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, Fall Dig Hazard Trees, Fall Planting

Fall Dig Hazard Trees

Hello fellow readers, Jill from Nazareth is confused. She heard that fall is a great time to plant but then found out that there is a list of Fall Dig Hazard trees. That does seem confusing! Paul of Gardens of the World in Andover has a simple way to explain it. The Fall Dig Hazard li
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How to Rejuvenate Prune Rhododendron

Hello fellow readers, “They’re long and leggy,” wrote Melanie of Newton, NJ. She and her husband acquired a lake-side fixer-upper built over a half-century ago. The rhododendrons have grown taller than the house, and branches are resting on the roof. Fortunately, you
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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

Queen Anne’s Lace Anomaly

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green, While on a road walk with Miss Ellie, I saw a pinkish Queen Anne’s Lace flower with dark magenta edges on a plant where all the other flowers were the customary cream. What a gorgeous anomaly! It reminded me of grade school when we’
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Sweat Pea, Lathyrus latifolius , Perennial Sweat Pea

Hello Sweet Pea

Hello Fellow readers, I met with Melanie of Newton who asked if the perennial sweet peas covering her pool fence are edible. They sure look so; dead ringers to peas in your veggie garden. Some say you can as long as you don’t eat too many of them. Turns out it’s the flowers not the se
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Choosing Produce

Produce Abuse

Hello fellow readers, Can you believe we’ve been chatting for 165 weeks? I am so grateful for all we have learned from each other.  I hope you don’t mind that I revisited one of our early columns from 2012. Let’s just say, I’m concerned about produce abuse and thought we could help by
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Garden Blog, Bagworms, Arborvitae pests,Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis,Thuja occidentalis

Bagworms Baby!

Hello fellow readers, While sitting with Mom outside her nursing home in Virginia, I noticed a crust of bread being hauled off by an ant.  I marvel at how much an ant can carry – ten to fifty times their body weight, they say. Mom, who inspired my gardening start, can’t talk muc
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone, Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, colony collapse disorder

Protecting Pollinators – How can it Bee?

Hello fellow readers, They say one out of every three bites of food depends on a pollinator. According to the Pollinator Partnership, the largest non-profit organization in the world dedicated to the protection of pollinators, the U.S. has lost over 50 percent of its managed honeybee
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a closeup of single ant on grass

Willows Gone Wild Part 2

Hello fellow readers, Last week we heard from Craig of Frelinghuysen about his Willows Gone Wild next to his pool. ‘They’re beautiful trees but cause countless hours of cleanup,’ explained Craig, who went on to rant about each stage of his dirty dilemma, giving us all a good laugh. Th
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the sun below a cloud in a golden yellow sky

The How-to of Soil Solarization

Hello fellow readers, Last week, we spoke about George’s weedy invasion resulting in the need for a garden do-over. Thankfully, he opted for a more organic approach, including a non-chemical remedy called soil solarization. Here’s how. Preparing your garden for planting is
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Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone,Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design, Landscape Fabric

A Landscape Fabric Intervention!

Hello fellow readers, Landscape fabric with mulch on top may seem to work in the short term, but eventually, it will result in an intervention. I look forward to sharing mine :^) ‘Here’s my dilemma,’ wrote George of Blairstown, NJ, in early spring. ‘It’s
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