spring

Book Review: Year of Wonders

/ Kevin / 29 Comments

We all know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – but is it polite to judge it by its title?

Take, for example, Year of Wonders, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks.  On the surface, it seems like a pleasant name for a book – inspirational and awe-inspiring.  It’s the haunting tagline under the title that seems a little unnerving: “A Novel of the Plague.”

Not exactly an uplifting subject – and yet, it was all that and more.

Based on true life events, this fictional account focuses on a small English village in which Plague has taken hold.  Under the guidance of the local minister, the town quarantines itself – and through the eyes of Anna, we witness moments of horror and joy, life and death, infection and healing.

As Plague ravishes this small community, the reader witnesses Anna’s spiritual growth.  As a woman who has faced monumental losses, she is able to face life one step at a time, to learn, to find her purpose as a healer and midwife, and to discover her voice – no small feat for a woman in 1666.

Through Brooks’ rich and eloquent prose, the reader is allowed to witness Anna’s p

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Bloomin’ Update 18: One Week In Two Zones

/ Kevin / 21 Comments

One day, you’re on vacation in South Florida, gazing at the pattern of a banana leaf sunlit from behind (above) — and the next, you’re bundled up against the wind chill of Long Island.  After arriving home, I went through some random Florida photos and then walked around the yard on Long Island to make a comparison.  Can you guess which photos came from which zone?

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Bloomin’ Update 17: Anticipation

/ Kevin / 157 Comments

One of my favorite Christmas carols is “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and my thought was to use it as the basis for a “Bloomin’ Update” post with photos of wintry scenes.  But this winter hasn’t been so bleak.  In fact, it feels more like mid-March than mid-winter.  Perhaps a more appropriate title should be “In the Balmy Midwinter.”

Holly berries.

Hardy Geranium

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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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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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Moss Rose, By Any Other Name . . .

/ Kevin / 8 Comments

Unplanned Portulaca crowds out the planned Geranium.

A few posts ago, I wrote about gardening as a natural surprise party and my belief that my plants actually get together and come up with creative ways to entertain me and, well, surprise me — popping up in places where they had not been planted, blooming in different colors than were purchased or planned. But if I had to pick one plant as the organizer of all this guerilla gardening, it would have to be Moss Rose, or as I love to say, Portulaca.

It’s actually a fun name to say, like Dahlia or Liriope. Pour-tchew-lack-uh. Sometimes I think it could be the name of a Native American guide leading early explorers westward or a wife of Caesar. Maybe it’s a resort, kind of like, “We’re taking a ride up to Lake Portulaca for the weekend.” Or maybe it’s the closest I come to referring to any of my plants by its proper Latin name.

No matter what it’s called, though, Portulaca has been very, very good to me.

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Friends Reunite In The Garden

/ Kevin / 8 Comments

This weekend, I hosted a reunion of sorts — removing  tender bulbs out of storage and reintroducing them to the garden.

Newly planted elephant ears. They started to sprout while in storage.

Each fall, right before the first frost, I cut back my tender plants, dig them up, cure them, and place them  in paper bags along with peat moss to cover.  It’s actually a tough thing to do.  The plants are still full of life.  We’ve spent so much time together.  And then I have to be the mean girl, decimating the friendship just when they thought they could trust me.  Cold and heartless doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.

Once hacked and packed, I carry them into the bomb shelter.  My house was built in the ’60s, and behind a closet and under the front steps, there is a cement crawlspace, a bunker which we refer to as the bomb shelter.  It’s cool and dry all winter, conditions that allow the tenders to go dormant.

My effort to trick nature and turn Long Island into a summer tropical paradise began several  years ago when a friend gave me a brown paper bag with canna rhizomes.  She said just keep them in the garage and plant them in the spring.  That didn’t work.  The garage was too cold and too damp, and when spring arrived, I had a bag of smelly and shriveled canna. Continue reading →

Dreaming Of A Clean Spring

/ Kevin / 14 Comments

Now that we know each other, I feel it’s time for me to make a confession.  I . . . Well, I did something I never did before.  I contracted with a landscaper to do my spring clean up.  Please, don’t judge me.  I have my reasons.

I don’t have a large yard, but what I do have are lots of trees.  And the property behind my house is not developed, so that means more trees.  And the street where I live is actually a “T,” which means when the wind blows, all of the leaves from the intersecting block are deposited on my lawn.  So my fall weekends are spent raking and bagging.

At this stage, I have a pretty good system.  I use an old garbage can, put in a recyclable plastic bag, rake everything into a pile, knock the can onto its side, shove in the leaves, tie off the bag, carry it to the curb, and start all over again.  I can do that 40 times each weekend.

Then, spring arrives, and it’s a cruel joke.  After the snow melts, there are still more leaves to be raked.  They blew into my yard all winter long when I wasn’t looking.  My partner, Joe, is always after me to hire someone to rake up the yard.  But I take my stand.  I convince him, as well as myself, that I love to rake and clean the yard.  Continue reading →

To Plant A Seed And Wait, Is To Believe

/ Kevin / 16 Comments

A few years ago, a friend gave me a plaque with this inscription and a bag of muscari bulbs.  I was struck, because I am by no means a holy roller, but I did hang the plaque on a wall in my potting shed.  And each day when I worked in the shed, I stared at that nine-word phrase, and I gained a greater understanding of why I enjoy gardening.  So, as my first post, I again look to that plaque as a starting point, because what better way to start than with a seed.

I love seeds.  They come in all sizes and shapes, and each one holds so much promise of growth and color and bounty.  My favorite part of winter is actually after Christmas, because that’s when the seed catalogs arrive.  I spread everything, including myself, out on the living room floor, surrounded by pages and pages of color photographs and plant descriptions.   I am like a child again studying the Sears and Penney’s Christmas catalogs.   And after I go through the catalogs once, I start all over again.   And let’s not forget about the free gifts.  I would never purchase my own tomato seeds–but a free sample??  That’s a gift for me and for my father on Father’s Day.  I make a wish list, and then edit it down to something that’s more manageable and realistic.  In my head, I am a LAND owner.  In reality, space and time are very real limitations. Continue reading →