Are they still selling plants and yard things, or is that not considered essential there?

Common sense dictates that everyone stays home except for essentials like food and meds regardless of what local authorities have mandated. Limited contact with other people is the only way to keep this thing from spreading no matter where you live! Please don't go out to buy plants.

Is any garden worth risking your life for?

It is not the Governments job to supply me with food. Farmers grow it, get it to a packing place or shipping point and get paid for what they produce. The shipper sells it to large distributors or wholesalers who get it to Wallmart buyers, Food Lion buyers, Kroger buyers or whomever.
It is not the Governments job to supply me with toilet paper either.

Walmart is just following guidelines set up in an attempt to limit exposure. They try to cut down on hoarding. They try to control overcrowding inside a store. Overcrowding increases exposure. My Meijers is doing the same thing.

Everyone has the right to procure their food as they see fit. You can buy it or grow it. Personal choice.
I just went the other day to the supermarket and there was enough seed packets there to choke three herds of elephants 9 times over.
In fact they had all kind of early perennials and fruit plants like blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and others available.

This same market limited toilet paper weeks ago to prevent hoarding. If you have a thousand packages of toilet paper and limit it to 2 per customer then 500 people can get paper. But if you let people hoard it and buy as much as they like, a lot less than 500 are getting paper. The hoarding is triggered by doom. Doom from a Snow storm, a Hurricane or Covid-19.
People panic and they buy too much. It is just human nature for some people.

They are in Gainesville. I went the day that they instituted the stricter stay at how order (at 12:01 later that night) to load up on a few bags of orchid bark. They told me they were considered essential, and would stay open, including the garden center. They had it set up that everyone had to go through the front entrance of the store, were limiting the number of folks, and in the garden center proper, you put your things onto one of those pull carts, and walked back, they came and scanned them, and they had the credit card scanner on a different cart with hand sanitizer, you sanitized before you touched the key pad and after you left they sanitized it again

Taking precautions. Seems like a good idea.
Home Depot and Lowe's are open here with reduced hours. They are no longer open at 7 for contractors since contractors aren't working. The stores are open from 8am to 6pm instead of 9pm.
But I haven't been since it is still so cold relatively speaking. It was 60-63 the last three days so maybe it will finally be spring.

All of our contractors ARE still working. I think its time that the damn federal government said that things need to be uniform. If one state is closed, all need to be closed. I am wearing a bandanna as a face mask the I go out

It is very clear that the countries and states that introduce the strictest measures early-on are the ones that are most successful in containing the spread of this virus. There remain a few states that have failed to order stay-at-homes. Those states have avoided a serious outbreak so far, but that will soon change.

Here in NYC, we have learned the hard way that we would have been better off taking strict measures earlier. I hope that other areas will learn from our experience. This is not a disease that respects borders or political affiliation nor is it limited to urban areas.

Everyone should do everything possible to avoid exposure to other people outside your household and go outside only for food and medical supplies and always wear disposable gloves and a mask when you do go out. I hate doing all of these things and staying home, but when you see more and more people overwhelming hospitals and funeral homes you realize how devasting this virus is.

We are all in this together. This is not just about protecting yourself. It is about protecting others. We are all potentially asymptomatic virus carriers. We cannot be too careful!

I'm staying in, for sure. I went and got my orchid bark before the 100% shut down, and I won;t be back until this is lifted.

I have been doing stuff like clean out closets, and lo and behold in my linen closet I found a box of four 3M facemasks. My daughter bought them over 10 years ago when she was in her early anime phase, was going paint stuff on them and never did LOL

I have a possible appointment tomorrow with a fence guy to come put up a fence around our little front yard area, my kids are bringing a dog that cannot stay in the house 24 hours a day we need a place to keep her.

Contractors are hurting as much as the rest of us, because they can't get materials, and don't want to loose their labor force, and/or their businesses. Not all jobs can depend on computers.

Did you read that some tigers in a zoo have tested positive for Covid 19, which means that humans transmitted it to them? It is believed that a zoo keeper who tested positive infected the tigers.

This kinda changes the game....if humans can give it to animals, animals can give it to more humans

Well, yes, that is how we got it to begin with.

Last I read, they hadn't decided for sure on that, but I'm betting the dog's fur could hold the virus long enough to pass on. They're so many ways aside from sneezing/ coughing on someone. Money? I'm going to do some "money laundering" tomorrow. The bills in my pocket will stay through the cycles of the washer. Debit cards? not all readers use chip only. How many fingers have pressed those buttons ahead of you, and wiping the card off after each use is likely to destroy it. The list goes on and on, but we do the best we can. If I could find some more sanitizing wipes, I would wipe the car key and all door handles, after leaving the market, but what about reusing those plastic/ or cloth bags? We're supposed to buy all our needs on line, but don't have a clue how many workers / delivery people handled that order. My attitude is do the best you can, don't make yourself crazy, and if you can't understand them, avoid people/ things that worry you.

porkpal said:Well, yes, that is how we got it to begin with.

But that was a little different...those were wild animals in a market condition, and humans contracted it from the animal...now for humans to be able to give it to domestic animals...that is a bit different.

Plenty of seeds at my HD. Limit of mostly under 50 in the building so you do have to wait on line at over 6ft apart. Makes you feel way safer then stores with no limit. Hand sanitizer at entrance and exit for carts and at registers for hands. Contractors still working here so store are open 6 to 6. With that still way to many showing up for non essential items. Scary how many are bringing small children and infants into all the different stores around here. At food stores you might not be able to find exactly what you want but plenty of other foods there. TP and PT's not always there and with limits when they do but have been lucky to find large packs. Pretty much all good mask and disinfectant sprays being diverted to hospitals. If you are lucky you can get wipes but can make own if needed.