Planting in a Pandemic

March 31st, 2020

   On the one hand, it’s a plus that this coronavirus pandemic comes at a time when the weather is warming because it allows us to get out in the yard instead of being cooped up in the house for weeks on end.

This is how Snavely’s Garden Corner in Chambersburg pivoted after the governor’s shutdown rules went into effect.

   On the other hand, it’s a minus that this coronavirus pandemic comes at a time when the weather is warming because it’s when we’d normally be out there buying and planting most of the year’s new plants.

   What a mess this isolating has been on so many fronts. But at least it’s better than the alternative of letting everybody mix uninhibited to wantonly spread a germ that could kill tens of thousands – or more.

   Plant nut that I am, I’m willing to delay or even scrap new plants if it helps flatten any curves or makes this surreal nightmare go away.

   Things certainly have been crazy and bizarre – for plant-sellers as well as would-be plant buyers.

   In an attempt to keep people at home, Gov. Wolf drew up a list of essential vs. non-essential businesses and ordered the non-essentials to shut down. That included garden centers and florists.

   I researched an article for PennLive.com and the Patriot-News – aiming to sort out the upshot for gardeners – and quickly realized that the shutdown rules allowed just about everybody to sell plants, except for the businesses that sell plants for a living.

   Lowe’s and Home Depot were allowed to keep their garden centers open because they were exempted as being an essential seller of potentially emergency home-repair items.

   Hardware stores that often sell young plant starts, onion sets, potting mix, seeds, and the like also got the green light for the same reason.

   Grocery stores that sell young plants, hanging baskets, potted flowers, and such were exempted because they needed to stay open to sell essential food.

   Walmart was allowed to keep its garden centers open because it was both a food store and a seller of necessary “general merchandise.”

   Even farm markets could stay open and keep selling plants because they got an exemption for selling produce.

   That left full-service garden centers like Ashcombe’s, Black Landscape Center, Highland Gardens, and Stauffers of Kissel Hill out of business.

   By the time my article came out last Monday, it already was outdated.

   Both Highland Gardens and Ashcombe’s applied for and got state waivers to reopen, which they’ve done with many of the same precautions as other businesses (disinfecting credit-card machines, spreading out customer checkout lines, offering curbside sales, etc.)

   Others have stayed closed or come up with virus-discouraging ways for people to get their plants.

   Snavely’s Garden Corner in Chambersburg, for example, shuttered the store but put up a sign inviting customers to just go and get the plants they wanted from the nursery, then call in their order via credit-card payment. (It’s also since been granted a waiver to reopen and is offering an option of no-contact pickup of pre-ordered plants.)

   Whether all or most of our plant-selling places stay open or not, it’s hard to tell if it’s going to make much of a difference.

   The exemptions and waivers don’t change the underlying goal, which is for people to stay at home and apart, except for emergency or absolutely necessary outings.

   I’m sure some gardeners will get out there and buy because a.) they want to help keep the plant places in business, and b.) they consider cabbage plants, dogwood trees, or whatever to be absolutely necessary.

   Given the amount of traffic I saw on Saturday coming out of a Dunkin’ Donuts shop, apparently some people consider chocolate-glazed doughnuts to be absolutely necessary.

   But many gardeners have told me they’re just not going to risk any plant-buying trips for the foreseeable future or that they’re planning to order their plants online – either for mail-order shipping or locally via the curbside-pickup options.

   “I plan on doing what I can with our landscape, like pruning and neatening up all that I can,” said Elizabethtown gardener Dave Kurtz, echoing what I’ve heard from others. “I do have some flower seeds that I can plant. Other than that, I don’t plan on going out for plants until given the OK from the governor.”

   In any event, planting in a pandemic is not an ideal way to start the 2020 gardening season.

   Stay well.