From Snow To Sun, Garden Center Works To Keep Up With Heightened Demand

Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support our critical reporting on the coronavirus by purchasing a digital subscription or donating directly to the newsroom. Barely three weeks ago Matt Tibbetts awoke to the biggest snowstorm of the year in southern Piscataquis County. The weighty and wet dose of frozen precipitation left him and other homeowners in the area with considerable storm carnage to clear — particularly broken branches from virtually every tree in every yard. [Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county] Tibbetts, manager and co-owner of Bob’s Hardware, Home and Garden Center in Dover-Foxcroft, also had the immediate future to consider as he cleared his yard of the last remnants of winter. “On May 9 we’re prepping for Mother’s Day weekend when there’s hanging baskets and flowers and delicate items, and to have a foot of snow land on top of everything definitely set everything back,” he said. Natalie Williams | BDN Natalie Williams | BDN Manager Matt Tibbetts organizes his supply of plants at Bob's Garden Center in Dover-Foxcroft on May 29. Mother’s Day wasn’t the only reason shoppers flocked to the garden center as the snow melted. In this year of the COVID-19 pandemic and food insecurity, vegetable seedlings and other gardening inventories have become an endangered species. “The day after it snowed we had two greenhouses set up out of our seven, and I was shaking the snow off the top of them and digging out tomato plants and selling them right in the [aftermath] of a snowstorm,” Tibbetts said. “Our normal schedule of bringing vegetables in is the week after Mother’s Day, but this was before Mother’s Day and we were selling already.” That run on all things garden-related has continued unabated since then, spurred by fears of food shortages at the retail level in the wake of the coronavirus. Natalie Williams | BDN Natalie Williams | BDN Matt Tibbetts, manager of Bob's Garden Center in Dover-Foxcroft, organizes his supply of plants after a busy few weeks of business. “From somebody putting a shovel in the dirt to the truck that brings food to the store, there’s so many facets to it, but we’re so ingrained in thinking, ‘I’ll just go to the grocery store and pick it up,’” Tibbetts said.