gardening

It Might As Well Be Spring

/ Kevin / 28 Comments

What’s up with Mother Nature?  Has she forgotten to look at the calendar?  It’s January, and she should be full of bitterness and coldness and frigid wickedness.  Instead, it seems Mother Nature is having a bit of hot flash, teasing us with a taste of a spring fling.

That’s why I’m more inclined to envision Mother Nature as Scarlett O’Hara, flitting and flirting her way through the folks at a Twelve Oaks barbecue, while I am one of the admiring suitors gathered around her.  My heart beats with every flutter of her eyelashes.  My pulse races with each giggle of her southern feminine charm.  The temptation is overwhelming.  I so badly want to reach out and grab my rake to clean out the flower beds, to let my fingers sift through the soil, to plant seeds and to nurture them to full growth — and I want to do all of this without the protection of work gloves.  I am hungry to be in the garden.

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Bloomin’ Update 15: Greetings from South Florida

/ Kevin / 28 Comments

Like a good postcard, this one is arriving to you after I made it home.  Joe and I spent the past week in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where we plan to retire in the near future.  We purchased a small home there almost 20 years ago.  In fact, we made one payment and a low pressure system became Hurricane Andrew.  We also removed all of the shade trees and replaced them with palms.  Since then, the house has been rented and we return several times a year to do yard work.  Yard work?  That’s a vacation?  For us – and probably for most gardeners who have little patience for winter’s dreariness – this is a vacation: the chance to feel the sun, to play in the dirt, and to see all shades of green.

There was some extra fun this time in Florida since I had the chance to play with my Christmas gift, a Canon SX40HS digital camera.  Armed with my new toy, I found every excuse under the Florida sun to snap some garden and vacation photos.   Would you expect anything different from a boy and his new gadget?

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A Letter to Santa Claus

/ Kevin / 32 Comments

Dear Santa,

How are things where you are?  I know it’s been a while since I last wrote to you, but I have run out of options and I am turning to you and your elves to make this little gardener’s Christmas wish list become a reality.

I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to keep up with your reading, but a few posts ago, I wrote about the lack of G on HGTV.  Far be it from me to tell  you how to do your job, but you may want to consider a stocking full of coal for the network’s naughty executives.  They have not been kind to the gardening population — and, in fact, they have not responded to my letter requesting more G shows.

But if you would like to avoid coal, might I suggest sprinkling them with some inspiring Christmas magic so they may wake on Christmas morning like a renewed Ebenezer Scrooge?   To help you, here are a few ideas for gardening shows that I, for one, would love to watch on a snowy winter morning.

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Not-So-Wordlesss Wednesday: A Tale Of 3 Bloggers

/ Kevin / 26 Comments

A funny thing happened on the way to this post. 

I thought I would write about my Christmas wish list — you know, wishing it was warmer, wishing I could plant some seeds — that sort of thing.  At least, that was my plan until I opened up my comments awaiting approval, where I read the urgent request of The Last Leaf Gardener (TLLG), a gardener based in New York City.  She was worried about the health and well-being of another blogger, Patrick of Patrick’s Garden. 

TLLG had posted a comment on Patrick’s site but hadn’t heard from him.  When she tried to phone him, she learned that the phone was not in service.  Concerned, she contacted me because I was the last person to have posted a comment on Patrick’s Garden and to have him respond to me. 

I wrote back to TLLG.  No, I typed, I don’t know anything about Patrick — but if I do hear of anything, I will contact her. 

The truth is, I did know a bit about Patrick because of his posts — but that was it.  I had never met him or spoken to him.  All we shared were a handful of comments on one another’s blogs.  So why was I now so worried?  Why should I worry about someone I’ve never met, about someone where our only interaction had been type-written words?  And that’s when the lightbulb lit up.   I’ve read his words — not only about gardening, but about his life and all that he does.  He’s in Kansas and I’m in New York — but once we learn so much about each other in this personal-but-impersonal blogosphere, doesn’t that make us neighbors of a sort?   As gardeners, as bloggers, as people — aren’t we members of a community?

I too called the number on his blog, but it was out of service, just like TLLG indicated.  Next stop, Google.  I managed to find another number.   

“Hello,” I said.  “I’m hoping you can help me.  I’m calling from New York, and I’m trying to reach someone named Patrick. . . His last name?  No, I don’t know a last name, but he gardens and he’s a blogger.”  For a moment, I think I sounded a bit looney.  For another moment, I worried that I was completely overstepping some sort of boundary of appropriateness.

Within a few moments, I was connected to the man behind Patrick’s Garden.  The truth is, he’s doing fine — but some technical issues kept him from his blog.  And as for my believing I was out of bounds, nothing could have been further from the truth.  Patrick was impressed/flattered that a stranger had checked on him — but once we have read about each other, are we truly strangers?

It was a great conversation.   Suddenly, we were real.  We were the voices behind the typed words, talking about the weather and gardening and garden centers and gardening pet peeves — you know, shop talk.  Gardener to gardener.  Blogger to blogger. 

Neighbor to neighbor.

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: Gardeners Beware!

/ Kevin / 20 Comments

An Open Letter To All Home & Garden Centers

 

Dear Home & Garden Centers:

I have come to the conclusion that you are deliberately misleading the plant-buying public for your own profit by selling plants while not fully disclosing  the plant’s specific needs and growing conditions. 

I first became suspicious of  your tactic years ago, when I purchased a beautiful climbing vine that was covered with deep pink trumpet flowers.  The plastic tag said Mandevilla, and when I asked the salesperson if this can grow on Long Island, he said yes.  Although I was suspicious, it wasn’t a complete lie.  This tropical beauty did grow on Long Island — until the first frost.  Then, it was kaput.

Imagine my surprise this year, when I saw countless Zone 6 and 7 shoppers picking up pots of Croton, pictured above.  I had only seen the plant in South Florida — because it is native to the tropics.  Actually, it’s one of my favorite plants in South Florida — the leaves come in a variety of shapes, from flat to crinkly, wide to elongated, and the colors are brilliant hues of greens and reds and golds.  With autumnal colors like that, it’s no wonder that so many northern gardeners stocked up on the plant, punching up their fall flower displays.  

What saddens me in all this is the amount of money that homeowners shelled out for a plant that really would only last until the first frost — which, in this area, could happen a day or a week after purchase.  There’s no guarantee when frost will arrive, just know that it will — and when it does, your tropical treat will be a droopy disaster.

Equally frustrating is the amount of money the garden centers pull in by selling tropical plants at the end of the growing season.  I really cannot blame the gardening public.  For starters, they may not have any knowledge of the plant.  It’s the garden centers, though, which not only count on the consumers’ impulses but also have their expert salesperson guide the novice gardener into making the purchase.

That’s a lot of brown matter, as well as green matter — financial and organic.  It’s also a waste.  And it’s irresponsible.  And it teeters awfully close to being a scam.  But, hey, that’s business.  Right?

From now on, I will speak up when I see a shopper wasting his or her money on a plant that has no chance of surviving because of the climate.  The buyer and the gardener should certainly be aware, but so should the home and garden center — we  gardeners know your game and we know how to plant seeds.

Sincerely,

Nitty Gritty Dirt Man

Planting (And Playing) In The iGarden

/ Kevin / 18 Comments

Muffola has the right idea for a cat-nap weekend.

This was an amazingly lazy weekend — the kind of weekend when, as a kid, I would lounge around all day and watch old science fiction films like Godzilla, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Children of the Damned.  Today, though, with hundreds of channels from which to choose, there’s nothing to watch on television.  But there is a new iPad staring at me.

There is a post to write, though.  My first thought was to revisit the scene of “Bedazzled & Be-Blogged,” so I could show what a week’s worth of autumn did to those jewel-toned leaves — but a series of bare branches could hardly be included in a feature called “Bloomin’ Update.”  

Just when I thought I didn’t have a postable idea, I think I heard the iPad whisper my name. 

So to fill the indoor day, I went on a free app spree to look for games that might appeal to the gardener in me — and maybe even the gardener in you. 

 

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Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: That’s A Wrap

/ Kevin / 28 Comments

I may be the gardener of the house, but Joe also has his landscape love.  One of his greatest loves is palm trees.  His absolute fave is Cocos nucifera, the coconut palm.  If it were up to him, coconut palms would be growing everywhere.  We often joke that he would be to coconut palms what Johnny Appleseed was  to apples — only he would be called Joey Coconuts, which does sound a little — alright, a lot — like a character from “The Sopranos.”

Sadly, coconut palms will not grow in our Zone.  Nor will most other palms found around the world.  So what’s a palm lover to do?  About 7 years ago, we purchased a windmill palm, Trachycarpus fortunei to be exact, from Stokes Tropicals.  Originally grown in China, the windmill is one of the hardiest of palms, able to tolerate a fairly severe freeze and a light winter snow cover.

But this is Long Island, and winters are unpredictable.  Sometimes mild, but in recent years — cold, snowy, and frozen.  Although the palm receives full sun, there are steps that we must take — or rather Joe must take, with my assistance — to ensure winter survival.

 

 

Bloomin’ Update 12: Bedazzled & Be-blogged

/ Kevin / 13 Comments

I always thought I knew my garden, knew all of its ins and outs.  I have learned otherwise since starting this blog.  Now, I find myself looking at the garden more deeply, always thinking of the next post.  In fact, post obsession occupies most of my daily thoughts since I promised myself that I would post twice a week.  Could I possibly write that much, especially at this time of year when so much of the garden is leaving or already gone?

That was the thought I had the other day when I pulled into the driveway, the posting question planted firmly in the forefront of my brain.  It had been a rainy, gray day — and as I sat in my car, I looked about and I was stunned.  My garden had been transformed into a shimmering display of rubies and amber,  garnet and topaz.  The next day, the sun came out, and when I looked about again, I discovered that my rainy day vision had not been a dream. 

Red and Gold, part 1.

Weeping Dogwood.

Beneath the outer leaves of the Weeping Dogwood, other leaves were making the change.

It's a wonder what a little frost will do to Hosta.

Azalea.

The Climbing Hydrangea has never bloomed. Just leaves.

Japanese Maple

Euonymus "Burning Bush" is on fire.

Red and Gold, Part 2

 

 

Coming Out Of The Gardening Closet

/ Kevin / 28 Comments

It’s time for me to open up and reveal something about myself.  I must confess, now that I’m about to write out the words, I’m feeling a little self-concious.  But there is no turning back now.  Accept me or reject me, the choice is yours.

I never really knew this was an issue for me.  I embraced my circumstances as something natural.  It wasn’t until I read about it in a book that I wondered, “Am I really that different?  Are there others out there who are like me?”  So, I’ll take a deep breath and come out of the proverbial closet.  I experience nature both ways.  I am bi-zonal.

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Zen And The Art Of Raking

/ Kevin / 22 Comments

There’s a scene in the film Roxanne, in which Steve Martin, playing a fire chief who is nasally challenged, steps outside, sniffs the air, and announces that there is a fire.  That’s how it is with me when I decide on a good day to rake the leaves of autumn.  Today was one such day.

When I walked outside, the air was crisp and still, the faintest hint of ice on the edges of the fallen leaves — a fine day to take my new rake out for a spin.  After years of holding onto my ancient aluminum rake, the one with the head that always fell off, I purchased a new model from Home Depot. 

You can keep those extra large plastic tined rakes.  They seem to only rake the surface of the grass, never getting between the blades and down to the soil.  No, for me, it’s all about the metal, and the one I chose had plenty of it.  Black metallic tines.  Sturdy.  A green rubber grip on the end of the pole.  It seemed to say, “Buy me, and I will rake your lawn like nobody’s business.  We can make make  magic together — just you and me and all those leaves.”

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