Spring weather has officially hit southern Alberta, and with warm weather comes gardening season.
With COVID-19 impacting businesses of all avenues, Lethbridge County garden centres and vegetable markets have had to adjust.
Paul De Jonge has owned and operated Broxburn Vegetables and Café since 1994. He said there is no other place like it in the area.
“Broxburn Vegetables has always been kind of a destination,” he said.
“The food in the café, of course, reflects what we grow here. We have a ‘you-pick’ strawberry farm so a lot of families in the summertime want to come out and pick strawberries.”
However, due to COVID-19 health concerns, De Jonge said he has closed the café and limited customers who shop in the store for peppers, eggplants, cauliflower, broccoli and other products.
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Workers hired from Mexico arrived later than usual due to travel restrictions and were unable to start work until a two-week isolation period was completed.
Since it is still early in the season, De Jonge said he might consider opening the café, but for now, the business will continue to take orders for delivery in the Lethbridge and Coaldale areas.
“We’re doing similar stuff in Calgary,” he said. “Especially the seniors in Calgary, they don’t want to leave their homes and they’ve really taken to the home delivery instead of going to the farmers’ markets.”
On the same property as Broxburn Vegetables, Country Blooms Garden Centre sells gardening supplies, flowers and a variety of other plants for the spring and summer seasons.
It is not letting people into the garden centre but is taking orders in advance and preparing them for pickup.
“People are just dying to get plants,” said Erich Dyck, operator of Country Blooms. “People have been homebound… so they’re anxious to go out and do something in their yards.”
Green Haven Garden Centre has instated similar measures, taking orders online or by phone and having staff bring the orders to the customers’ vehicles. Credit card payments are made beforehand so customer contact is virtually non-existent.
Co-owner Karen Barby said it has been difficult to keep up, with wait times for orders up to five days as hundreds of calls and emails come in. The business also had to reduce its staff.
“It’s just been getting busier and busier every day because the weather is beautiful,” Barby said.
“We normally don’t see this kind of weather until mid-May, end of May sometimes.”
Both Green Haven and Country Blooms said they hope to have their physical locations open in the first week of May, as they prepare to open with extra restrictions similar to the ones in grocery stores.
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