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Murray anticipates finding a large customer base for vegetables to plant when he opens later this month, but said he is unsure what to expect as far as decorative flowers.
“Maybe not so much with people’s incomes kind of questionable,” he said. “Do you have that extra dollar to spend on a couple hanging baskets or a flat of flowers or something like that?”
On the other side of county, Meadowview Garden Center in New Carlisle is open year-round, and owner Jeff Pack said interest in both flowers and vegetable plants has been higher than usual.
“Especially people who are trapped at home, they’re like, ‘We got to do something. We got to get out of the house,’” he said. “I think it happened to me yesterday a half dozen times, someone said, ‘Thank you so much for being here, giving us a little bit of normalcy, an outlet for stress and something beautiful to do.’”
Meadowview marketing and events manager Bryna Chandler said the center sold over 146,000 plants last year and is anticipating bumping that up by almost 5,000 this year after planting extras when the threat of the coronavirus first started to prompt closures of schools and businesses last month.
They have not seen a significant drop in flower sales, but interest in house plants is on the rise.
“People are stuck at home and they’re now in these home offices that were never meant to be home offices,” she said. “And it’s dreary and sometimes they need to find a way to separate their home life and their work life in their home offices.”
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The updated Ohio Department of Health stay-at-home order signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on April 2 confirmed garden centers may stay open as long as they adhere to social distancing guidelines, and both owners said they are making sure that happens while also emphasizing cleanliness and sanitation in their shops.
Chandler added that Meadowview will extend its hours and add cashiers Saturday for an annual hanging baskets sale.
“Unfortunately, it’s not something where we can just tell the plants to wait,” she said. “They kind of have to be going out at this time of year, so we want to make sure the greenhouse is open as long as we possibly can so people don’t feel like they have to rush in and purchase all of their stuff within two-hour increments.”
Pamela Bennett, an associate professor at Ohio State, director of the State Master Gardener Program and an extension agent for Clark County, noted gardening has multiple benefits for people.
“There’s a lot of research out there right now that talks about the health benefits of gardening – mental, physical, environmental and also economic,” she said, noting a national survey that found 77% of Americans reported gardening in 2018 and spending more than $50 billion on the practice.
That included a household average of $503.
“The physical part of it is pretty obvious: You’re enjoying being outside, you’re working on the landscape, you’re working in the yard,” Bennett said. “The satisfaction of growing something and being successful – and then of course if you’re planting a vegetable garden, just enjoying fresh produce.”
She added taking care of house plants can have its own positive impact and cited research indicating having plants in a classroom has correlated with improved test scores.
“A lot of people are looking at growing their own vegetable gardens from many aspects like knowing where their food is coming from, knowing what kind of pesticides, if any, are used on them, reducing the carbon footprint from shipping,” she said. “But now I really think that since everybody’s kind of stuck at home, they’re taking a really good look at their landscape, their garden and thinking, ‘You know I could do that. I might go grow vegetables, or I might be able to grow some plants.’”
There can also be an economic benefit to growing food at home as opposed to getting it at the grocery.
“Usually a typical vegetable garden for a family of four will save you around $400-$500,” she said.
At Meadowview, owner Pack said he has already seen customers at his shop who intend to make gardening a family affair this year.
“Moms and dads are trying to find ways to help their kids be engaged, get off of the video games, to get outside, learn,” Pack said. “So we’ve seen some parents bring in their children and set up little science experiments or hoping to build their first garden. It’s been kind of cool to meet a little 4-year-old girl in here, and she’s like, ‘That one’s mine,’ and she’s like pointing to her little bag of beans.”
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