Gardening Goes Corporate: How Office Workers Are Digging Into Food Security

A green revolution is sprouting in the last place you’d expect, the office boardroom. At Wise Publishing’s downtown Toronto headquarters, staff recently swapped out spreadsheets for soil, turning their meeting space into a mini indoor farm. This is part of a growing trend that’s seen Canadians transforming balconies, backyards—and yes, even boardrooms—into personal gardens as a way to push back against rising grocery costs.

A new study from Axiom Marketing and Research shows this isn’t just a passing fad. In 2023, gardening actually grew,with home gardeners spending more time and money on their plots than the year before.

For Laura Boost, an associate editor at Wise, the movement is personal. She’s not just digging into the dirt — she’s helping others get their hands dirty too.

“I work at a company that has both American and Canadian employees so the situation around tariffs touches us on both sides of the border. What we have in common is worries about food and the cost of our groceries,” she said.

Boost first picked up gardening during the early days of the pandemic, when uncertainty was everywhere and grocery shelves were bare. Even though she was a newbie when she started, she told The Click that gardening helped give her a sense of control when everything around her felt uncertain.

Her passion is already spreading. Michelle, a coworker and first-time gardener, is starting with basil, cilantro, and dill.

“I just have to wait for them to grow now—and then it’s straight into my cooking,” Michelle said.

For these rookie gardeners, it’s about more than just harvesting a few herbs. Growing your own food is turning out to be a practical way to cut costs, boost self-reliance, and cultivate a little community — one plant at a time.