“I believe more people are interested in having a garden this year because you go to Lowe’s or Tractor Supply, and a lot of the garden supplies are depleted,” said Steve Jones, a tenant at the garden since 2013. “A lot of the shelves are empty from the spike in interest in gardening from people this year."
Gia Card is coordinator for the Thompson’s Station community garden. Photo by John McBryde Much of the reason for that spike, of course, has been from the impact of the pandemic. Gia Card, who sits on the Thompson’s Station Parks and Recreation board and is volunteer coordinator for the community garden, said interest from newcomers to gardening increased significantly this year.
“A lot of people have come to the garden this year because of the COVID-19 crisis,” she said. “They felt they needed to do something outside, but also growing their own food, I think, gives them a sense of security, that they have a place to get fresh vegetables whenever they need them.
“With all the shortages like toilet paper, meat and things like that, people started to get worried. I noticed a huge uptick in the number of people interested in getting plots. Not everybody followed through, but I did get a lot of emails from people who have never gardened before and who wanted to start trying to grow something.”
The Thompson’s Station community garden consists of 45 plots of differing sizes and includes an irrigation system from a creek-fed water tank owned by the city. The Parks and Recreation maintenance crew tills the land to get plots ready in the spring, so tenants can begin planting as soon as they’re ready.
“There is community support, so every gardener here is willing to help people out if they needed to,” Card said. ... Per John McBryde with Williamson Homepage