Houston, Texas has always been home, but lately it hasn’t felt that way. I’ve built my garden and YouTube channel around gardening in Texas, but now I want to change that. Recently, I took a two-week vacation in Rhode Island and got a glimpse of what a New England summer is like. I mean, I’ve spent many summers in Rhode Island, but it’s been a while. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I reminded myself of what I’ve been missing.

In my latest video, which you can find above, I talk about why I want to leave Texas and why I think my garden would grow better there. This past summer in Texas has been extremely hot, and frankly, I’m just sick and tired of it. Up until before I left for my trip, most of my plants were doing okay, but I knew I would have some dead plants when I came back. Luckily, only a couple of my plants died, but still, it kind of hurts to see them all dried up and withered away. I just think my garden would do a lot better in New England because the climate there is a lot cooler. Of course, there would be plenty of plants that I can’t grow up there, but gardening in New England will open up so many other plants I can’t grow in Texas, so it’s a battle of pros and cons.

One significant benefit of growing in New England would be my ability to cultivate more fruit trees. A lot of fruit trees need chill hours—that’s the amount of time a fruit tree needs to spend in a dormancy temperature of 32° to 45° in order to produce fruit. If these trees don’t get those chill hours, they won’t produce fruit. Obviously, tropical fruit trees do not need chill hours; moreover, you can’t grow tropical fruit trees in New England. Instead, I’d be focusing on growing trees like apples, peaches, plums, pears, cherries, and other stone fruit and cool-climate fruit trees.

One of my favorite things to grow are fruit trees, and I feel like gardening in Rhode Island or elsewhere in New England will allow me to grow varieties I can’t grow here in Texas. An example I reference all the time is a Honeycrisp apple tree. Here in Texas, I can’t grow that because they need around 1,200 chill hours every single year, and here in Texas, we only get around 400. So that means if I try to grow a Honeycrisp apple tree, it will never produce fruit here in Texas. But in New England, I could grow them without any difficulties.

However, I must mention that while I love growing fruit trees, there are some varieties that will be impossible or very difficult to cultivate on the East Coast. One such tree would be citrus trees. Here in Houston, I have over a dozen trees growing in containers in my garden. Even though I could still grow citrus trees in containers up in New England, it would require a lot more effort, including protecting them by bringing them into a heated garage or greenhouse. Furthermore, any trees I own right now I wouldn’t be able to take with me because of the citrus quarantine that exists in Texas. But starting all over isn’t that bad—it can be an opportunity for new beginnings.

Another type of fruit tree I love growing in my Texas garden are figs. Now, I could grow figs in New England, but I would need to prune them very heavily in the winter and cover them with a heavy mulch. I also wouldn’t be able to grow as many varieties as I do here in Texas, but a good variety to grow in a colder climate is the Chicago fig. Luckily, I know figs can grow in New England because I’ve seen it firsthand. While I was on vacation in New England, I was at my cousin’s house, and her neighbor has a pretty incredible garden. I noticed a fig tree in the corner. The lady is about 85 years old, and I am sure she has a lifetime of experience to share, but unfortunately she wasn’t there. If I had to guess, it probably was a Chicago fig or some other fig variety that handles colder weather better than other varieties.

Another problem I have with my garden here in Houston is that I have a very short window for cool-season vegetables but a very long window for warm-season vegetables like ginger, sweet potatoes, and peppers. I understand my growing season will be a lot shorter in New England, and they have brutally cold winters. However, what if those cold winters are the price you pay to have a spring and summer you could actually enjoy without feeling like you’re being cooked alive, like I do here in Texas? This summer has been especially hot because we’re in an El Niño, which raises the temperatures around the world. I don’t really know how to explain the exact scientific reasons why it happens, but it has something to do with tropical Pacific Ocean winds slowing down and a massive pool of warm water shifting eastward or something like that. If you want to learn more about what an El Niño is, I suggest you do your own research. All I know is that it makes the world a little hotter every few years. But still, I’ve lived in Houston most of my life, and I know every single year it’s hot as hell.

I’m sure you’re asking why I want to move to a place so cold. Well, my main motivation is that the majority of my family lives there. After losing both of my brothers to suicide, holidays have felt hollow and empty. Every holiday, I see family photos on Facebook, and my mom and I are never part of them. My parents are both divorced, but there was a time when my dad would still have dinner with my mom, my other brother (before he died too), and me. Two years ago, my dad wasn’t answering anyone’s phone calls, so I did a welfare check. He ended up having some kind of stroke from alcohol abuse, which led to a brain injury and then turned into dementia. So basically, now it’s just me and my mom. And it may seem selfish, but that’s not enough for me.

It may seem a little silly, but since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to live in New England just so I could attend Red Sox games. I’ve been a huge Red Sox fan from a young age, primarily because that was the team my dad loved. He would take me and my brothers to Fenway Park almost every single summer. During my recent two-week stay in New England, I managed to catch two Red Sox games, which I thoroughly enjoyed. They lost one game but won the second. Family is incredibly important to me, and moving to New England would help me reconnect with them; living in Texas has made it challenging to feel a part of the family. However, those two games provided me the perfect opportunity to spend quality time with my two cousins on my mom’s side, as well as my uncle and his two sons on my dad’s side.

I hadn’t seen my two cousins on my dad’s side in several years, and those games allowed me to reconnect and get to know them better. Another cool aspect of Fenway Park is the rooftop garden located right behind the Green Monster. Before the game, I took a tour of Fenway Park and got to see it.

Additionally, across the street is the Fenway Park Victory Garden, a community garden that has been around since World War II. Back then, the government encouraged citizens to grow their own food to help supplement supplies for the war effort, as resources were scarce in the U.S. This Victory Garden is the only garden that has continuously operated since that time. It was amazing to walk through and see the variety of plants that people are growing. I’m not sure how much it costs to secure a spot in the Fenway Park community garden, but I imagine there’s a waiting list.

Baseball games and growing in a cooler climate sounds really appealing to me, which is why I started scouting out potential nurseries where I could shop if I ever moved there. I even stopped by this nursery in Johnson, Rhode Island called Central Nurseries Inc. They’ve actually been in business for over 90 years, which I thought was really cool. It’s not just their long-standing history that impressed me; the range of plants they offered was remarkable, really showcasing the unique horticultural diversity that thrives in a cooler environment. Obviously, I couldn’t buy anything to take home because I had to fly back, and I don’t think a fruit tree would fit in my suitcase, but that being said, I did browse the fruit trees they have for sale and saw different varieties that I’ve never encountered in Texas, most likely because they need more chill hours to produce fruit successfully. I was particularly fascinated by the apple and pear trees, which seemed to flourish in that climate. But another fruit tree I would love to be able to grow is cherries, and most cherry varieties can’t grow in Texas because they need, you guessed it, chill hours. I think there’s a variety or two that can grow in Texas with less chill hours, but still, there’s a chance that those same trees won’t get enough chill hours because it’s still a pretty high requirement. So yeah, basically, I was just window shopping and exploring this potential nursery I could shop at, dreaming of the day I could actually cultivate my own little fruit orchard.

So obviously, if you’re still with me, you know by now that the weather is a big reason why I want to move. While at that one Red Sox game, I was thinking to myself how, you know, it’s a little hot, but it’s not that bad today and it’s actually a nice day with a little bit of a breeze; then almost as soon as I thought that, the guy next to me said, “Man, it’s wicked hot out today.” All I could think to myself was, “Man, you don’t know what heat is!” The intense Texas summers can be relentless, and I long for the gentler warmth of the Northeast. So yes, I would love to move to New England for the cooler summers, even though I probably would have to earn those summers by suffering through brutal winters. Yet, I think it’ll be worth it in the end, especially if it means enjoying fresh fruits right from my backyard. But there are things holding me back, mainly my dad, who has always been skeptical about such big transitions; he worries about leaving behind everything familiar and starting anew in an entirely different climate and culture.

However, I just can’t get up and leave because, since my dad has dementia now, I am his legal guardian and I have responsibilities here in Texas. The weight of this situation is heavy, and it makes the thought of moving both enticing and burdensome. Balancing the desires for personal fulfillment and familial obligation is a struggle I face daily. The passion I have for gardening and growing fruit trees, while also longing to be closer to family, is a complex emotional tapestry that I navigate. Ultimately, stepping into a new chapter in New England would allow me to explore a more diverse gardening experience while remaining connected to my roots, albeit with the challenges and sacrifices that come with such a significant life change.