Courtesy Jolene Swain

By Matt Fetinko

How sustainable is increased popularity in gardening for providers

Oct 21, 2020 | 1:47 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — Gardening season looks to have come to an end with the recent snowfall and chilly temperatures becoming the norm. The increasingly popular past time forged an increase of customer traffic by 50 percent overnight at the start of the season at Art Knapp. Meanwhile, the BC Eco Seed Co-op saw increases of 800 percent in sales and 500 percent in orders from April to August.

“A lot of seed we get in Canada is coming from over the border and the pandemic seemed to hit home with people about where their food is coming from,” explained Jolene Swain, a producer and member for BC Eco Seed Co-op based in the Kispiox Valley. “Especially up north where we kind of at the end of the line. It makes you realize how food insecure we really are so this big surge in people growing their own food was amazing.”

So the question becomes: how to sustain the demand? The BC Eco Seed Coop, for example, is looking at crowdfunding and promotions to increase seed production facilities and capacity. For the local Art Knapp, Owner Jos Van Hage said, “we were very lucky, to be honest, that I have a 40-year track record with our growers. So they looked after us very well. But there were a couple of weekends where there were empty tables which I didn’t like to see but we did better than most other people.”

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Most of the sustainability question revolves around projecting how next year will look. Prince George will look different than other communities.

“Say, for instance, we had 50 percent more gardeners in Prince George. Out of that, my feeling is next year about half of that falls off,” Van Hage explained, hoping some new faces will return. “The new people can say was fun last year and they got something out of it, OK great. Next year, make it fun, get lots out of it, and become an expert.”