Seeds in mega demand as people look to a home-grown alternative

In the past week The Diggers Club, which has 75,000 members nationwide, has put a hold on new orders as its members deal with a 300 per cent increase in demand for new seed orders.

The gardening club was formed in 1978 by Clive and Penny Blazey to offer a diverse range of seeds and plants to backyard green thumbs.

Diggers Foundation spokeswoman Donna Morabito said the club had been struggling to meet demand.

"It's been a very challenging time for everybody because we've seen an unprecedented spike in orders for everything; plants, seeds, blubs, hardware and Diggers Club memberships," Ms Morabito said.

"We've got mixed feelings about that because it's been important affirmation for the value of gardening to people but it's also posed huge logistical challenges for our team because it took us by surprise."

Despite the club temporarily pausing new orders for seeds, Ms Morabito said the club was well-positioned to deal with the demand but new social distancing restrictions were causing logistical headaches.

"We've seen an exponential growth in the tens of thousands in orders and a reduction in capacity," Ms Morabito said.

"There's no stock shortage - we don't have a shortage of stock - but demand has outstripped our capacity to dispatch and we need to catch up so we've paused for one week while we fulfill our orders.

"We're coping with the unprecedented spike which is in the tens of thousands of orders across the board combined with our reduced dispatch capacity."

As people search for easy and fast-growing food options, Ms Morabito said the biggest demand had been for autumn eatable seeds.

"We've always been about open pollinated seeds and there is an awakening about that at the moment because people want to collect and save their own seeds," Ms Morabtio said.

"The fast growers have been the most popular so all your brassicas and green leafy types.

"Things like our mini cabbage, broccoli de cicco, the mini cauliflower - which is always a favourite - pea green feast and our silverbeet five colour mix."

As Victorians are restricted from non-essential travel, Ms Morabtio said it provided an opportunity for people to connect with their food source.

"Gardening has never been more purposeful," she said.

"When people grow something in their backyard, they start to reconnect with their food source; that might be putting an emphasis on visiting their local farmer or grower or understanding the concept of food sources.

"We hope this is a sustained move towards gardening for many people because there's only positives to gardening."