Increase in gardening popularity during the pandemic

There’s been an increase in hobbies like gardening due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Casual Gardner owner Eric Lease said, “It’s nice to unplug from everything that’s going on around and what better way than to get outside and growing plants.”

Lease saw an uptick in plant sales during the pandemic, a trend that he was more than thrilled to see blossom. “I’m hoping it will share some happiness in some people’s lives because when you come outside and mess with your plants, it does offer some meditation.”

He’s been in operation for four years, selling plants and helping others become passionate about plants. Through the Facebook group MS Gulf Coast Plant and Cutting Exchange, he was able to learn and connect with other plant people.

The page was created ten years ago after Founder Wendy Freed lost her plants during a harsh winter. The page has grown since then and now has over 7,500 members. Freed said, “People like to talk about their plants. A lot of people are shut in especially since COVID and it’s their way of interacting with the public. They want to share what they do.”

The page is active all year long. There are about 20 to 30 posts a day. It’s the perfect page to visit if this is a new hobby. “We have experience. We have members that are 90 years old that have gardened their whole life. We will tell you how to take care of it. We have members that come in with no experience at all and in six months they were giving advice to other members.”

With the size of the group, just about every kind of plant can be found. The page is used to trade or share what you have. It’s not a selling site and there are some rules. “If you have a snake picture you have to post in the comments because a lot of members are scared of snakes. We are nice people and we don’t want to scare them.”