Sand in the Coffee, Vol. 132: the plant sale across the bay, and how to take one day off from the storm

Here is a sentence nobody says in week two of a hurricane recovery: take a day off. Say it anyway. You have hauled limbs, filed a claim and eaten a lot of gas-station food. One morning of looking at healthy green things is allowed.

The Baldwin County Master Gardeners have a fall plant sale in Fairhope, running today, Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Oct. 18. It is a real, volunteer-run sale, and it is a decent excuse to leave the beach side of the bay for a few hours.

call before you go

I have not seen the hours, the exact spot, or the payment methods, so I will not make them up. Look up the Master Gardeners’ listing for the sale or phone them. After a storm, roads, signals and even the weekend plan can change on short notice, so confirm before you drive. Go early on a weekend morning. The best plants leave first, and so do the parking spaces.

what to buy if you live on the water

Salt and wind are the whole job. Ask a volunteer one question: “What survives salt spray and sandy soil?” Gardeners love that question and will answer it for ten minutes. Native and coastal-tolerant plants are your friends. Tell them whether your yard is on the Gulf side, where the wind is brutal, or back-bay, where the water sits. The answer changes.

One rule that is simply the law of the beach: never dig anything out of the dunes. Not sea oats, not anything. Buy it at a sale.

the car math

Bring a cardboard box or two, a bedsheet for the trunk, and old towels. A hot car and a flat of tender plants is not a good combination, so make the plant sale your last stop before home and keep the windows cracked. Do not buy more than you can put in the ground this week. A plant that waits on your porch for a month is a plant you paid to watch die.

make it a whole morning

Fairhope is a pleasant walking town, and the Eastern Shore across the bay feels like a different county for a few hours. Eat lunch somewhere with a view of nothing wrecked. Then drive home with the windows down.

When you are back on the Key or in Orange Beach, check /beach-today/ before you plan a walk, and stay clear of work crews and roped-off areas. The beach will still be there tomorrow. So will the debris pile. Take the Friday.

— Chris

P.S. If you run a place on the Key or in Orange Beach and it’s on this site, it’s yours to claim — free, always: /submit/claim/