Garden Dilemmas, Delights & Discoveries, Ask Mary Stone, New Jersey Garden blog
Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog,Northern New Jersey Landscape Designer, Bottle Tree at Festival Hill

About Bottle Trees

Trendy today, bottle trees are an artful way to make use of recyclables, though they originate long ago as a way of destroying evil spirits. Perhaps a cure for the evil spirit of a hangover.
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog,Northern New Jersey Landscape Designer, NJ Garden Coach and Speaker, Festival Hill, Madalene Hill

Christmas Reflections from Texas

Hello Fellow Readers, One of the greatest gifts of Christmas is spending time with loved ones. I’ve just returned from visiting lifelong friends that live outside of Austin. The first stop was Round Top Texas, where Dorothy from my college days lives. She’s an artist with a gall
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a young evergreen tree, a hemlock, amongst a forest floor of fall leaves.

Successional Forest

Hello fellow readers, Over the weekend I participated in a Family Holiday Program for Comfort Zone Camp (CZC), a bereavement camp for kids and young adults. It’s their twentieth anniversary of serving families who have lost loved ones too early in life. The holidays are especially dif
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a turkey puppet on a Norway Spruce in the snow

Giving Thanks

Hello fellow readers, Last week, I crumbled under the stress of racing to meet deadlines. It felt paralyzing with classic symptoms of anxiety, a tight chest, and labored breathing. It’s a good thing I’m in good shape, I thought to myself, so my heart can ride the race. I also thought
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Celosia spicata

More than Mums

Hello fellow readers, Mums and ornamental cabbage have become the iconic welcome to the glories of fall, though there are other less common fall annuals gaining popularity. Lynda of East Stroudsburg PA asked what the bright pink caterpillar-like blooms that sit atop spiky foliage are?
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog,911 Memorial at Warren County College, Washington NJ 911 Memorial at Warren County College, Washington NJ

Remember, Learn, Grow & Love

Hello fellow readers, Talk about a shift! The chill, albeit wet and soggy, feels like back to school. For me too, as I registered for a fiction workshop at Warren County Community College. It felt nostalgic going back to school; familiar butterflies and all. There’s a process of
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Mary Stone in a straw garden hat and white shirt and jeans talking with high school kids

Fair Talk 2018

Hello fellow readers, It’s fair time! Farm animals, 4-H exhibits, rides, fun food, and, in the case of the NJ State Fair, garden displays and speakers of which I am one. This Saturday, August 4th at 1 PM, I’ve been asked to speak about Garden Dilemmas. It will be held in the bea
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Choosing Annuals

Choosing Annuals

Hello Fellow Readers, (Excuse the late posting of this week’s column. I’ve been hobbling along without internet since last Tuesday’s Wizard of Oz storm. Humbling!) We have the green light for annuals based on the wisdom to wait until after the last frost date, typica
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone, Gardening tips, Garden Blog, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Northern New Jersey Landscape Designer, NJ Garden Coach, NJ Garden Speaker, Thomas Jefferson, Monticello

Jefferson’s Monticello lab for plants

Hello fellow readers, There’s an Old Farmer’s Almanac calendar, which sits by my desk noting Friday, April 13, 2017, is Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday – the 275th anniversary of his birth. Beyond being a founding father and the third president of the United States
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Shagbark Hickory Nuts, Shagbark Hickory Tree,, Thanksgiving Blessings

Arbor Day Foundation

Hello fellow readers, We are inundated with requests for donations that come in varying forms and disguises. While we wish to give back and help others, evaluating good causes can be confusing. I recently received an official-looking envelope labeled 2018 New Jersey Tree Survey and th
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