Once Upon A Tomato

/ Kevin / 19 Comments

Tomato Seeds

If seeds could talk, I wonder what tales they would tell.

I’m sure they would recite their perfect equation of soil, light, and water for their optimum germination. They wouldn’t even wait for us to ask. They would just offer that info up at the start of the conversation. Seeds are funny that way.

I wonder, though, if they would be willing to share with us their story? That perhaps their great-great-great-great grandfather hitched a ride on Paul Revere’s coat on his famous midnight ride? Or that they, in fact, escaped from a research lab looking to build a better seed?

Continue reading →

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

/ Kevin / 27 Comments

Bougainvillea.

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.

Continue reading →

Oh, Baby! What A Year!

/ Kevin / 30 Comments

Muffola

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.

Continue reading →

It’s Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

/ Kevin / 14 Comments

 

Christmas

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?”

Continue reading →

A Gardening Life Remembered

/ Kevin / 26 Comments

Lee May April 15, 1941 - December 3, 2014

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.

Continue reading →

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

/ Kevin / 24 Comments

Adonidia Palm -- also known as the Christmas Palm.

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.

Continue reading →

Wordless Wednesday: Warm Thoughts

/ Kevin / 32 Comments

Potting Bench

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.

Continue reading →

A Hat’s A Hat And That’s That

/ Kevin / 17 Comments

Hat

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.

Continue reading →

Making My Bed & Crying In It

/ Kevin / 33 Comments

Garden Bed

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.

Continue reading →

For Canada. . .

/ Kevin / 6 Comments

Canada

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!”