White Christmas

Hellebores (Lenten rose)

Galanthus (Snowdrop)

There's snow in Texas. But not in these parts. A few white blossoms have appeared in the last couple days, so we have some white stuff on the ground anyway. And we don't have to worry about shovelling the driveway. Happy Holidays!

If nature won't provide snow covered trees, make your own.

Beautiful

Beans is watching from the steps
while I photograph my perch

All the leaves are down.
And the sky is blue…

It is 70° today. I am sitting on the patio and looking out toward the forest and pond. The geese who haven't headed South yet are cackling away while a woodpecker taps on a neighbor's tree and fluffy grey squirrels bounce across the lawn.

Before sitting down to write, I couldn't resist pulling up some Ground ivy and Hairy bittercress. I sampled a leaf from the latter. It tastes a bit like watercress but prickles the tongue unpleasantly. (Which probably accounts for the "hairy" part of its name).

Better Belated than Never

Earlier this month, I collected photos of the vibrant fall colors in my back yard and the surrounding neighborhood. I couldn't think of a narrative to attach to the photos, so they didn't get posted when they were current. But they're too beautiful to keep to myself any longer. (You can click on any photo to enlarge it and appreciate the colors).

Looking up our street just before
turning into our driveway

Berries on a leafless tree by the park

Our front yard with a
Kousa dogwood on the right and
 the red maples on the left

A shock of bright red at the
border of our forest

Bright red at the front
of our property

Bright red and orange
on someone else's property 

Red, orange and yellow
across the street

Surprising berries with each one
shining red, orange and yellow as they
dangle from a tree in copious clusters
 near the raspberry bushes

My beautiful red dog sitting
beside me as I write in my red chair

 

Unseasonal Greetings

The Swiss Chard is still growing

The weather has been in the 60's for the last several days. That means there are no excuses for not going out and working in the garden -- harvesting some Swiss chard, surveying the newly sprouted weeds and feeling guilty about the garden tasks that never got finished or even begun (the latter is the subject for another, very long blog post).

I was incredulous that so many new weeds would have sprouted up at the end of November. Don't things die back for the winter in these parts?

Daffodils are already
starting to come up

While I was futilely trying to lessen the spread of the budding new weeds, I found something else I didn't expect until spring: daffodil tips pushing up from the earth.

Cherry blossoms at Thanksgiving.
A sign of global warming?

That was just too much. So I took my dog for a walk to clear my head. And what did I see? Cherry blossoms on the tree in someone's front yard.

Dirty Hairy

The weed that is carpeting every bald spot in the lawn and every uncovered area in the garden is called Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta). It's a member of the Brassicaseae family (like cabbages and mustard) and is an edible bitter green. Guess what we're having in our salads from now on? We have plenty. It sprouts up in the autumn and stays green throughout the winter. And it can't be composted because it will continue to grow seeds after it's pulled up. The most important way to control it is to not let it flower and seed.

Hairy bittercress.
 But a better name is "Cluster bomb"

It's classified as an invasive weed because of its diabolical reproductive system. The plant is an angiosperm. Which means its flowers produce fruits with seeds that include a nutrient that aids in their germination (like wheat, barley, corn and coconuts). Its other common names are "jumping jesus" and "popping cress" because the fruits burst open at the slightest disturbance and scatter thousands of seeds. I called them "cluster bombs" last Spring for the way they blasted into my shins and face when I was trying to pull them up. The zillions of scattered seeds can then germinate for years

I didn't know how lucky I was in Colorado that Hairy bittercress doesn't grow there. At least it's almost fun to pinch the center of the carycomb of leaves and pull them out of our luscious loamy New Jersey soil. I'm sorry to say, there really is too much of a good thing.

First Flakes

Last week's snowstorm in Colorado made the national news. And not to be outdone, so did the snow that fell here on Sunday. While other parts of the East suffered from fallen trees and power outages, we had two or three inches of the white stuff, some beautiful scenery and one broken tree limb. The only real tragedy is that the neighborhood kids didn't go trick or treating on Monday so I'm tormented by the open bag of candy that was meant for them.

Enjoy these quick snapshots from Sunday morning while I snack on some chocolate: 

Beans deciding not to go outside

The Red Maples (Acer rubrum)
in our front yard

The Pyracantha outside
our kitchen window

The branches of the Yew and
Magnolia outside my office
bent several feet to the ground
from the weight of the snow

And I'm still picking raspberries!

Transitions

Migration

Grover's Mill Pond is a popular
rest stop for migrating geese

For the last two weeks, thousands of geese have visited the pond behind our property. This must be a popular refueling and resting stop on their way south for the winter. They are a noisy throng of travellers. Each new convoy loudly announces its arrival and is met with an even louder welcoming chorus from the flocks who had arrived earlier. Batches take off on joy flights around the area — everyone squawking as loudly as possible. Their pitch and exuberance remind me of a family reunion where everyone wants to catch up on what's happened since the last gathering.

The other day, I passed the pond on route to do errands and was surprised to see that there were no geese. The weather was still very comfortable. Had they all left? Later, I heard the now familiar cacophony of squawking as the sky above the Whole Foods parking lot turned dark from a swarm geese heading in the direction of the pond. When I got home, they had all returned and were as boisterous as ever.

 Exfoliation

Better than a rake for sweeping up piles
of leaves off our rock driveway

Potentially lethal bullets when
they fall from a 70 foot tall tree

There is a very tall Oak tree outside the covered porch that has been dropping mountains of leaves and acorns for weeks now. The acorns fall from such a height, they gain enough velocity to bounce a couple inches before they land.  Sometimes, so many acorns are falling it sounds like popcorn popping.

We would be shin deep in Oak leaves if my client, Agri-Fab hadn't sent me a Lawn Sweeper that I use to collect the leaves and then pile onto my compost. I was worried that it would also scoop up the rocks that cover the driveway like a rake would. But it doesn't. It also scoops up pine needles, all the other leaves and those pesky acorns.

Realization

Sayonara, Juniper

The first growing season is over and I've decided to stop being the timid caretaker of the previous owner's garden and to make it my own.

The ugly old Juniper's skeletal remains

My first order of business: remove the ancient, ginormous, scraggly juniper bushes and let my husband try out his new chain saw. Now we have an uninterrupted view of the forest from our dining table.

I could start a Hibiscus Plantation

My other momentous task has been removing the jungles of brambles that multiplied exponentially over the summer. No sooner had I cleared a large section of Wineberries, I noticed that the cleared area quickly filled with small woody sprouts. Were they something to keep? I left them alone for a while.

Then a few days ago, I saw a note on the list of plants that the previous owner gave me. Next to Hibiscus (Rose of Sharon), it said "prolific self seeder." Prolific is the perfect word. Surrounding the Hibiscus trees whose lovely pink and lavender flowers brightened the late summer are thousands of babies starting to take over the garden. Every hour that I've spend in the garden since then has been dedicated to pulling them up. There are thousands yet to be removed. I may have to resort to more drastic, less organic measures.

It looks like I'll be spending a lot of time and energy un-planting before I can think about planting anything.

Ultra Violet

This evening, after a lightly rainy day, portions of the sidewalks were carpeted with multi-colored maple leaves. Various shades of red, orange, yellow -- and violet. They reminded me of the Liquid Amber tree my mother planted in the front yard to bring some fall foliage color to Southern California. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me. But here are photos I took of some other vibrant violet visions.

The Violet of the Beauty Berries is deepening

These amazing Tricyrtis Miyazak have an unfortunate
common name: Toad Lily 

Aconitum (Monks hood): mysterious looking and poisonous.

These look like a giant version of a plant we used to
put in terrariums in the 70's

The raspberries are still producing. This is one morning's
pickings minus 1/2 cup I ate while picking.
(On the red side of red violet -- and very delicious)

Red October

While the retail stores are displaying Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations, my garden has decided to celebrate Christmas with an all out display of red flowers, berries and fruit everywhere.

Red pommes (not berries) on a
Pyracantha outside the kitchen

I wish I knew what these 3/4" diameter
balls are that are weighing down branches
to the ground in our front yard

Yew tree outside my office

Cherry Tomatoes from a volunteer
plant behind the air conditioners

Pretty red azaleas that the deer haven't
eaten yet

The raspberries are still
bearing fruit

     

A shade of red counts, too.

And the red violet delight of Beauty Berries -- with a special green visitor.

Falling

A massive White Oak is shedding
like crazy

FALL
I love the Autumn. Waking in crisp morning air and feeling the cool that lingers in the shadows after the sun has risen and warmed everything else. Autumn always feels like the start of the real new year — not January 1st. Maybe because that's when school started. Maybe because my birthday is on the first day of Autumn.

Found under a spreading Chestnut
tree (no Smithy was standing there)

 

The color of the wood is a clue
that this is a Cherry tree

FALLEN
I have always collected bright colored leaves as I walked my dog. I had no idea how many more options there are in New Jersey. The Colorado climate limits which trees can grow. When I walk this property and the neighborhood streets, I'm constantly amazed by how many more shapes and sizes there are. And now, they're my homework for the Master Gardeners Program. We're to make a Tree/Shrub ID Scrapbook with 5 conifers, 10 shrubs and 10 deciduous trees and describe their arrangement of leaves, the bark, flowers and fruit.  Now when I walk the dog, I marvel at the amazing varieties of tree bark and look for identifying clues.

A few days ago, I watched an elderly Asian woman stomping on large hairy balls that were falling from a tree, then picking something up and collecting them in a bag. They turned out to be Chestnuts. Problem is there are four major kinds of chestnuts, so I have to study stem and leaf formations to be able label which one it is.

Cutting down an old tree

FELLED

A planter stand is all
that's left

We had to have a dead tree cut down. It was a 50-year-old Norway Spruce that had been killed by borers. It was quite an operation. It's amazing how much damage some tiny worms can do to a massive tree.

FREE FALL
Last Monday, my husband and I celebrated my 60th birthday by parachuting from a plane. It was a spectacular day and we jumped through clouds to see vast green farm fields spreading around us. It was a beautiful and adrenaline-pumping way celebrate a milestone.

Jumping into my sixth decade!