Interest in gardening booming amid pandemic food security concerns
Concerns over access to fresh fruits and vegetables during the COVID-19 crisis, along with the annual craving to get outside and work the earth after a long cold winter, have led to seed shortages and spurred local growers to increase their stock.
Growers have been hearing through industry channels that demand will be greater this year.
“And that’s why we’ve been trying to spike up the veggies,” said Ann Capogna, owner of Capogna Flowers in Kingsville.
Capogna sells flowers and vegetable plants out of massive greenhouses and like most businesses is adjusting to the restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting May 1, customers will be able to pick up flowers curbside but will have to enter the greenhouse to purchase vegetable plants due to the many types and varieties available, she said.
“We grow a lot of vegetables.
We’ve got 25 carts outside trying to fill them up with all kinds of veggies.
“We’ll be following all the guidelines (for) washing down carts, closing off a lot of access. There’ll be one way in and one way out, six-feet distancing,” Capogna said. “We’ve got the hand sanitizers. My staff is going to be wearing protective plastic shields on their face. We’re going to be ready for this.”
Across Ontario, sales have skyrocketed for vegetable seeds, forcing at least one company to temporarily suspend sales.
Joel Durant, owner of Natural Seed Bank, an online company based in Port Hope, Ont., said he’s been overwhelmed by the demand and won’t accept new orders until at least May 5 so that he can catch up on processing.
Durant attributes what he calls an “unprecedented” appetite to purchase fruit and vegetable seeds — both online and at grocery or hardware stores — partially to food insecurity due to COVID-19 and also to the fact people have been shut-in due to social distancing restrictions.
“It was just after the World Health Organization pronounced that it’s an official pandemic now with the coronavirus, and that lines up when the orders just started pouring in,” Durant said. “A couple weeks ago, the website traffic doubled and it just continued to go up.
“In the second week of March, an unusual amount of sales started to come in, so much so that I had to stop all online advertising to try and slow it down,” he said. “A week later, I opened up the site again, and almost two weeks of orders came in within 24 hours — it’s been like that ever since.”
He said he’s heard from many first-time gardeners as well as seasoned pros. Sales have been so brisk, he’s running out of stock.
At the Unemployed Help Centre, plots in the Shirley and Ray Gould Community Garden are always in high demand each spring by families looking for a little green space to grow their own food.
But this year, social distancing rules may require UHC staff to plant the 200 family garden plots themselves, said Mike Turnbull, food rescue program manager for UHC’S Plentiful Harvest program.
“If we have to, we’ll plant ourselves. Unfortunately, we’ll keep the garden locked so people can’t just come in and gather,” Turnbull said. “Hopefully things change and then we can get at it.”
The gardens are now being prepped for planting. Plots are being cleaned up, tilled and fertilized.
“It really kind of became a place for the community to gather and enjoy some gardening, but it’s really not the right time for that right now,” he said. “Who knows how this is all going to turn out?”
In the worst-case scenario, Turnbull said, staff will harvest the food and distribute it through the UHC’S food bank.