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Before reopening to the public, Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply installed
several precautions, including plastic protectors at its checkout counter. (Photo
courtesy PVFGS)
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Will renewed interest in gardening continue after COVID is gone?
If the experience of one popular supplier is any indication, it’s highly likely that the pandemic has given root to a new generation of serious gardeners.
Synonymous with all things organic and a go-to source for gardeners (and farmers) for decades, Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply has ridden spikes of orders and lows of shutdowns during this year like no other.
“We knew in the very beginning of March that we were running out of seed,” said Peaceful Valley owner Patricia Boudier. “That seed should have lasted us all year.”
Headquartered in Grass Valley, Peaceful Valley ranks as the nation’s largest organic farm and garden supply company, with tens of thousands of customers nationwide.
“We started to see a huge surge in seed sales in February,” Boudier said. “People were listening to the news and those early reports about (coronavirus).”
Boudier recalled other news-driven boons in seed sales. There was a spike in advance of Y2K and another right after 9/11.
“People worry about food sources,” she said, “and they start to garden.”
Founded in 1976, Peaceful Valley has withstood many challenges during its long run as an organic pioneer. But nothing could prepare Boudier and her 60-person staff for this pandemic-fueled demand. Even putting a $100 minimum on new orders didn’t stop the surge.
“We couldn’t deal with thousands and thousands of orders at one time,” she said. “We couldn’t get our seed packets printed fast enough. We worked all night to fill orders. We sent out seeds in plain brown wrappers.”
What were people buying? Peaceful Valley’s best sellers of 2020: Scarlet Nantes carrots, Genovese basil, cilantro, Bloomsdale spinach and Calabrese broccoli. Apple and pear trees were popular, too.
When California declared a statewide shelter-in-place order March 19, Peaceful Valley’s whirlwind business came to a sudden halt.
“We closed completely for one day so I could gather my thoughts and do some research,” Boudier said. “As a farm supply, we’re an essential business, so we could stay open. We closed our (Grass Valley) store and nursery until we could be sure we could open safely.
“Then, we had all these employees who couldn’t come to work because they have little kids and needed to stay at home,” she added. “We still did online orders, but we had to close that down for a week just so we could catch up.”
Peaceful Valley gradually reopened its store and nursery. Only five or six people are allowed inside at a time. Masks are required. Plexiglas and plastic shields shroud the counters.
“We fully reopened our call center, but we still didn’t have enough people,” Boudier said. “Some of our (employees) took leave; they didn’t want to risk exposure.”
Four months into the pandemic, Peaceful Valley has found some peace. “This (crisis) has actually helped us be more efficient,” said Boudier, adding that her company took this opportunity to migrate its online business to a new web platform.
This summer, business has remained strong. Sales for July are up about 22% compared to last year.
“Anything edible is flying off the shelves,” she said. “Even sprouting seeds (such as mung beans and alfalfa); I was surprised by how many people wanted to do their own sprouts. Even if they have no room for a garden, they can grow their own microgreens.”
Boudier expects this boom in organic gardening interest to outlast the pandemic.
“I’ve talked to so many people who put in their first garden ever; they’re so excited,” she said. “People are gravitating towards keeping their food sources protected. They want to grow their own food.”
Planning a fall garden? Check out Peaceful Valley’s website
at
www.groworganic.com
.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of May 11
Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)
* Plant dahlia tubers.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.
* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.
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