Will the COVID gardeners return in 2021? Local greenhouses hope so. Worried that grocery stores wouldn't have vegetables in stock and eager to find outdoor activities, many people started growing their own vegetables last year. Local greenhouses hope those new gardeners return in 2021.
Vegetable seeds were in high demand during summer 2020 as first-time gardeners started growing their own food due to the pandemic. It's anticipated gardeners will be back again this year.
The snow had barely melted this spring when customers started calling the Green Lake Nursery in Spicer looking for vegetable seeds.
In mid-March the owners stuck a note on the front door saying the seeds hadn’t arrived yet, to ward off people who came to the door looking to snag bean, peas, corn and carrot seeds before they were gone – when the seeds hadn’t even arrived yet.
Those calls requesting seeds could be a sign that people who started vegetable gardening in 2020 during the pandemic will be digging in the dirt again this year.
Like last year – when customers flocked to stores and bought out the stock of plants and seeds – area nurseries don’t quite know what to expect this year. But they’re hoping that first-time gardeners fell in love with growing their own food during the pandemic and will be back again this year.
Tom and Patty Wall, from Tom’s South Spicer Nursery, said every day in 2020 was as busy as a typical Saturday, with customers buying bedding plants, shrubs and trees.
The Walls, who grow nearly all of their stock from seed, have been in business for more than 35 years. Tom Wall said their greenhouses will be fully stocked this year and hopes that the 2020 gardeners will continue with their new hobby this year.
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