Herb Sale

While I understand that this won't do you a whole lot of good now that the event has passed, just file it under "Things to Look for Next Year."

The Herb Society of Nashville's annual Herb Sale went down last Saturday and by all accounts it was a smashing success.  You may ask yourself, "But Fat Girl, why should we care about a bunch of plants?"
Because you can eat 'em, that's why!

With the recent surge of interest in home gardening, eating local and generally spending less money on food it seems like a no brainer to go and get some fresh herb seedlings to grow big & strong and season all those zucchini & tomatoes you'll be growing this year.  The difference in buying them at this sale rather than going to Lowe's or even your local nursery is the selection of hard to find & common plants.  Not to mention that this is put on by a group of men & women who sleep, eat, work & dream herbs.  You have questions?  They have answers.  Do you get enough sun to grow this?  What about drainage?  What's the difference between an annual & a perennial?  They've got all of those answers and more.
Be forewarned, it is an all-out zoo in there, people line up very early to get a prime spot when the doors open at 9 am.  Your fellow shoppers are more or less friendly & polite, but in a crowd that large, all trying to get their hands on stuff before they run out, it can get a little hairy.  The Herb Society posts a preliminary list of herbs that will be available (or at least that they plan to have, flukes of weather or greenhouse mishaps may cause a few varieties to not make an appearance) that you can make a print of and circle the ones that you are most interested in.  The herbs are sorted in alphabetical order by their common name and there are plastic trays available.  My mother took me along this year, she is an old hand at this, but this was my first year, so let me offer some advice.  Definitely make the list, if you don't know what you're after you will be completely overwhelmed and will likely get run over by people who are tired of waiting on you.  In fact I would recommend that you come with a team, in matching jumpsuits with walkie-talkies.  Barring that ask a friend to come along and you can split up with half the list each, meet up and then divide who wants what and check out.  I'd also say that while they offer some containers to put plants in, bring your own, but if you have some sort of wagon or rolling cart, LEAVE IT IN THE CAR!  It's rude and dangerous to drag a cart around there, people are crushed together trying to see what's on the tables they are not searching the floor for your son's Radio Flyer and I speak from experience when I say that it is the perfect height to smash up your shins AND trip you.  Speaking of your sons (and daughters for that matter) please consider that there are a tremendous amount of people jostling and rushing about, unless you are prepared to carry your child on your shoulders the whole time, this is exactly a safe place for them to be.
So I know after all that it seems like a daunting task just to have fresh herbs in your garden, but the prices and selection just can't be beaten, not to mention the amount of expertise there for the asking.
Keep an eye on their events calendar for next year's sale & hopefully I'll see you there!