Garden Dilemmas, Delights & Discoveries, Ask Mary Stone, New Jersey Garden blog
a fig tree next to a house with a yellow sign offering free figs. But don't be a fig pig.

Don’t be a Fig Pig – Give a Fig

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. It’s a joy to walk the streets of Victorian architecture in Cape May, located at the very tip of New Jersey. It has attracted vacationers since the mid-18th century, designating Cape May as the country’s oldest seaside resort. Glor
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Fall-leaf-in-hand

Overview of the Lesson of the Leaf

Hello, fellow lover of all things green. In the spirit of completing my book, I plan to share bits of it going forward. It’s our book, really, as the column and your questions over the last thirteen years have contributed significantly to the mission, and I am so grateful. To fo
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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, Green and White Gardens, Gardens Glow, Oak leaf Hydrangea, Bottle brush buckeye, Horse Chestnut, Variegated ornamental grass

White Flowers in Gardens Glow

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. If I may revisit a remarkable garden design story from a handful of years ago for Morristown Airport and lessons learned from how white flowers in gardens glow. Our not good enough button Do you recall waiting until the last minute to finish y
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Early Acorn Drop – Lessons of Letting Go

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green, An entertaining exchange about the probable causes of an abundance of acorns dropping early leads to lessons in letting go, thanks to Chris from Blairstown, NJ, who asked if I ever saw acorns fall this early. “Our trees in the back start
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a mother earth face pot with a braided grass headband

Lessons from Braiding Sweetgrass

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green, I’ve been listening to Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of  Braiding Sweetgrass, read her extraordinary book. Her voice brings her lyrical, expressive words to life as beautifully as they are written – singing like the songs of nature. Dr
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a birds eye view of nest of baby robins in an evergreen shrub.

Song Sparrow Meets Robin

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green, The routine of a family of Robins nesting in the Doublefile Viburnum outside the kitchen window did not happen this year. Let’s just say aggressive fall pruning done by someone who lives here inhibited the protection of the thick canopy
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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 lovers of all things green. There’s an Old Farmer’s Almanac calendar above my desk, noting Friday, April 13th, is Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday – he lived from 1743 to 1826. Beyond being a founding father and the third president of the United States
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a large yellow sunflower with a honeybee standing in front of a field of sunflowers.

A Sunflower Maze Brings Happiness

Hello, fellow readers, What a joy to visit Liberty Farm’s Sussex County Sunflower Maze in Sandyston, NJ, who invited us for a special day bringing happiness. It’s their 14th year of growing the maze. Raj Sinha started growing sunflowers when the New Jersey Audubon Society
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a moss-green fuzzy moth with transparent wings that resembles a hummingbird

Moths and Bats are Beautiful, Too

Hello, fellow readers, We’ve chatted about how moths are like butterflies that party at night, a sentiment shared by Randi Eckel of Toadshade Wildflower Farm (link to the story below). Since then, I’ve grown far fonder of them; like butterflies, moths are beautiful too. A
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beige moth with a black cross on its back called a Clymene moth

A Magical Blessing Moth

Hello fellow readers; I just returned from Lago Vista, Texas, to be by the side of Gene, a dear friend, as he graduated from this earth. He is the life partner of Elsa, whom we’ve spoken about in a previous story titled, Fall is not Goodbye (link below). They’ve been famil
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