Garden Dilemmas, Delights & Discoveries, Ask Mary Stone, New Jersey Garden blog
a snow scene with a bird house and hemlocks covered with snow

Inventorying Gardens and our Lives

Hello fellow readers, Life cycles are much like the cycles of nature and the seasons, and while our plants are dormant is a perfect time for inventorying gardens and our lives. Looking forward. Then, looking back.  It occurs to me when we are young, entering adulthood, we are in a sta
Read More
the sun peering through a forest in the fall

Coretta Scott King Forest

Hello, fellow readers. As I sit to write you, it’s Martin Luther King’s Day honoring a great man. In preparation, I dug through the internet maze to learn more about the advocate of equality, looking for a connection to gardens or nature to share with you today. And there
Read More
a dark purple blooming clematis climbing on an obelisk

Plants Inspire-Turning Over a New Leaf

Hello fellow readers,  A New Year, just as birthdays, gifts the opportunity to start fresh—maybe to begin new things or improve upon others. A chance for turning over a new leaf, as they say. One new leaf I’d like to turn over is sharing more of how plants inspire our lives. Let
Read More
a grouping of tree stumps with smiling faces drawn in snow

Happy New Year of Growth

Hello Fellow Readers, The Press publishes a New Year’s pictorial issue to provide their staff time off between Christmas and New Year’s. I enjoy the deadline respite, too, but I wish to reach out to my faithful online readers and followers to thank you for sharing a bit of
Read More
a white dog with black ears playing with a tennis ball in snow

Merry Season of Love over Fear

Hello fellow readers, For the first time in a long time, I wrote a Christmas letter to send with greeting cards to friends from far away, sharing the joy coming from the arrival of our rescue dog Jolee. And the inspiration she gave us as we witnessed her maneuver through the fear and
Read More
a man with a black and white dog overlooking the beaver moon moonrise along a beach is a pastel dusk sky

Beaver Moon Moonrise

Hello Fellow Readers, We rose for the sunrises while visiting Virginia Beach, but the biggest delight of all was the moonrise, having never seen one along the ocean. The Beaver Moon moonrise on November 19th was extraordinary, starting as an orange glow on the horizon before climbing
Read More
A burst of morning sunshine through a forest of trees in fall.

Forest Bathing

Hello fellow readers, Once again, I begin our chat dictating while walking in the sights and sounds of nature. As I reflect on a pet loss ceremony we attended on Sunday, a monarch butterfly joins us, flying a bit ahead bringing a smile as the event was a butterfly release ceremony. Bu
Read More

Birthday Reflection Pulse Check

Hello fellow readers, Monday, the day the column is due to The Press, became a Birthday Reflection Pulse Check I’d like to share with you. Thank you for reading! May we all remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life and take more time to play. Birthday Reflection
Read More
an elongated center of a mauve coneflower with fasciation

Fascinating Anomaly of Fasciation

Hello fellow readers. I enjoy being stumped by mysterious and sometimes magnificent garden dilemmas. Dorrie of Lebanon, CT, found my previous column about Deformed Flowers on Black-eyed Susan. The culprit— insects and a pathogen named Aster Yellows Disease (link below). But I had neve
Read More
a blue jay perched on a bird feeder

Blue Jays Bad Reputation

Hello fellow readers, I have a confession to make about a grudge held for blue jays being aggressive, which originates from being beaked by one while jogging in Cliffside Park, NJ, where I once lived. They certainly are beautiful birds with sky blue coloring and black and white accent
Read More