Back in our city-dwelling days, in Old Town Alexandria, we were surrounded by restaurants and coffee shops; boutiques; wine bars. We could step out our back door and walk to the library, our favorite pizza joint, a waterfront park, and about six different playgrounds. The proximity to so many of our favorite places (and people!) was one of my favorite things about Old Town. But there were drawbacks as well, or we wouldn’t have moved to the exurbs – and don’t get me wrong, I love my new town and can’t wait to get immersed in the community life out here (as soon as the damn pandemic is over). When we moved, one of the things that I immediately noticed – and chuckled at – was the different surroundings. Instead of coffee shops and wine bars, we are surrounded by garden centers.

Driving out of our neighborhood, as soon as you get to the main road, there are about three garden centers in a two-block radius. If you’re willing to go a little farther, I can think of about six or seven more nearby. Since moving here, I’ve gotten to know a few of them. We’re renting our house, so I am not doing much to the outdoor space – as y’all know – but between bird feeders, houseplants, and my patio garden, I still find myself at my two favorite local indie garden centers about once or twice a month, and I have started to make note of their particular strengths. One has the best bird seed. The other has almost no bird seed, but a spectacular selection of houseplants, and good prices on outdoor planters.

I’ve taken Nugget to the garden center with the houseplants before (that’s why he now has a yew tree in his bedroom) but never to the other one. And every time I stopped by to grab another bag or two of Cole’s birdseed, I thought to myself that he’d love it. In the fall, there is a pumpkin patch with big inflatable slides and a bounce house; the rest of the year, randomly, there is a miniature farm right out front.

Because why not have pigs, chickens, goats, bunnies, and a couple of small cows just hanging out at the garden center? It’s the exurbs.

I finally got around to taking Nugget a few weeks ago. He loved it, just as I expected. We spent about forty-five minutes standing on the snowpack while he gave names to all of the animals. He even fearlessly stuck a hand inside the fence and petted this rooster, which I was not expecting him to do.

He named the largest pig “Mr. Big” and I would like a medal for holding it together. (Side note: which SATC lady are you? I’m a Charlotte.)

Mr. Big was grunting very noisily at the piglets. We have a connection, Mr. Big!

Our signal to go came when the rooster flew up onto the top rail of the fence (Nugget gasped: “I didn’t know he could do that!”) and started crowing loudly. Message received, fella.

We rolled on home after over an hour at the garden centers, and Nugget excitedly told Steve about the animals. “Where is there a farm near here?” Steve asked, confused. I gave him the intersection of two major roads about three minutes from our house. He was astonished, but – it’s the exurbs.

Have you ever gone out to buy birdseed and stumbled across a low key farm?