SPRING HOME & GARDEN 2021
2 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021
WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE — WILLMAR, MINN.
Gearing up for gardening in 2021 Will the COVID gardeners return in 2021? Local greenhouses hope so STORY & PHOTOS BY CAROLYN LANGE clange@wctrib.com
SPICER – The snow had barely melted this spring when customers started calling the Green Lake Nursery in Spicer looking for vegetable seeds. In mid-March the owners stuck a note on the front door saying the seeds hadn’t
arrived yet, to ward off people who came to the door looking to snag bean, peas, corn and carrot seeds before they were gone – when the seeds hadn’t even arrived yet. Those calls requesting seeds could be a sign that people who started vegetable gardening in 2020 during the pandemic will be digging in the dirt again this year.
HIGH DEMAND
Like last year – when customers flocked to stores and bought out the stock of plants and seeds – area nurseries don’t quite know what to expect this year. But they’re hoping that first-time gardeners fell in love with growing their own food during the pandemic and will be back again this year. “We’re ramping up production,” said Lisa Grindberg, from Creekside Nursery in rural Pennock. “We’re assuming more people will be gardening.”
Patty Wall transplants bell pepper plants April 12 at Tom’s South Spicer Nursery. She and her husband, Tom, have operated the nursery for 35 years. ON THE COVER: Patty and Tom Wall grow nearly all the vegetables and flowers from seed that they sell at Tom’s South Spicer Nursery.
Grindberg started fielding phone calls in March from people checking to see if she would be selling certain varieties of vegetable plants. “I’m doing a lot more broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes and peppers,” she said. Last year Grindberg said she sold out of everything, despite reseeding every week and sometimes twice a week. A sign posted March 25 on the door “As soon as things were popping up, of Green Lake Nursery in Spicer was in people were buying them,” she said. “So response to numerous, early requests for we’re trying to get ahead of that this year.” vegetable seeds.
Grindberg said she doesn’t think items will go quite as fast this year, but predicts it will still be “overwhelming.” Tom and Patty Wall, from Tom’s South Spicer Nursery, said every day in 2020 was as busy as a typical Saturday, with customers buying bedding plants, shrubs and trees. The Walls, who grow nearly all of their stock from seed, have been in business for more than 35 years. Tom Wall said their greenhouses will be fully stocked this year
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