The pandemic gardening boom

COVID-19’s gardening boom not only helped people pick up a new hobby but also helped plant-nurseries that were otherwise not doing very well and were on the verge of closing. Now, many nurseries can’t keep high-demand plants in stock.

In the Los Angeles Times article, “SoCal garden nurseries were overwhelmed in 2020. How are they preparing for 2021?” different nurseries and organic farms discuss how their business has been doing and what they had to change to stay in business. Conor Fitzpatrick, the owner of Fig Earth Supply, explained how they had to switch everything to curbside pickup to keep everything safe, yet he still saw a significant increase in sales.

Blue Hills nursery in Whittier, Calif. has seen its sales increase since the beginning of quarantine.

Kathy Ono at Blue Hills nursery in Whittier explained how their sales had gone up, and they expect to see sales go up further once spring officially hits. Ono said that while fruits and vegetables have been all the rage, she sees an increase in house plants’ sales. She explained that young people are coming in and wanting rare, harder to care for indoor plants, making it hard to keep these rare plants in stock.

Ono believes the gardening and plant craze will continue, even after the pandemic, because people know what it feels like to garden now and have fallen in love with it.