Lockdown gardening – What to do in the garden?

Sanitary crisis like coronavirus shouldn’t keep you away from your garden. Practically, a lockdown is an opportunity

to take even better care of your plants. Whether voluntary or imposed by the government, gardening is safe and will bear much more fruit than staying inside.

Turn couch potatoes into real potatoes!

However, expect changes to your gardening routine:

• Practice social distancing when gardening
• Garden without leaving the house

What can I do in the garden during a lockdown?

First, a note of caution regarding community gardens during lockdown. Many have set up schedules to reduce risks of people running into each other. The situation is different for professional gardeners and landscapers during coronavirus lockdown, too.

So you’re in your own garden, ready to get dirty. Soil is still wet because of spring rains. Weeds are, as always, the first to make the most of it!

Weeds and weeding

Today is the perfect day to pull them out.

• Soft, moist soil makes pulling them out very easy.
• Being confined to your home and house unlocks hours of extra free time. It’s the perfect opportunity to weed undesirable plants out with your bare hands. Manual weeding is the ultimate choice for your garden, since it avoids all sorts of chemicals and herbicides.

Note – for best results, pull out the entire root system.

Renovating lawns

Spring is the best season to renew and re-seed your lawn.

Once you’ve pulled weeds out, here are our tips to rejuvenate an old lawn.

• Now is also a good time to topdress your lawn to replenish its nutrients as winter kicks in.

You can still mow your lawn during lockdown.

• It is no longer required to keep trimmings in your garden: you can again leave the house to dump them at the local landfill or eco-center.
• However, it’s really best to keep them anyways to use them for mulch or to make compost.

Trimming and pruning

There’s still time to catch up on pruning your roses, if you haven’t had the occasion yet.

Shrubs that have finished their winter blooming can also be pruned now.

And, of course, there are many types of hedges that can still be pruned nowadays.

Month-by-month garden checklist

Here, you can also go through these monthly garden task lists. There’s for sure a few things you can do in the garden to get a head start on December, January, and February garden work.

Houseplants, also the perfect time for basic care

Your houseplants can benefit from proper repotting. It’s also time to prune some of the winter growth off, for instance on your Ficus ginseng.

If you see your leaf plants sagging and getting brown leaf tips, they’re lacking humidity in the air.

• Set up a simple saucer with hydroton clay pebbles to increase it.
• Much better to keep the clay wet with daily attention, than to risk overwatering your plants!

Lockdown garden jobs at a glance

With extra hours at home and damp soil underfoot, a handful of jobs pay off straight away. Here is what to tackle first, and when each one is best done.

Whichever you start with, all of them can be done without leaving your own plot.

Children and lockdown gardening

Excellent opportunity to involve your children in the garden. More than just a way to spend time having fun, it’s also a very healthy way to build up immunity and teach kids how wonderful nature is.

If you’re looking for fun gardening to keep kids busy during the virus quarantine, these few activities will surely help:

• Propagate your houseplants – ZZ plant (also called “emerald gem“, so that makes for a fun treasure to plant), the Dragon plant or Dracaena marginata… all these will give them a plant of their own to care for.
• Make a herbarium with the kids
• Start a Children’s vegetable patch

Municipal eco-centers and waste disposal

In many countries, eco-centers have closed their doors to the public due to sanitary precautions. Entry is restricted to people who are registered. You might have to check with your municipality to sign up, usually it’s a free service.

The alternative?

• Set up a simple compost pile to stash all that nutrient-rich material!
• Weeds can even be recycled into liquid fertilizer with just a pail and water. Ferment them to extract nutrients you can use to water your houseplants! Kids love making bubbly potions, too…
• Spread lawn trimmings across your flower beds. They will keep out the weeds, great mulch!

Garden stores still sell pet food

A number of garden stores are still open to the public, but sometimes only for animal and pet food. It’s the only thing they can sell!

• Indeed, even though a sanitary crisis is at hand, our pets and animal friends still deserve to eat!
• Some brands have decided to shut their doors entirely. It’s a decision taken to protect staff and customers from risk of Covid-19 contamination.
• Landscapers and gardeners can work at their clients during lockdown, at least until “shelter-in-place” lockdown is mandated.

Worry not!

• You can make your own soil mix from household items you already have.
• And on top of that, there are dozens of plants you can grow straight from the kitchen!

Buying seeds and plants during a lockdown

Garden stores, nurseries, and horticulture centers have strict rules. They cannot sell plants such as trees, shrubs, bulbs or roses – in the store.

However, many now have online stores.

• It’s still perfectly possible to buy online and have them delivered.
• Many stores have a “click & collect” system, where you order online and then go pick it up.
• It’s allowed to use these services as long as the items are time-sensitive. For instance, certain trees and shrubs can only be planted in spring, now.
• Stores are usually required to only make authorized items available on their website. Expect the range of products to be lower than the usual!

You can, as of now, purchase plants, seedlings and seeds on the Internet.

• Remember, you can also start cuttings from your favorite plants, or divide them!

Community gardens, plant fairs and flower shows

Cancellation of all plant fairs and flower events

Granted, winter isn’t usually high season for plant fairs, farmer’s markets and flower shows, but nonetheless many events are officially canceled. This is important to protect people of all ages and their relatives that would otherwise have attended these events.

• Botanical gardens restrict the number of guests in order to minimize staff and visitor exposure.
• Check their websites, though, because many have virtual tours. These will virtually immerse you in their beautiful nature!
• For example, even the famed Chelsea flower show has been canceled.

Community gardens – avoid until lockdown is over

• Minimize work in shared gardens during the lockdown. They’re not places where you should go without following a schedule, since visitors from different places come and go.
• Many municipalities have voted to close any gardens they manage.
• Keep in virtual touch though. Sow seeds of relationship instead of spreading virus germs to members of your local gardening community!

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