How to Sell a Condo Garden

Yes, you read that right. After going to Hawaii, I decided that living there was a good idea. This led me to creating a very long and detailed “to do” list. Tops on the list was what to do with my portable container garden? I thought about cleaning out the pots and shipping everything to the islands, but was that practical? No. That would be like paying for everything twice. Then, there is the question of, what if it doesn’t fit my new home or life style?

No, the smart thing to do would be to find another home for my easy condo garden.  Living in a condo complex means having a ready supply of buyers. This is especially true in an organized community like where I was living. There is even a television station devoted to the community which gives free advertising to residents who want to sell something to other residents. All I needed was someone who liked what they saw.

I took a picture of my garden, printed it out in color, and pasted it to the back of the information sheet provided by the “Trading Post” as the advertising segment of the community news is called. I noticed that the announcers held up the information sheets, and many people had printed their phone numbers on the back to help viewers write down their numbers. I simply placed my phone number just above the photo.

But this isn’t all I did. I also printed out enough pictures of my garden to place one on each lobby bulletin board in the eight neighboring three story buildings nearest my own. I thought that if neighbors saw where I was growing veggies in a building just like theirs, they would be interested. They were. A few neighbors came over and looked. They liked what they saw, but couldn’t figure out the logistics of moving the pots to their homes, or didn’t want to pay even my reduced price.

No problem. A few days after I placed the flyers I had made in the neighboring buildings, a security guard who worked in the community called. He had seen one of them and was interested. He came over and bought half of my containers, without even haggling over the price. We rolled them to the elevator, and he loaded them into the back of his truck. Two weeks later, he called and asked if I still had the rest of my pots. I did. He came back the same day, and bought them too. Selling my garden was as just easy as creating it.

I had enjoyed easy condo gardening near my front door. Selling it to someone who, like me, enjoys growing his own organic produce made parting with my garden less sad. But, I had Hawaii to look forward to, and closets to empty. I returned to my “to do” list, and gardening time became donate to charity time.

Until next time,

Elizabeth