Gardening fever hits Winnipeg

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/05/2020 (2141 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Take it from iconic Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, who once wrote, “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

Indeed, green-thumbed Winnipeggers showed Sunday it’s finally time to dig in after weeks of nervousness and cabin fever stirred up by the COVID-19 health crisis.

“We’ve been stuck in the house for so long. Right now, it’s the perfect time to get into gardening because there’s not much else to do,” said Hannah Gawaran, who lives in the West End but made the trek with her mom, Michelle Amagsila, to Sumka Brothers Greenhouses in deep Transcona. “We can’t go to the gym, can’t swim. This is considered safe and it’s fun.

“It’s something we can do on our own, without worrying about people gathering.”

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, provided house-bound Manitobans with good news in mid-April, announcing farmers markets, garden centres and greenhouses could operate as long as social-distancing measures were in place.

Winnipeg and area businesses only started welcoming customers the past few days. They’re lining up for their annuals perennials, trees and shrubs, which are usually planted between May 1 and June 15.

Homeowners are looking for that burst of colour in their yards after a long, drab winter.

The mid-afternoon lineup comprised about 10 people at Sumka Brothers, located on Peguis Street, with about two dozen shoppers inside. The large operation is allowing 35 to browse at a time, with staff offering hand sanitizer and wiped-down shopping carts at the door, and politely giving regular social-distancing reminders.

“I bought some herbs and other indoor plants. It was easy. I liked the way they put arrows on the floor as guides for people to walk around. No problems, it’s pretty nice. It’s the new normal,” said Gawaran.

 In St. Boniface, popular Jardins St-Léon Gardens also had an orderly line of eager recreational horticulturalists on its third day open for business this spring. Most of the produce is shipped in from out of province, but bedding plants and shrubs are grown locally.

Colin Rémillard, co-owner of the family-run operation, said since the doors opened Friday they’ve been vigilant about allowing only a fraction of their usual throng inside the market.

“We’re maintaining a very limited amount of customers in the store, which is very important. It’s comfortable and safe,” he said. “We had a month to plan for this, to look at what other (businesses) are doing.”

Rémillard said he’s intrigued by the buzz the 2020 spring season is generating.

“Right away, it’s really weird how many people are interested in plants this early on. People aren’t supposed to be planting for another month, and people are stocking up. A lot of seeds, too,” he said, from the centre on St. Mary’s Road. “The amount of emails, messages on Facebook and Instagram I get concerning plants, pick-up orders, stuff like that is staggering compared to any other year.

“All the millennials who are bored are going to start gardening. People with nothing else to do who aren’t used to gardening are doing to start. I think it’s a positive thing, gardening is awesome, it’s enjoyable. It disconnects you from our little prison that is now our home.”

 Across town, Morris Diduck needs a few more days before he’s ready to open Charleswood Garden Centre on the mall parking lot on Grant Avenue near Haney Street.

But he’ll be set for pre-Mother’s Day shoppers, with bags of soil for sale along with bedding plants and hanging baskets.

“We’ll go seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Just two of us, including me,” said Diduck, 80, who’s enjoying a second career in the plant biz. “We’ll let a maximum of four or five people in at a time. We’ll keep an eye on it.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell