Due to the pandemic more people than ever are growing food at home, this increase has happened for several reasons. One of the principle reasons is time, with the pandemic cutting jobs and forcing people to work from home, many Canadians took up gardening as a hobby and way to relax.
Gardening and home growing are a great way to pass time, the combination of living things and tangible output make gardening tranquil and sustainable.
Another of the benefits to home growing is the ability to grow any fruit or vegetable that is in demand, for home growers this means hard to find and unique produce can be made at any time. Novelty products such as small pumpkins, lavender, and other seasonal or hard to find produce become much more readily available.
There are many more benefits to home growing vegetables but for quarantine the most important is the community and family aspect of farming and planting. Growing a garden takes plenty of labor and time to do successfully making it a great for bonding and occupying time in a physical and fun way.
If you are thinking about planning your new gardening and home-growing efforts for the spring over the winter, be sure to check out the November/December issue of Small Farm Canada, which features the Annual Seed Guide.