A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Walmart

So, it's early on Saturday morning. I've had my coffee, Mr. T is having a well-deserved sleeping in, and I'm wondering what I can do that doesn't involve unpacking a box (sick of it...sick of it...sick of it). I know! I'll go get some ferns for the front porch. I imagine that doesn't sound exciting to you, but I've not been able to have ferns in such a long time...either because I didn't have a covered front porch, or because it was way too sunny/hot to keep ferns. Now, I have a wonderful "rocking chair" front porch (yes, I've put 2 rocking chairs on it...:) that will accommodate ferns...and palms...and almost anything. Off to Walmart I go!

However...

At Johnson Street, when Lillie Pearl should have turned left, she swerved right...and headed straight to the Piedmont Triad Farmer's Market on Sandy Ridge Road. Oh. My. Goodness. Imagine if you will: acres of covered retail sales stalls, filled with plants, produce, meats, poultry, cheeses, etc., all fresh-from-the-farm. There were so many plants that I felt overwhelmed. And, I only visited one of the retail stalls! But, as you can see from the photo of Lillie Pearl (left), it didn't stop me from loading 'er up with Shasta Daisies (two varieties), Rudbeckia ("black-eyed Susans"), patio tomato and cucumber plants, and...oh yeah...ferns. Remarkably, there didn't seem to be any palms available, but that was OK as I couldn't fit anything else in my car, even though I folded all the seats down and made my PTC into my best imitation of a cargo van. As you see from the photo to the right, I did leave some things for the other shoppers...who were quite numerous, even early on Saturday morning.

Arriving back at the house, I grinned sheepishly as Mr. T rolled his eyes at my loaded Lillie P. "You need to stop adding work for us to do, dear." I know, I know. But, they were so pretty...and they are all perennials, so any work we do in planting them now will reward us for years to come. In theory...

The previous owners obviously liked daylilies, for there are several plantings on our property. I've identified Stella d'Oros (lots of them) and possibly some Double Eagles (?), along with a pretty peachy-pink one. Wonder what that is? They also liked azaleas and rhododendrons, along with dogwoods, which do well in a tree-shaded yard...which we haven't had in several years (since our house in Dacula, GA). However, there doesn't seem to be a single iris. Not one. How can a Tennessee girl live without her iris? Well, we'll fix that, as soon as we get our plants we harvested before we left our MO house (which are currently lounging in Missy M's back yard). We have several varieties of iris, some of which were shared with us by friends and family. We'll proudly add them to our NC soil.


BTW, never fear. We still had to make a Walmart run later on that day for some shelf support brackets (so I could unpack a box of books onto one of the bookshelves) and some picture hangers...and Mr. T got those Cat Palms for the door (left). Ahhh, yes. It's starting to feel like home around here.