Being stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic means a lot of Manitobans have the spare time to take on new hobbies — and with warmer weather on the horizon, many people are trying out gardening.
Local nurseries and garden centres are benefitting from all of the new gardeners, as people are trying out their budding green thumbs and growing flowers and vegetables while they’re homebound.
Susan Jensen Stubbe, owner of Jensen Nursery and Garden Centre in Winnipeg, says her business is seeing a mix of new faces and longtime growers trying to beat the rush.
“We are probably two weeks ahead of annual and vegetable sales than we are most years,” Stubbe told 680 CJOB. “There’s a lot of new gardeners and there’s a lot of people who have been gardening for years who say, ‘I’m getting it before everybody else.'”
The influx of new would-be gardeners also means a lot of beginner mistakes when it comes to managing plants, she said.
“One of the biggest mistakes is that a lot of people over-water their plants, and you almost drown it. Usually, nine out of 10 times that a plant doesn’t succeed is too much water.”
Garden centres aren’t the only ones gearing up for planting season. City of Winnipeg forester Martha Barwinsky told 680 CJOB on Thursday that city staff are getting set to plant around 1,400 new trees over the course of the summer.
“What we look after in urban forestation for the city is reforestation of our boulevard and park trees,” she said. “Our planting program is going to be getting started shortly — the nursery trees are being delivered at our civic nursery right now, and we expect to be planting about 1,400 on boulevards and parks this year.”
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