Garden Dilemmas, Delights & Discoveries, Ask Mary Stone, New Jersey Garden blog
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Relocating Bees

Hello Fellow Readers, We had a near-stinging episode from a garden pot begging for its annual dressing, a task not yet done due to a humbling hand procedure gratefully on the mends. A client grew tired of deer spraying and passed along Hosta, which I nested in the pots as a temporary
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Rose pests, Tent caterpillars, leafhopper, Epsom salt in the garden, leaf hopper

Rose is a Rose Pest Remedies

Hello Fellow Readers, Earlier this season, my brother Rick from Knoxville, TN, and a dear friend Ruth of Hope, NJ, asked about rose pest remedies and soil requirements to get them off to a good start. I find roses fussy and hard to keep in their glory. There are spider mites and aphid
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Blair Academy, Blair Academy Day of Service, Blairstown Pocket Park

Day of Service

Hello Fellow Readers, It’s humbling to witness our youth working together to weed out undesirables- making way for new beginnings, and offering a helping hand. Nearly 500 students, teachers, and staff of Blair Academy, located in Blairstown NJ, mobilized on May 19th to help over
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Removing ants from the garden, home remedies to remove ants, safe ways to remove ants

Ants be Gone

Hello Fellow Readers, Pam and Ed of Sparta have a charming bluestone patio. The shady spot has encouraged moss to take up residence, which is lovely. The dilemma is, ants have also moved in. Previous attempts to evict the ants have caused the demise of their treasured green fuzz in th
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Queen Anne's Lace,Daucus carota, Wild Carrot, Rudolf Steiner, biodynamic farming, organic farming, Traditonal farming

Honoring the Health of our Earth

Hello Fellow Lovers of All Things Green, As we ready our gardens for the new season of growth, many add fertilizers and other nourishment such as compost and manure. You’ve likely noticed I advocate organic practices so we all may breathe green with a splash of color– hono
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Good for the garden… Not the woods

Hello Fellow Readers, Earthworms are destroying forest floors shared William of Bangor PA after I bragged about the benefits of castings (worm poop) in the garden. I didn’t know, along with the benefits of our slimy garden guests, there are negative outcomes of their presence; especia
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Bright yellow daisy-like flowers of Swamp Sunflower near a lake.

Sexy Native Plants

Hello Fellow Readers, I didn’t realize until Bruce Crawford, Director of Rutgers Gardens, emailed the plant list for his recent lecture titled Sexy Native Plants. In the NJ Plants tradeshow held in Edison, NJ, the G-rated version was Native Plants for Native Pollinators. And these bab
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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,Mary Elaine Stone, Garden of Life, Cardinal, Bird Fodder, Mike Niven, Cedar Waxwings ,Bombycilla cedrorum

Bird Fodder Part 2

Hello, fellow readers. So much came of last week’s chat with my birder buddies — welcome to more fun bird fodder, part 2. One of the most beloved and fascinating backyard birds is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which is migratory. As solitary birds, they don’t migrate in flocks.
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A colander of funky vegetables on a wooden table

Funky Vegetables

Hello Fellow Readers, This time of year, what fun it is to peruse seed catalogs. Green beans aren’t only green anymore. And tomatoes come in all sorts of shades and mottled blends of colors. There are even tomatoes that stay green when they’re ripe. Charlotte of Stone Chur
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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,Mary Elaine Stone, Garden of Life, synthetic pyrethroid insecticides,EPA Restrictions on Pyrethroid Use, AmericanHort, pyrethroid, pyrethrins

“Urgent Action Needed”

Hello Fellow Readers, I received an email from AmericanHort that “Urgent Action is Needed”. “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is evaluating whether to further restrict uses of synthetic pyrethroid insecticides.” Anything urgent and pertaining to the protection of our environm
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