New Format.

9-12-12 SHORT HILLS: I have retired my old Garden Diary document, begun in 1996, because it got too unwieldy, at over 600 pages, and because I have started using new MS Word software which doesn’t work well with the older format.

So, what’s new. The days are noticeably shorter and evenings cooler, leaves are turning and falling. I have been back outside weeding, using the string trimmer on over-grown areas and catching up after the summer in VT.

Wilpat, the sprinkler system people, were here today attempting to find a leak in the pipes that ran up our water bill this summer. They dug holes and tested the main line in several spots, so far without success, but the suspect list has been narrowed. Tomorrow, they will be back to continue the investigation.

Frank’s Tree will also be here tomorrow to take down one of my favorite trees, a venerable, red oak that died. It has had knobby swellings and lumps around the base of the trunk that appear to have choked the circulatory system. The old tree has left many seedlings around the yard, some of which I will put in appropriate spots, but not near the stump.

Friday Judy and I are off to Italy for a week of touring, eating pasta, relaxing and bolstering the Euro.


The inscrutable Chloe.

Painted turtle. It's usually quite hard to sneak up on them. This guy must have been snoozing in the sun. All summer we thought there were three turtles in the pond, we often saw three at a time, but the last weekend we were there we saw four. Being cold-blooded, poikilothermic, they need the heat of the sun and sun-warmed rock to run their metabolism.

Adventures with 10.8

9-10-12 SHORT HILLS: Saturday night we had dinner in NYC at Telepan with Elaine, Richard, Bette and Lonnie while a front came through from the west. The meal was great, and we didn’t notice the 0.4 inches of rain that fell during the meal. The weather has been pleasantly cool and dry since. Leaves are falling from the ash trees.

We got a new iMac, using OS X 10.8, and are still struggling with the transition. We were forced to make the change by hardware failure of our old printer, which couldn’t be replaced because the old iMac was so out-dated. Computors have shorter life spans than dogs, closer to fruit flies.


Crepe Myrtle. Can be a small tree or a shrub like this one. It provides an lot of color late in the season, but before the trees turn.

Crepe Myrtle again.

Bye Isaac.

9-6-12 SHORT HILLS: The remnants of Isaac have passed through dumping 1.2 inches of rain over the last few days. There as no wind or thunder, just the rain. The sky cleared yesterday afternoon but is over-cast again today. It remains hot and steamy.

New blooms: lilyturf, crepe myrtle.


Rose-of-Sharon. Reliable, late season bloomer.

Lilyturf. A grass-like, hardy border plant or ground cover.

Romney's Taxes.

9-5-12 SHORT HILLS: About Romney’s taxes—according to a Vanity Fair article, the Romneys paid 6.2 million in taxes on income of 42.5 million for a percentage of 14.6. We paid at the 35% level. If the Romneys did the same, they would have paid 14.9 million, a difference of 8.7 million. Assuming there situation was about the same for the last 10 years, that would be 87 million more in the national piggy bank. If the other million taxpayers in their situation did the same that would have been 87 trillion—or a big chunk of the deficit.

Back in NJ.

9-2-12 SHORT HILLS: We’re getting settled in after the summer in VT. They’re always a thousand chores and calls to be done and made. I cut down a dead rhododendron. It had been here more than forty years and was 10 to 12 feet tall, but failing for the last two years, that and a big broken ash branch went to the dump. I have lots of trimming, weeding, etc to do.

In bloom: abelia, rose-of-Sharon, rose, hosta, white-star clematis, hydrangea, lamium, wild asters and other fall weeds.


Spice bush berries, not only good looking, but smell great.

Seen on today's dog walk, two doe/fawn pairs. They're almost tame. Phone pix-sorry about the quality.

Mystery Plant.

8-29-12 VERMONT: Today is cool, dry, breezy and crisp with deep blue sky that says “fall.” We ended up with 1.5 inches of rain the other night, enough to fill the pond back to the top.

I have cleared the culvert, sawed up a big broken branch in the pasture, and put a lot of stuff away. Judy is bringing in the corn and tomatoes because we go back to NJ tomorrow. The house will be in the hands of Alison, Dan, Anna and Lily for the week.

I mentioned a ‘mystery plant’ a few posts back. It appeared this year in the bed below the east side of the deck. I do not recall planting it and don’t have a nursery tag for it. You might suspect that it’s just a weed, but nothing like it grows in the yard or pasture. The mature plant is about six feet tall and bushy. It just started to bloom with small, half inch whitish-purple flowers.

I do have some boltonia, but it is less than three feet tall, hasn’t started to bloom yet, and its flowers are white. It grows in the shade, while the mystery grows in full sun. The pictures are below, any ideas appreciated.


Bottle Gentian. It doesn't open at all,  how does it get pollinated? The early settlers used this for purple dye.

Mystery Plant, it is almost six feet tall and just now starting to bloom. I think it's a boltonia, anyone got another idea?

'Boltonia' flower has a hint of purple. It's less than an inch wide.

Fall in the Wings.

8-27-12 VERMONT: It rained today after about ten dry days, around the area, shrubs and lawns were turning brown. I checked the gauge during a lull and there was 0.4 inches with more since, just what we needed now. Earlier today I finished the mowing I wanted to do, pulled the syphon hose out of the pond and put it all away, did a bit of weeding and watering before the rain.

Yesterday we canoed on Miller Pond, found on Miller Pond Rd., in Strafford, VT. It’s a small, round pond, big enough for a camp, a few houses and a fair amount of natural shoreline. There seems to be good fishing. It has been known as a loon nesting spot, and some years ago, when we were last there, there were several. Yesterday we saw one, busy diving over and over and baring posing on the surface long enough for a picture. There were several human fisherfolk as well.

We are edging into fall. Trees are beginning to turn, the ashes are dropping leaves from the treetops. The birds are starting to form flocks before migrating. Berries are ripe. The days are noticeably shorter. We have almost no apples this year because of the early thaw and later freeze.

Our pond clarity, so far, has not improved much. After four weeks of draining 90 gallons per hour, which is 12 cubic ft/hr or 8000 cu. ft. for the month, which should be the bottom two feet of the pond water, the yuckiest stuff. The pond is down about four inches, less after today’s rain. It is, perhaps, less brown than it was. When the weather cools, algae growth stops and the clarity will be assessable.


Early aster, these volunteers are in all the beds after a little encouragement.

Miller Pond, Strafford, VT.

Loon, the only one we saw, was doing a lot of diving.