The number of people turning to gardening is growing rapidly as produce prices continue to rise. Inside Ron Paul Garden Centre, ‘Bob’s Early’ tomato plants are flying off the shelf. “Bob’s early tomatoes, that’s in the name, have been walking out and you know as you can see, a lot of them have flowers on them,” said owner Ray DuBois, adding vegetable sales are outpacing flowers and other ornamentals. “What I can tell you is it’s a seismic shift,” DuBois said. “So let’s say it was perhaps 80-20 decorative crop to vegetable, it’s almost now an equal number of decorative versus vegetable. So it’s significant.” Dubois said his usual customer base is expanding as millennials and newcomers in Winnipeg want to get their hands dirty. Nancy Wilde is after potatoes at nearby St. Mary’s Nursery and Garden Centre. She came out early in the season because a number of varieties sold out last year. “Last year I did miss out,” she said. “I’ve been looking at the different varieties here. There’s everything from pink to white to purple and I’m really excited to try these new pink ones.” Wilde said given the price of vegetables in stores – her early bird shopping trip could end up saving her money. Sylvain Charlebois, food professor and director of Dalhousie University’s agri-food analytics lab said cucumbers, onions and tomatoes are just three staples he’s found that continue to rise in price. “People will absolutely remember higher prices, prompting them to think, you know what, maybe it’s time for me to grow my own,” Charlebois said. He said in order to truly save - you need to keep gardening for several years in order to make it worthwhile. At St. Mary’s, owner Carla Hrycyna is optimistic. Hrycyna said choosing vegetables that are easy to store can go a long way to saving money on fresh produce. “Not only can we store the potatoes and the onions, but think of the capacity of doing some canning, preserving your own stuff, creating your chutney, doing pickles, pickled carrots, pickled asparagus,” she said.
