We fled the North nearly three weeks ago to embrace the warmth of the South, in particular the Florida Keys, but like many snowbirds have discovered that we need to crowd together to stay warm rather than luxuriate alone in a humid, warm climate. Don’t get me wrong, mid-60 degree temperatures (during the day) beats the sub-freezing temperatures back at home and the feet of snow that have been dumped over the last few weeks.
My shoveling children show me no sympathy as I complain that I need to wear a sweatshirt while in my shorts during the last few weeks in the Keys. And while it has warmed up over the weekend to the high 70s, I’m keeping a sweatshirt nearby just in case.
Regardless, this respite from the Northern cold has had a therapeutic effect upon me and has had me itching to start my flats of greens when we get back mid-March. I brought down a handful of gardening magazines and made some last minute orders from Johnny’s and Territorial. I will have the full complement of seeds needed to start up early greens in my beds, which are still pretty frozen according to my kids. I can only hope that the recent spate of 40 degree days has warmed the earth a bit so when I return the soil will accept a seed easily with a simple finger push rather than a hammer and chisel.
But now that environment seems distant as I bicycle every day and watch over the myriad birds that are in the area. Red-winged blackbirds, pelicans, blue and white herons, ibis, egrets, osprey are but a few of the wonderful fowl that we get to see every day. While all the plants are green, to color blind me they have little difference though my wife begs to differ. Bromeliads, mother-in-law’s tongue, palm and coconut trees, etc. It all seems too much the same. To me the Northern garden has much more diversity and interest than what I am finding in the Keys. One of the reasons, I suspect, is that the Keys get less than 20 inches of rain a year and have a thin layer of sandy soil sitting on an old coral reef. We of New England get north of 50 inches of rain a year and often have plentiful amounts of compost and topsoil. This contrast tells me why the North in certain ways has much more gardening potential than in the Keys. (When it is warm, of course.)
There are some plants attempting to flower out. A few hibiscus are making a show with orange and red flowers getting ready for pollination. A few weeks ago, most of the leaves of this shrub were shriveled and few buds were left because of the cold snap. Now many of the plants have swollen buds ready to bloom.
Bees are starting to make their rounds near these shrubs and a few smaller trees with yellow flowers (that I could not identify). We went to a local nautical flea market over the weekend and between countless sellers of rods, reels and chum containers found a local apiary that sells the most delicious honey. Bees-n-the-Keys sells the the honeys of Southern Florida including Black Mangrove, Key Lime, Tupelo, Jamaica Dogwood, Florida Holly, Sea Grape and Mango. We went for the Key Lime.
And of course there are the wonderful sunsets. Our cottage is on the bay side of the Keys and we get to congregate with others who share the grounds with us most evenings in a salutation to the sun. Every night it is different and the sun sets a minute or two later each day leading us to the end of our vacation and the beginning of our spring garden back up North.
