Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
VIRUS doesn’t stop area gardeners.
Tending to plants gives residents comfort, joy in troubled times
FAYETTEVILLE — Sowing seeds, planting shrubs, amending soil and plain getting hands in the dirt are a rite of spring for Northwest Arkansas gardeners. The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t stopped them, even if that means some adjustments.
Lynette Terrell and husband, Jim, ordered a load of plants and supplies from White River Nursery, which delivered trays of flowers and bags of mulch to her Fayetteville home last week. Jim got tomato plants and bell peppers.
“Right now, we really are staying at home, so it was just an easy thing to do. It was there the very next morning,” Lynette Terrell said. “We got a lot of mulch. We also got a lot of impatiens, and I got some marigolds and some petunias. Oh, and I got some ferns. But, I did not plant them yet; I just sat them around the yard to make it look pretty ’til I had to bring them in.”
Terrell, a retired teacher, took master gardener training in the fall, and now she’s stuck at home, thanks to covid-19 and social distancing. Sitting in the house watching the news and being on Facebook was making her a little crazy. So, Terrell headed outside.
“It teaches you patience and gives you hope. You kind of have to wait; they don’t grow instantly. And then, you’re going to see it bloom and be pretty, and that gives you hope, too,” Terrell said. “It’s the best therapy, I think, working in the yard. Time passes; that’s nice. Go outside and breathe; it just makes you feel healthier.”
People could be enjoying themselves and have something beautiful and satisfying to show for it instead of looking back some day and wondering what they did with all this time at home, Terrell said.
“It’s a good time for people to start if they don’t normally do it,” she said.
BRIGHT SPOTS
Jim Robbins, horticulture extension specialist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said garden centers and nurseries are doing well.
“Since there is currently no shelter-in-place order in Arkansas, people can still shop at garden centers,” he said.
Robbins said the extension service is encouraging all of the green industry businesses to follow proper guidelines, such as spacing, sanitation, gloves and minimal contact with pens and credit cards.
More than $50 million of horticulture products come from nursery and greenhouse operations in Arkansas annually, according to the extension service.
“Spring is the critical time for garden centers since a majority of their sales occur between March 1 and Mother’s Day,” Robbins said. “In Arkansas, I would say the situation is very positive for the green industry.”
Northwest Arkansas shoppers are stocking up on flowers, trees, vegetable starts, shrubs, mulch and soil.
“People are shopping with me all day, every day,” said Jacob Hart, at Sharum’s Garden Center in Springdale. “They’re just bored, and flowers make people happy.”
Mike Styron at Bogle’s Garden Center in Bentonville said the recent weather has been as big a factor as the virus.
“By no means do I think we’re slow,” Styron said. “Our weekdays are pretty consistent. Instead of just having a big weekend, we’re having relatively bigger weekdays, which spread the people out, and we’re a large enough nursery that it doesn’t seem to be too overly crowded at any one time, anyway.”
Hart said, “I have a 13-acre facility, so everybody has good space to wander around.”
Local garden center employees said they are following recommendations on distancing and cleaning, and they’re offering online or phone ordering and curbside pickup or delivery for those who’d rather not venture out.
Styron said trees and veggies are big sellers for Bogle’s this year.
“We’re selling lots of trees because of the storms that rolled through this year, and then home gardening is picking up,” he said. “A lot of people are trying to grow vegetables and things like that because their kids are out of school, and it’s a good thing to learn and, hopefully in the future, that gives us many more generations of gardeners.”
Shelby Smith, also at Sharum’s, said business is at least the same as last year and maybe even a little better.
“But, it’s a little different for us, being in Arkansas instead of a state that’s been shut down. We’re still able to serve the general public as well as contractors,” Smith said.
Nationwide, shoppers in areas that have not been shut down have descended on garden stores and nurseries like a plague of locusts, cleaning out shelves and overwhelming websites and creating a backlog of orders looking for seeds and plants, suppliers told the Associated Press.
Burpee Seeds Chairman George Ball told the Associated Press this year’s buying spree is so different it’s unrecognizable in terms of the sheer demand.
“I would say we’ve been flooded, but not drowned,” Ball said.
Green industry businesses have been deemed as “essential” and remain open in many states, as long as they follow state and federal guidelines on sanitation and social distancing.
SHOW THE GREEN
As sure as spring comes, grass will grow and somebody’s gotta cut it. That means a lot of work for lawn mowing businesses.
Mack King of King’s Lawn Care in Rogers said the covid-19 virus hasn’t been a big issue yet because the mowing season is just about to get underway.
“The only thing that’s really hurt us is the weather. As far as the virus, it hasn’t done anything to us. None of my people are sick. They’ve all got masks on,” King said. “I think everybody’s pretty much like me; it ain’t really hurting them too much. The rain is what’s putting me out.”
King said there was more than 20 inches of rain in March, more in early April and then a couple freezes.
“The biggest thing is everything’s not started yet,” King said of mowing. “We try to find some landscaping jobs or something to do when the grass hasn’t greened up yet. The Bermuda is just starting to green up; the cold has cut it back.”
King said his busiest month is typically July, and his crews mow and take care of about 150 properties.
His 30 years in business has made King wary of planting much, other than petunias, too early because there’s always a chance for late freezes in Northwest Arkansas.
“They (petunias) can take that stuff. They’re pretty tough. I don’t plant summer flowers or nothing until after May 1,” King said.