SALT LAKE CITY — Jessica Wright spent part of her morning this week waiting in line outside of Glover Nursery — a business she never thought would draw a line.
“I did not expect to see so many empty shelves,” said Wright, who left the nursery equipped with enough seeds and plant starters to soon have a hearty vegetable garden.
As people settle into their stay-at-home routines, backyard projects like gardening have taken on new life. And with a warm and sunny spring, Utahns have been flocking to their nearby nursery. Throughout April, nurseries and garden stores along the Wasatch Front have seen a dramatic increase in business.
“Business has been robust,” said Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, who in addition to serving Utah’s District 21, owns J & J Nursery and Garden Center in Layton.
“At one time we thought tomato plants were the new toilet paper,” he said.
At a time when thousands of Utahns are coping with unemployment amid sweeping layoffs and furloughs, Stevenson hired more employees to help clean the store, enforce social distancing and handle the extraordinary volume of customers. In April the nursery had back-to-back, record-breaking sale days — a common trend among other local garden stores.
“Last April was the largest month in sales we’ve ever had, and May is usually our biggest month,” said Rod Glover, owner of Glover Nursery in West Jordan. “Our sales are double what they were a year ago.”
The trend isn’t specific to Utah, and in April the Associated Press reported garden stores and nurseries across the country were overwhelmed with record demand.
“It’s exhausting, it’s overwhelming,” said Glover, who cut back the store’s hours simply to give his employees a break.
On top of some of the shelves going bare, an occasional line the length of a football field spilling out of the building and a consistently full parking lot, Glover has seen a number of first-time gardeners in his store, including people like Wright, who said it’s been over a decade since she started a garden.
“There were so many of us first-timers there,” Wright said, laughing. “I felt bad for the employees, we had a lot of questions about things that we were very clueless about.”
While the influx in sales can certainly be attributed in part to the boredom of staying at home, it’s not the only thing driving Utahns to the garden. Food insecurity has become increasingly prevalent in the Beehive State, and on April 24, the Utah Food Bank held one of the largest food drives in the organization’s history as over 5,000 people waited for hours in a line of cars that spanned over a mile. It was the first time many of the recipients had sought food support.
“Food security is a bit more of an issue now, with folks seeing some lighter stocked shelves,” said Katie Dwyer, marketing and communications director for Wasatch Community Gardens, a nonprofit with urban farms and community gardens dotted along the Wasatch Front. “I think people want a bit more independence and control in the food that they eat.”
Just like Glover and J & J Nurseries, Wasatch Community Gardens had a front-row seat to April’s garden frenzy. For the first time, the nonprofit was forced to hold its annual plant sale fundraiser online and, in 14 hours, Dwyer said the organization sold all 30,000 plant starters.
“We expected it to go quickly,” she said. “People are thinking a little more about growing their own food and we wanted to make sure we were able to get those plants to folks any way we could.”
In addition to curbing boredom and easing fears of food insecurity, gardening is therapeutic. With the coronavirus constantly in the headlines and dominating discussions it’s hard not to feel anxious, and gardening can offer a much-needed catharsis.
“Day in and day out, gardening is good therapy,” said Glover “Ask any therapist and they’ll tell you to go out and garden.”
That’s why Wright ventured to Glover Nursery. Between her busy job preparing take home lunches for Canyons School District and making sure her kids are on top of their schoolwork, the mother of three has been busy since the start of the pandemic.
“It’s been stressful, like everyone else it’s been hard to adjust to the new normal,” she said. “But this will be good for the kids, now we can all get outside and work together.”