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, Asimina triloba, Pawpaw Flower

What’s a Pawpaw Tree?

Hello Fellow Readers, As I write, it’s President’s day, honoring George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Some states combine remembrance of Thomas Jefferson, who was born in April. This brings to mind the Pawpaw tree most have never heard of. Jefferson planted a grove of th
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A man in a yellow jacket applying Calcium Magnesium Acetate to a natural stone patio.

Road Salt Alternatives

Hello Fellow Readers, This is the time of year I attend manufacturer showcases premiering new products, mostly paver or block retaining wall systems, which are made of concrete. This is also the time of year that road salt and brine are being used to de-ice our roads. Road salt and br
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A the torso of a golden retriever digging in the snow, on groundhog day 2019.

Accuracy of Groundhog Day

Hello Fellow Readers,  As the folklore goes, if the groundhog sees his shadow, they’ll be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, it will be an early spring.  I’ve always wondered about the accuracy of Groundhog Day predictions. And how do they know what the groundhog sees anyway? Lo
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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, Vernal Pond, Lonestar Park Fredon NJ, Vernal Pool

Safe Havens of Vernal Ponds

Hello Fellow Readers, What a weather pattern we’ve just endured, from snow turned to sleet, followed by zero degrees that turned trees into glass. Then, temps rose to the mid-fifties as deluges of rain rolled in. The Jacksonburg Creek, where we live, became a roaring river overf
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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, Coffee Grounds in the Garden, Smiling Cup of Joe

Smiling Cup of Joe

Hello Fellow Readers, I had a good laugh when I heard from my youngest brother, who lives in Tennessee. Rick texted a photo of his cup of joe with a frothy smiley face smack dab in the middle. “Look at my message this morning in my coffee.” His suspicious sister writes back, “Come on.
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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, 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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Snow-Harvesting-to-water-plants

Benefits of Watering with Rainwater

Hello Fellow Readers, There’s Christmas cactus that came my way by adoption from a then-husband, a story shared in a column long ago (link below).  Neglected and riddled with old deadwood, I revived it, and it bloomed beautifully for many years. Then it mysteriously returned to
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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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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, woolly bear caterpillar, winter weather folklore

Whacky Winter in store for 2018/19?

Hello fellow readers, Tom from Tranquility NJ wonders if his Flowering Pears (Pyrus calleryana) are in trouble. “The leaves immediately turned brown right after the dump of snow and are still clinging to the trees. Does that mean the new buds haven’t yet formed?” No worries Tom, ornam
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