Business has been blooming in the gardening sector despite a year of coronavirus restrictions.

According to research carried out by consumer agency GfK, last year the sector achieved its highest revenues ever, reaching €1.95bn. According to its ‘tuinmonitor’, which assesses revenues in national garden centres and shops, this was an increase of around 19% on 2019.

The increase has been linked to last year’s mild weather on top of travel restrictions and a plea from the government to remain at home as much as possible.

‘We know that if there’s good weather, people go into their gardens and that was the case last year, from mid-March,’ said Brenda Horstra, deputy director of the Tuinbranch Nederland association. ‘You couldn’t go on holiday, nature reserves were busy but you could be safe at home in your garden so a lot of people went there.’

She said that sales saw a notable spike, with garden furniture sales up by 50% on 2019 to €111m. ‘People bought garden furniture, started growing vegetable and rediscovered their gardens,’ she added. ‘Climate change awareness grew and you could do something about it yourself by doing something in your own garden.’

Barbecue sales rose by 44% to €56m, and sales of garden sheds and fences grew to €32m, a rise of more than a third. More people also bought plants and trees, with sales rising by 16% to €314m.

Unfortunately, since garden centres were shut from mid-December to mid-March this year, the sector has suffered some losses, but Horstra said that the sector was ‘very happy’ with overall performance last year.