Landscaper Mick Kopetsky’s nursery in Healdsman, California, has been extremely busy over the past year. In a recent interview with Sonoma Magazine, he observed that the nursery’s workday begins at 6:30 and last until 5. It deals with a wide range of customers, from contractors to those getting into gardening for the first time. And there are a lot more of the latter these days.
If there is any positive result from the pandemic over the past year, it is that it has given people a chance to explore new hobbies and reexamine their lives. Gardening has been one of the most popular new hobbies as it gives people a chance to go outside or even grow a potted plant from within their homes.
A survey from a Minnesota-based marketing firm found that 86 percent of survey respondents hope to continue gardening in 2021, with 47 percent stating that they hope to expand their gardening spaces. Even if not all these respondents do so, it does suggest that more people will be trying an outdoor hobby they have not bothered with before.
Reasons for Gardening
If the increased interest in gardening was purely because people needed to do something while stuck at home at day, it would not last. But the pandemic has caused many people to reevaluate our entire world and viewpoints.
We may be able to get food from our grocery stores easily, but the fact is that cities and town across the globe exist at the end of a precarious global supply chain. It is sometimes said that if a city failed to receive food deliveries for just 3 days, all public order would break down. Kopetsky observes that many of the newer gardeners now want to grow a little food for themselves.
One cannot feed himself or a family with a mere backyard plot. But growing just a bit of food can offer a sense of security and pride in growing food which truly belongs to you. And there are the additional benefits of knowing what is exactly in your vegetables without worrying about various chemicals or additives. This is another thing which Kopetsky addresses by selling organic fertilizers and seeds
On a less practical level, especially for those growing shrubs or flowers, gardening offers other physical and psychological benefits as well. There is a real sense of accomplishment in making your natural environment that much more beautiful, and in seeing new life be created.
It should be noted that there is nothing wrong with depending on a professional like Smith’s Tree Service in Georgia, but there is also real pride and dignity to be found in gardening by yourself. And then there are the physical benefits of being out of doors and exercising in a way which does not feel like exercising.
Ongoing trends
Kopetsky closes his shop at 5 and enjoys the lovely Sonoma countryside with friends and food. He has seen how people still want to get into gardening even now, growing onions, tomatoes, and flowers among other plants.
It is a good time for his business, and a good time for ordinary individuals to get into a healthful hobby which produces real results. Gardening requires some research, but it is not the sort of thing you need to be an expert in to get a lovely flower or delicious tomato.
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