Bayside families opting to grow food buy up big at nurseries and plant stores
With most people staying home to prevent the spread of coronavirus, garden shops in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs have been stripped bare by a growing band of DIY foodies. This is what they’re buying up.
Inner South
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Plant nurseries across Bayside have been stripped of seeds and seedlings as the coronavirus lockdown bites.
The Gardeners Corner Store owner Cathryn McEwan said the Brighton East nursery had sold out of vegetable seeds and seedlings as families opt to grow their own food.
“Unfortunately, our wholesalers, like all of us, weren’t prepared for this so there is a temporary shortage,” Ms McEwan said.
“Leafy greens have been most popular, things like spinach, silverbeet and lettuce.
“Surprisingly we even sold a tray of brussels sprouts in a day, we are usually lucky to sell a tray in a whole season.”
Ms McEwan said there had been a surge in customers buying plants and garden supplies, in store and online, as people prepared for isolation.
She said with more people working from home, shoppers had also been purchasing more indoor plants to spruce up their home offices.
Ms McEwan said gardening provided great exercise and was also proven to reduce stress and anxiety.
She said good planting choices for the season were spinach, silverbeet, beetroot, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and peas.
Horticulturist Greg Buxton from Gill’s Nursery in Cheltenham confirmed they had also sold out of leafy green vegetable seedlings and seeds.
“We didn’t really have any warning, we just suddenly had people ringing up desperately wanting extraordinary amounts of veggies,” Mr Buxton said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, even back in the seventies and eighties when everyone was planting their own veggie gardens.”
Mr Buxton said they had pre-ordered more and were waiting on suppliers.
He said they were doing local deliveries free of change.