Garden Centres overwhelmed as they re-open - golf courses start to gear up in earnest

May 06, 2020

The truth is that garden centres in Frontenac County were already planning to re-open

at the beginning of May, when Premier Ford announced on May 1 st that they could

open up on May 4 th .

Deliveries of topsoil, gravel and other ground cover from a number of local companies

were already under way, and garden centres such as Silverbrook Gardens, near

Sydenham, and 1010 Lawn and Garden Centre on Road 38 near Sharbot Lake, were

already preparing for social distancing and curbside sales.

Orders were already coming in through the end of April and now that the stores are all

officially open, business has been booming.

“I’ve never seen it like this in 19 years,” said Tracey Jackson of 1010 Lawn and Garden

Centre. “We are getting more orders for materials than ever before, people are calling to

order seeds all day long, and we don’t even have bedding plants available until the end

of the week and people are calling about them as well. I can’t believe the season has

just started.”

Jackson said that with people home off work, and worries about the global food supply,

a lot of people are gardening more, building new beds, or getting into it for the first time.

1010 is not allowing customers into their building and they have set up a takeout

window. When bedding plants arrive, (flowers this week and vegetables a week or so

later), they will not be letting customers into their greenhouse either.

“We decided it was safer for everyone to do it all from outside,” said Tracey. Customers

will be able to order at the storefront and take delivery of plants, seeds, bagged

materials and bulk materials if they have a truck to load, but Tracey recommends phone

or, even better, emailed orders.

“If we get emailed orders (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) we can prepare them and let

people know when they are ready. It is the easiest way for everyone,” she said.

A list of materials is posted on the garden centre Facebook site, and as for plants,

Tracey said they will have a large variety available and will be working to have a full list

available for customers to use.

There is a sign at the front of the yard extolling customers to stay patient, and for the

most part, people understand that it takes longer to make purchases and find products

in these times than it normally does, but there are always some people who are in a

hurry.

Meanwhile, the news last Friday that golf courses can start preparing for the season

was welcomed by Mike Dillon, the manager of Rivendell Golf Course, which is located

north of Verona.

He had already been working and some of the ground crew had been tending the

course, but now he can bring in more office and kitchen staff to prepare for the opening

of play, which could come later this month.

“So far, we have not lost much in daily green fees because we don’t normally count on

opening until May 1 st anyway, and even May is not always a busy month for us. The

biggest issue for us, so far, has been a cash flow problem. Normally we collect

membership fees in April, but we haven’t sold any memberships this year, and we won’t

until we know that we can open,” he said.

He is hoping for a bit of notice before courses can open, in order to be able to handle all

the membership sales in one fell swoop, and to prepare the course and his staff, to work

under the social distancing rules that will apply.

He said that he has looked at what courses have done in the US, where many have

remained open. Flags that can’t be removed, holes with bouncing rubber in the bottom

to send balls up or holes that are blocked, sand traps without rakes, are all techniques

that have been used, and Rivendell will look at that, and at the rules in Ontario. These

are things they are working on now at Rivendell, along with the possibility of opening

their patio, but not their restaurant.

“It will be a different season for us. We may need to stagger starting times more, only

allow one person per cart unless they live together, stop renting hand carts, disable ball

washing stations, all of those kinds of things.”

Dillon said that the biggest loss that golf courses will be facing this season, will likely be

from the large fundraising tournaments that take over the course and feature shotgun

starts using all the holes on the course, and are followed by a dinner with auctions and

other fundraising activities.

“That scale of event will not be on this year. But we are lucky at Rivendell because we

do well all season and have a strong membership base and are in a strong financial

position as well. We are just looking forward to opening up, whatever the limitations

are.”