The pandemic has hit the gardens of New Orleans.
All over the city, people are renewing and doubling down on their gardening efforts, or planting and growing their own food for the first time.
A rising number of organizations, individuals and pop-up gardening collectives — like Green Light New Orleans, Lobelia Commons, Sprout NOLA and Docville Farm, to name just a few —are sharing and distributing free seedlings, advice and other resources.
And people are not gardening simply because they have more time. They’re gardening because they are worried about food security, they want to avoid grocery stores, they shorten the food chain, and they want to become more self sufficient. They want to help their community.
