2005 February 22 | Chickens in the Road

Archive for February 22nd, 2005

Feb
22

It’s spring! Okay, not really, but the end of February is like spring in Texas, so my green thumb is programmed to start itching early . My daffodils poked their floppy heads up every February and I would be planting annual seeds. I love flowers–marigolds and zinnias are my faves for annuals, but I’ll plant anything. I love to experiment. I used to have a huge vegetable garden, too. Texas is a great place to grow peppers, in particular, and I enjoyed growing all kinds of weird peppers that I didn’t know what to do with.

When we visited our old house in the fall, I saw that the Horrible New People had ripped out every single one of my rose bushes. (This nearly made my cry.) I don’t want to even think about my daffodils. In my imagination, they are still there, poking their floppy heads up. If the Horrible New People dug them up and tossed them, I just don’t want to know. I wish I didn’t know about the roses. I miss my old gardens, but I’m ready to learn to love my new ones in North Carolina. Last year, I didn’t plant anything. We arrived here at the end of March and it was all I could do last spring to unpack and get the house in order. We did have a lovely surprise the day we pulled up to the house. It was March 30 and we’d bought the house in February and hadn’t seen it since. We drove up to the house to move in and the yard was full of azaleas. Everywhere. They were gorgeous. We bought the house rather quickly and the yard was snow-covered, so we had no idea what was here.

But what I miss most about Texas is my sister and my parents. ::sob:: And after that, my duckies. This is my back porch in Texas.

40ducks (13k image)

And this is what they’d bring me in the spring.

mamatut (20k image)

We have ducks here, but not nearly that many.

This house, like our Texas house, is two acres on a lake, but here the yard is mostly wooded and very shady, and the soil and climate are different, so I’ve got a lot to learn about gardening in North Carolina. I can’t wait to get started! Anyone else itching to plant?