Although the pandemic has locked us inside our homes people have found ways to live with it. Thanks to human surviving instinct! The panic somehow triggered many surging hobbies. There is an increase in gaming, book reading, and other fun and necessary skills that are helping people to stay at their home. Home gardening is one of those that people around the world are practicing as a soothing, family-friendly hobby. It also eases concerns over food security as the lockdown slowed the harvesting and distribution of some crops. It results, the seed companies’ sales are jumping worldwide.
Many people are getting bored and trying to put their energy into some some-based hobbies. With home gardening, there is also an increase in demand for equipment. It’s supplementary gardening. There’s no way family of five or six would sustain with this. But people are still onto this to avoid the store purchasing a little more in the coming months.
As many people are losing jobs they are facing problems with buying food and worrying about their health too. The largest food bank of the USA, Feeding America reported a 98% increase in demands.
Seed companies have stopped taking orders for a while, due to a sudden increase in demands for seeds. This demand was unprecedented, as per chairman of Burpee Seeds, George Ball. Soon the companies will restock before they can start accepting new orders.
Russians are isolating in out-of-town cottages with plots of land, a traditional source of vegetables during tough times since the Soviet era, and rooftop farms are planned in Singapore, which relies heavily on food imports.
“Planting a few potatoes can be quite a revelation to a child,” said Guy Barter, the chief horticulturist at Britain’s Royal Horticultural Society, which has seen a five-fold rise in queries for advice on its website during the lockdown. Gardeners without yards are even planting potatoes in trash bags, he said.
Gardeners are also trying to help each other to gain accessibility to seeds. Some are using Twitter as a medium to share the need. A 47-year-old Texan, Molly Jones, had offered many of her connections who were asking for seeds. Molly had stocked up seeds as she planned to begin a garden with her sister’s children. She thinks that Americans are stressed, and are probably turning to home gardening as a hobby to de-stress themselves.
In the U.S., W. Atlee Burpee & Co has sold more seed than any time in its 144-year history in March. In Russia, demands for seeds rose by 20%-30% year-on-year in March. Governments are also pushing a pool of resources and collective knowledge of home food production.
