The increasing popularity of backyard and home gardening in Qatar – a pastime that continued beyond the stay or work from home period amid the Covid-19 outbreak – further boosted sales of various indoor and outdoor plants offered by nurseries.
Speaking to Gulf Times, an employee of a leading plant nursery located near the Wholesale Market in Doha said that many families who visited their store bought seeds and saplings, mostly flowering and vegetable plants, in the past two weeks.
“Seeds of tomatoes, spinach, cauliflower, eggplant, chili and jalapeno, and cabbage, as well as herbs such as parsley and basil, among others, continue to be in high-demand,” he said.
They also witnessed a demand surge for pots of various sizes since many people who live in flats nowadays fill and beautify their terrace with different types of plants, especially those which are easy to grow and maintain.
Besides seeds and saplings, he pointed out that customers are also likely to buy pots, potting soil, coco peat, and organic fertiliser.
“After sometime, people will need bigger pots for transplanting and new potting soil to recondition the old one. We are trying our best to meet this surge in demand,” he explained.
The employee cited a growing demand for basic farming/gardening tools such as mini shovel, garden fork, rake, and pruning shears.
A gardener at an adjacent nursery echoed the same view saying that they have been getting a large number of walk-in customers, mostly families, as temperatures continue to get cooler.
Apart from cacti and succulents, vegetable, and flowering plants, he said many people who visit the nurseries are also looking for medium size (over a metre) tall trees like moringa and lemon.
“Some people prefer to buy grown plants and buy bigger pots since it usually takes time (several months or years) to grow trees from seeds,” he added.
Meanwhile, Filipino expatriate Dave A who live in a flat at Al Hilal with his family said they grow vegetable seeds in pots, mostly water spinach, cherry tomatoes, onions, parsley, basil, and spinach.
“We get our green leafy vegetables and herbs from our mini garden and we save a lot of money. It is also a good therapy,” he said. “Instead of going out, we prefer to stay home and do gardening.”
Dave said they are planning to move to a villa with a mini garden soon, hoping to plant more vegetables and herbs such as ginger, carrots, lettuce, rosemary, and other varieties of spinach such as butterflay and matador.
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