Thirty years ago I had a neighbor who long before had been a writer for The Miami News. In 1926, her boss gave her a plum assignment – the lead story in the women’s section of the issue for Sunday, September 19. The young reporter chose to write a piece about home remodeling, ordinarily an upbeat topic. But on the day…
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The rainy season in southern Florida is the time of year when precipitation comes not from cold fronts passing through the area, but from the combination of heat and moist air. It is generally considered to span the period between May 20 and mid-October, a time when dew points are consistently above 70°, an indicator…
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On January 16 of this year we published the State of Florida’s updated, discouraging outlook for citrus production. Unfortunately, that pessimism has only deepened since then. State agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam, in a message distributed this week and reprinted below, reports that Florida’s orange harvest will be its lowest in 50 years. The cause is citrus greening, a disease for which…
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Aristolochia, is a genus of woody vines commonly called, Dutchman’s Pipe or Pipe Vines. This is due to the shape of the flower resembling a pipe in many species. It is also called Calico Flower, because the pattern on the flower resembles calico fabric. Many butterfly enthusiasts in South Florida grow this vine for the larval…
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If you’re at all like me, you value your privacy. Around your property, one way to help ensure privacy is to install a good hedge. Contrary to what some growers will tell you, not every hedge plant is capable of fulfilling homeowners’ needs for a dense, long-lasting screening material. It may sound like heresy for me to…
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