The variety of plants in the yard-formed green opened area utilized by community as resilience during COVID-19 pandemic era
Karmilasanti Karmilasanti(a), Deby Mipa Salam(a), Andrian Fernandes(a), Rizki Maharani(a), Sultan Sultan(b), and Mukrimin Mukrimin(c*)

1 Dipterocarps Research Center, Forest Research Development and Innovation Agency, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Jln. A.W. Syahrani No. 68 Sempaja Samarinda, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia

2 Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agriculture, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Indonesia

3 Department of Forestry, Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, Indonesia, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan Km. 10 Makassar, Indonesia
*: mukrimin[at]unhas.ac.id

Abstract

History has shown that pandemics determine how cities and nations can change radically, including the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic has altered work patterns from working from office (WFO) to working from home (WFH). Restrictions on WFH can cause boredom and stress, so utilizing of vacant land around the community yard is an alternative to solve it. This study aimed at a persistent pattern of planting vacant land around the communities yard, both private and rented houses. The study was conducted in two housing blockes, namely privately and rental housing blocks. The results showed that most of the vacant land was only in front of the house in the rental housing block, where ornamental plants were planted using polybags and a small portion of plastic pots. Ornamental plants were obtained by exchanging results with neighbors and bought with a maximum price of 50,000 IDR. The species that are widely planted are Caladium and Coleus. Whereas in privately housing block, the open space is more comprehensive, located in front and on the side of the house. Planting is in-ground, and some are using exclusive pots-ornamental plants obtained from exchanging with neighbors, and some of their buys up to millions of rupiah. The species that are widely planted are only species such as Monstera, Caladium, and Aglaonema. However, this new trend is bringing new business incentives, making the environment healthy and fresh, and one of the resilience needed to deal with a crisis due to a pandemic can come quickly without warning.

Keywords: work from home, ornamental plants, Covid-19, vacant land, yard

Topic: Emerging Technologies in Agricultural Production Systems