Bloomin’ Update 53: New Year, New Look, New Plants

January 24, 2015February 18, 2015 / Kevin / 27 Comments

Bougainvillea.

It’s been some time since I posted a “Bloomin’ Update,” because — well — I had nothing bloomin’ in my garden because I didn’t have a garden in zone 10.

But as 2014 changed into 2015, so too did the garden change. Where there was once only lawn, there are now beds. Where there are beds, there are now plants and pots and paths. (Speaking of paths, I’ll describe the path I took to create this garden in a future post.)

With all of the changes happening around me, I decided to make some changes to this blog. For a while, I’ve considered purchasing my own domain — which I have now done. It’s official, I am now Nitty Gritty Dirt Man dot com.

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Oh, Baby! What A Year!

December 30, 2014January 24, 2015 / Kevin / 30 Comments

At this time of year, I get a bit giddy with blogging excitement as I wait for the email from WordPress. It’s a kind of end-of-year gift and — at last — it’s arrived: a compilation of Nitty Gritty Dirt Man’s year in review.

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It’s Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

December 19, 2014December 30, 2014 / Kevin / 14 Comments

A local weather forecaster reminded me that in a few days it will be winter. The predicted high in Zone 10 for the day is 80 degrees, and I have to ask myself: “This is Christmas?”

It’s a lot like the question most people ask whenever I tell them I’m spending the holidays in south Florida. “Does it even feel like Christmas there?” they wonder. “I don’t think I would enjoy Christmas down there. How can it even feel like Christmas?”

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A Gardening Life Remembered

December 11, 2014December 19, 2014 / Kevin / 26 Comments

Lee May
April 15, 1941 – December 3, 2014

When I started this blog, the first piece of advice I received was to find other blogs that I admired, blogs that I thought would appeal to the readers I hoped to attract. After scrolling through blog after blog, I found one that stood out from the rest.

It was classic and classy, well-written, witty, and wise.

It was Lee May’s Gardening Life.

I left a comment immediately and added the site to my newly learned term: a blogroll. For some time, Lee May’s Gardening Life was the only blog listed on that roll.

It had been a long time since I had written. Prior to blogging and prior to my life as a school social worker, I had been a journalist — but that was a long ago chapter in my life. So when Lee — a much-respected journalist — replied that he liked my writing, he provided water to my young sprouting blog and to my soul.

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Repost: To All The Christmas Trees I’ve Loved Before

December 3, 2014December 19, 2014 / Kevin / 24 Comments

Adonidia Palm — also known as the Christmas Palm.

If there’s snow falling on this WordPress blog, it must mean that it’s December — and since I’m in south Florida at the moment, I have a feeling these digital dots may be the closest I come to the white stuff this holiday season.

Take, for example, my recent trip to purchase a Christmas tree.

In recent weeks, large tents have popped up all over. It’s as if lots and lots of circuses have come to town. But under these big tops — necessary to protect the fresh trees from the heat of the sun — freshly bundled Christmas trees are lined up like soldiers, the smell of pine is everywhere, and Christmas carols play from the speakers.

It’s also 75 degrees — and I’m wearing shorts and sandals, which are a far cry from my typical bundled-up Christmas tree shopping gear, although I did add a sweatshirt to at least create the illusion that it’s chilly.

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Wordless Wednesday: Warm Thoughts

November 19, 2014February 18, 2015 / Kevin / 32 Comments

It wouldn’t be a Wordless Wednesday without a few words.

For months now, Joe and I have been in south Florida so I can better manage some heart issues. Being a garden blogger without a garden has been a recurring theme in many of my recent posts.

While I’ve tried to keep myself busy with rooting some clippings and edging out beds, I just haven’t felt settled. My thoughts continually return to my potting shed, which has been dormant for too long.

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A Hat’s A Hat And That’s That

November 16, 2014December 19, 2014 / Kevin / 17 Comments

One of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make recently has had nothing to do with how my beds will look or what sort of mulch to use or which plants to purchase. No, my decision was much more complicated and personal than those trivial gardening matters.

I needed a hat.

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Making My Bed & Crying In It

November 3, 2014December 19, 2014 / Kevin / 33 Comments

This is the start of the gardening season in South Florida, where the forecasters have proclaimed the end of the rainy season and the temperatures and humidity have dropped to more humane levels. For me, it’s a chance to make my bed, a garden bed in a yard that is absolutely bedless.

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For Canada. . .

October 23, 2014October 23, 2014 / Kevin / 6 Comments

Like much of the world, I am deeply saddened by the recent events in Canada. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who were lost, as well as for the spirit and strength of the Canadian people — some of whom are followers and readers of this blog. As your national anthem proclaims:

“With glowing hearts we see thee rise,

The True North strong and free!”

My First Spring Day In Autumn

October 8, 2014December 19, 2014 / Kevin / 16 Comments

Leaves from my northern autumn.

Part of my education process as a northern gardener living in southern Florida is trying to understand the subtle changes of the seasons. In a subtropical world, where seasons are marked as warm and hot, wet and dry, that is no easy task. Seasonal changes are much — MUCH — more subtle.

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