow", this is a good place to start. There are also some good gardening tips included. There are many books that you should read if you want to establish a 'minifarm' or market garden, and this is definately one of them.-- A reader from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA

The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers (Gardener's Supply Books)
by Lynn Byczynski, Robin Wimbiscus (Illustrator), Lynn Bycznski

Byczynski, who quit her city job to become a flower farmer, has interviewed hundreds of farmers who grow flowers as all or part of their income; she offers profiles of 12 of them. Byczynski emphasizes organic flowers because organic-farming practices protect both people and the environment. She gives advice on selecting seeds (recommending foolproof flowers for the novice grower), site and soil requirements, buying and starting plants, growing and caring for them, and creating a dried-flower garden. The author discusses growing woody ornamentals (certain species of trees and shrubs) that can be used in floral designs as well as harvest and postharvest procedures. She gives advice on arranging fresh flowers and on going commercial (marketing and pricing). There's a list of 100 recommended cut flowers, full-color photographs, and black-and-white line drawings. George Cohen

Herbs for Sale: Growing and Marketing Herbs, Herbal Products, and Herbal Know-How
by Lee Sturdivant, Peggy Sue McRae (Illustrator)

Sturdivant offers insightful interviews with entrepreneurs who have developed creative approaches to small businesses related to herbs. In most cases, the personal goals cited are tied to a more gratifying lifestyle, a love of gardening, or a desire to live in rural areas. For anyone thinking about venturing into the world of herbal products and herbal lore, or interested in delving into aspects of growing fresh herbs or selling craft items, the research here will be an asset. Sturdivant has many tips on basic small business skills, and her book is also a good resource for related publications, associations, and suppliers of plants, seeds, and equipment for growing and marketing herbs. -- Alice Joyce

Secrets to a Successful Greenhouse and Business : A Complete Guide to Starting and Operating A High-Profit Organic or Hydroponic Business That Benefits the Environment
by Ted M. Taylor

According to the author, there are not enough greenhouse growers in the country to be anywhere near the saturation point—making it an excellent business venture for those who love working with plants. His pragmatic no-nonsense guide offers a complete course for such a business venture. He discusses everything: plant containers, buying plugs, propagation, hydroponics, specialty crops, watering and growing care, soil and fertilizer mixes and more. A chapter on greenhouses discusses different types of structures, coverings, heating and cooling systems, and provides basic plans for a 30' x 96' solar greenhouse. Another chapter on insect and disease control outlines an excellent organic program emphasizing prevention, organic sprays, and beneficial insects. He pays ample attention to the business side as well, explaining marketing, accounting, sales, plant delivery, bill collecting, computers, financing, licenses and permits, etc. He even provides a wholesale price lists as guides and a large list of plant buyers and suppliers.

Making Your Small Farm Profitable
by Ron Macher, Howard W., Jr. Kerr

Small Farms Can Equal Big Pay!

Choose the right products, process and market them effectively, and you too can join the ranks of top-earning farmers, some of whom gross nearly $100,000 per acre. Whether you're buying a new farm or jump-starting an old one, Ron Macher's down-to-earth advice on planning, farming, and marketing you'll soon make your farm profitable -- and find satisfaction doing it.

Macher shares proven methods for farming smarter and explores today's new crops, new livestock, and new markets that translate into new ways to make money. Making Your Small Farm Profitable explains how to:

* Exploit lucrative niche markets that others overlook
* Plan for optimal farm efficiency
* Determine equipment requirements and estimate machinery costs
* Compare costs against profit for common vegetables and livestock
* Sell your products a dozen different ways

Sell What You Sow: The Grower's Guide to Successful Produce Marketing
by Eric L. Gibson, Andrea Gibson (Illustrator)

Cash in on the consumer demand for luscious-tasting fruits, vegetables and herbs with this how-to book that reveals the tricks of the trade from master marketers around the country. The definitive book on high-value produce marketing for farmers and market gardeners, this book delivers the kind of hands-on information you need to sell what you grow. Offers practical, how-to guidance in making profits from produce.