Say Hello To My Little Friends

/ Kevin / 28 Comments

Palm Tree Night

Don’t be deceived by the romance of a warm tropical night, gentle breezes, and swaying palms — there are countless eyes in the shadows watching us, studying us.  I know this because I’ve met them, face-to-face — or rather face-to-web.  Just recently, I managed to entertain a whole new set of neighbors with my spider web dance, the kind where I flail my arms all around me, overdramatically brushing webs from my face and hair.

The difference, though, between these South Florida webs and my Long Island webs was that these seemed a bit thicker and gooier — but there was no sign of the spider that spun this mess.

Generally speaking, I like spiders. They provide a valuable garden service. I  just want them to keep their webs out of my space and I’ll gladly stay out of theirs.

Then came the morning when I — in what can only be described as a Little Miss Muffet moment — had the feeling I was being watched.  It wasn’t the sort of staring that comes from the countless lizards scurrying and sunning about.  I’ve grown accustomed to  them.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

/ Kevin / 31 Comments

Reflections

Spring arrived the other day — and as a northern gardener, it means so much.  Despite the winter-like temperatures that continue to hold on, this spring is a milestone.  Not only does it mark time in the calendar, it’s the light at the end of winter’s dark tunnel.  It’s the promise of new, green growth and branches filled with buds, of garden clean-up and future plans.  It’s hopes and wishes and dreams in the blink of a season.

Those were my thoughts — and feelings — as I sat in my South Florida backyard, staring at a tree that looked more summery than spring-like.   In fact, according to my skin, spring arrived here months ago — even before I arrived in February — and this vernal equinox felt more like a summer solstice.

That’s when it struck me.  Do gardeners experience something akin to phantom limb syndrome?  Inside I’m cheering spring’s arrival.  I imagine myself examining each inch of soil in a search for bulbs pushing through the last remnants of snow.  After that, I’m clipping some of my neighbor’s forsythia branches to bring them inside for forced blooming.  And then I’m removing fallen leaves from the hydrangea’s comb-like branches, giddy with the appearance of green shoots.  Each of my senses is experiencing its own spring awakening.

Getting giddy over green.

Getting giddy over green.

Here in the subtropics, though, I’m searching for signs of the spring that I know, that I feel.  Maybe it’s because this is my first actual change of season here or that I’m still green — so to speak — in a land that never seems to lose its green, but I can’t seem to find spring.  Even a local radio deejay sounded overjoyed at the first day of spring, but before the notes of the next song could play, she took a step back and wondered aloud, “Does South Florida even have a spring?”

Of course, it has a spring — a different kind of spring — and I so badly wanted to do something to recognize the season that I knew, but nothing seemed to fit right.  So I sat and stared at a tree and allowed my senses to enjoy the sensations of previous springs.  Besides, this warm, moist Florida air seemed better suited for lounging — and reflecting.

Repost: How Bagpipes Changed My Life

/ Kevin / 16 Comments

In addition to lack of seed starting, there is another consequence to my escaping the cold for health reasons: the loss of my marching through March with my piping and drumming brothers and sisters.  While the temperature here in South Florida comfortably rests in the low 80s, my mind and spirit are with my band, which who has marched in two to three parades each chilly weekend — so far.  This Monday, St. Patrick’s Day, they will parade up 5th Avenue in New York City — and for the first time in years, I will not.  Here’s a clip from a few years ago — that’s me front row center.

Watching it, I’m feeling a little green — with envy — that I can’t be there this year, and so I thought I would revisit a post which is as much a tribute to piping as it is to the band that took me in.

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The Biggest Seed I Ever Planted

/ Kevin / 39 Comments

 Seed Memories

It’s seed starting time — and by now, I should have flats of impatiens and petunias and geraniums planted in my Long Island potting shed, with dahlias, cosmos, and gazanias scheduled for the weeks ahead.  But as I’ve said in previous posts, this is a season of a different kind — in so many ways.

For starters, I’m away from the potting shed.  Instead, I have south Florida — and as my northern garden and gardening friends have shivered and shoveled during this winter’s harshness, south Florida has enjoyed exceptional warmth.  By northern standards, it feels like summer.

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A Weed By Any Other Name . . .

/ Kevin / 29 Comments

Weed all about it! Florida Pusley; Richardia scabra. The multitude of small flowers close up at night and then reopen with the sun.

Weed all about it! Florida Pusley; Richardia scabra.
The multitude of small flowers close up at night and then reopen with the sun.

When it comes to my lawn, I’m pretty basic, following one important rule.  Be green.  I’m not too fussy about what’s actually growing — but as long as it’s green, it has a place in the lawn.

When I see that in writing, it sounds as if I’m a bit of a colorist, embracing one color over all others.  In actuality, though, the green weeds are welcome to bloom in any color they like.  I just find that my color requirement for admittance into the lawn is one way to keep me from having to resort to herbicides and liquid fertilizers.  I have no intention of having my little piece of suburbia become one of the stops on a national golf tournament.

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Field Trip: Local Color At The Farmers Market

/ Kevin / 46 Comments

Farmers Market

A few posts ago, I lamented the fact that I was to be a garden blogger without a garden.  Imagine my delight, though, when I read in the local paper that Oakland Park, FL, has a weekly Farmers Market.  In fact, it’s just one of the many towns in south Florida with a Farmers Market.  Suddenly, I’m a garden blogger among gardeners.

Join me for a sunset stroll among the stalls, when the warm light and aromas helped turn what’s usually a vacant field into a painter’s palette of home-grown, home-made, organic food.

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Ice, Snow & A Bit Of Frost

/ Kevin / 32 Comments

Hydrangea In Ice

I owe all of you a great deal of thanks.  Your kind and supportive comments from the previous post about my health issues and having to leave my garden were appreciated in so many ways.  You and your words brought me great comfort. 

Near the end of that post, I wrote, “I’ve made another difficult decision — to take a very brief hiatus from posting as regularly as I have, to wait for those beams of light to be strong enough to burn through the fog, to get to Florida and figure out how a garden blogger blogs without a garden.

“And when all that happens, you will be the first to know, because inspiration often comes from the most unlikely of seeds.”

That inspiration came soon after your gifts of words arrived.  I was walking around the yard, tip-toeing through the areas of the garden that had re-appeared after a snowmelt and that’s when I noticed something.  There, just barely above the ground, under the oak tree, was another gift — the tiniest bit of green.

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When The Fog Rolls In — And Out

/ Kevin / 88 Comments

Foggy Night

There’s no other way to describe my brain during these frigid January days than this photo of a foggy, foggy night.  I admit when I first saw the lights beaming through the misty mid-winter air, I thought of a scene from “The X-Files” — you know, an alien spacecraft had landed just on the other side of the trees behind my house.

But the more I stared at the photo, the more I thought about the tangled thoughts and clouded emotions and glimmers of light in my head.  There’s a lot happening up there, and very often it’s difficult to make sense or to accept what it all is.

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I’ve Got A “Secret Garden” Winner!

/ Kevin / 6 Comments

Secret Garden

Wow!  What a week it’s been.  Comments from all over the world arrived on both this site and my Facebook page.  Not only did I appreciate your interaction with the post, but after reading each comment I learned so much about all of you.

The one thing you all had in common is that you are a very creative group!  It was refreshing and impressive to see how many of you are not deterred by age, proudly holding onto crayons and colored pencils to use in all sorts of coloring books.

To select a winner, I created a spreadsheet of commenters, each one receiving a number.  I then went to Random.org, where I inputted the number range  in the “True Random Number Generator.”  The next step was to hit the “generate” button . . .

And the winner is . . .

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How To Have Your Own “Secret Garden”

/ Kevin / 104 Comments

Secret Garden

This post begins and ends with a gift.

Just prior to the Christmas holiday, a very dear coworker of mine, Lorraine, presented me with a silver-wrapped package tied with a string of sparkling stars.  She explained that when she saw this item, she thought of me.  It was whimsical, she said, and she thought — or at least hoped — that I would understand.

Her only instruction was to open it on Christmas morning.

And so I brought the present home and placed it under the tree and stared at it, wondering what sort of whimsy was hidden beneath the silver foil paper.

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