How Oaxaca’s Garden Centers Have Made Us Start To Feel At Home

The splendor of Oaxaca's viveros has made an unfamiliar place feel better

Dusk was falling last night as we stood at Vivero San Lorenzo Cacaotepec looking at herbs, flowers, trees, and shrubs.

An ornamental tree with Seussian qualities.

We’ve lived in Mexico for just about two months and our stuff still hasn’t arrived. Delays due to bad weather kept the ship from arriving on time; delays at the port in Veracruz due to Día de Muertos delayed its inspection; delays in paperwork being provided by our American moving company kept it from being processed promptly. And while our home improvements are ongoing, as you’ve seen documented here, we can’t fully occupy and use our house yet. We’re sleeping on a mattress that isn’t familiar, using furniture which doesn’t quite feel like it belongs to us. The kitchen lacks the equipment I’ve come to rely on, the lighting isn’t quite right in every room. We’re living in a home that doesn’t yet feel like our own.

But while the changes to our house are gradual, and the broader change to our lives has been immediate and extreme, Oaxaca’s ample viveros (plant nurseries) have greatly helped to temper the feeling of being unmoored.