Exactly one year after we debuted our new website to offer online shopping, our CNPS East Bay chapter’s Native Here Nursery has resumed in-person shopping. We had a soft reopening on June 19, and everything went smoothly. We will continue to offer both online and in-person choices, with in-person shopping on Saturdays only for the time being as we learn how the two shopping modes will work with each other. Our Saturday open hours are 10 am–2 pm, as they always have been.
Out of concern for the well-being of both our customers and our volunteers, we ask that you bring a mask when you come and practice social distancing when you are close to others.
Jean, who heads our customer service group, reports. “There were at least five in-person customers on [the first] Saturday, and a few of the people picking up orders also visited inside the nursery. And very happy they were that the nursery is open!” We were equally glad to welcome them back. Some were regular customers, like the gentleman who came in expressly to buy some seep monkeyflower.
Others, like these two young men and their dog, came in to browse and found some things they liked.
After being without customers in the nursery for so long, we had a lot to do to get ready. We spread a new layer of chips on the ground; that was regular maintenance. We weeded. We restocked the sales area with more plants. We tidied up.
We took care of some things that were long overdue, like cleaning out and repainting our office. Jean, Laura, and Linnea took a minimalist approach to restocking it, putting in only what they need to serve customers. It looks much better and is much more functional.
One of the last things we did was replace signage inside the nursery. Although last winter wasn’t very wet, it was windy enough that many of our signs sustained a fair amount of damage. Barbara printed 60 new plant cards for various species. Other signs were obsolete and needed to be replaced or modified, including two at the nursery gate.
And finally, on Saturday morning Jean turned our sign to “Open,” and we were ready to welcome customers to shop in the nursery again after 15 months.
— Lesley Hunt, Native Here Nursery Committee Chair, CNPS East Bay Chapter
July 2021
