Fall Has Begun.

9-25-22 SHORT HILLS: Well, it’s happened again, I forgot to do a post. Now it’s fall, the Equinox slipped by a few days ago, and it gets dark earlier and earlier. We also had a bit of a cold spell, with nighttime temps in the low fifties. 

As Hurricane Fiona passed us out in the Atlantic on her way to Nova Scotia, we had a gusty, windy two days and a decent rain, and it’s raining again this afternoon.

I dug up the crumbling blacktop around the driveway drain and replaced it with a Sakrete product—macadam in a bag. I also filled in gaps in the blacktop by the garage apron. The hard part is tamping it all down. The last time I did it was about 10 years ago, so the next time will probably be someone else’s problem. 

I had lunch with Bill recently, and tonight we have dinner with Bill and Lynn. Last night we had dinner with Alan and Ellie, and this morning we were in the Village and had brunch at Minetta Tavern with Lily, Anna and Gardner.

Judy and I did a dog walk at Loantaka Brook Reservation. There were lots of Canada geese on the pond and a turtle con on a log.

New blooms: an apple tree put a couple new flowers.

Judy at Washington Square Park before brunch.

Loantaka Pond with Canada geese on the left and turtles on the right.

Here's the geese.

Here's some of the turtles.

Here's another turtle standing on the back of a much, much bigger turtle. In the middle at the top is a blurry dragonfly.

More Rain, At Last.

9-15-22 SHORT HILLS: One week until the autumnal equinox and the slow slide into darkness. It still feels like summer here, I’m still wearing shorts and tees. All our doctor visits are getting checked off, but we both have more to go. 

Outside we’ve had more rain, and I shut the sprinklers down during the rainy spell, but now they’re back on. A lot of the drought damaged shrubs have some new growth, so I’m going to wait until spring to see which of them are alive. I can always cut them down, but I’d rather give them every chance to rebound.

The indoor plants that are outside have largely bounced back from the damage sustained in the drought. I think they will get a few more weeks before their vacation ends.

We have dinner with Bebe and Ronnie tomorrow and a memorial service for old friend Bobbie on Sunday.

New blooms: crape myrtle, white snake root.

Crape myrtle is blooming at the top of the tree.

White Snake Root is either a wildflower or a weed. It's a nice fall surprise when most everything has long since finished.

Drought Is Over.

9-10-22 SHORT HILLS: Wow, almost two weeks without a post. Sorry about that, but some of the readers are probably saying go for three weeks. 

Here in NJ the result of the drought, and it was a drought, for us is several dead shrubs. The ash trees, already stressed by the ash borers, look awful. We will likely have to take down several more. The dead shrubs are mostly spice bushes which are basically weeds. I suspect that they will re-grow from the ground in the spring. We also lost some burning bushes, but they volunteer all over the yard. Some viburnums were also lost. 

Of the bushes that I planted, two rhododendrons look dead and others partially dead. I’ll see what they do in the spring. A small leucothoe looks dead also.

I cut down all the dead stuff in front of the house and hauled a carload of stuff to the town dump. 

The reason things got so bad was that the sprinkler system failed. Mr. Gomez, our gardener, called me in VT in August to tell me that the sprinklers were not working. He told me that the week before things had been OK. I got the garage opened up for him by a neighbor with a key, and it was clear that the sprinklers were dead. 

I called the sprinkler company and got the house opened up and the alarm turned off for the repairman. He was there for almost the whole day. A water-line valve was broken. He thought it would take a plumber to replace it, but he was able to do the repair after he bought the new parts. He really went all out to do the job. He also set the sprinklers to run every day instead or every other. 

When we got back here, I increased the time for each of the seven sprinkler zones. I found and repaired a blocked sprinkler head in one zone. Now we have had rain and a lot of watering, things are stabilized. I still have more stuff to cut down. 

The red oak that I planted in the spring looks fine, but the Itoh peony is leafless with green stalks.

We had dinner with Lynn and Bill a few night ago, and I also had lunch with Bill. Tomorrow we will go to NYC for brunch with Roger. Judy and I have been catching up on all our med appointments and have more to go next week. Judy has started doing her pet therapy visits.

New blooms: rose-of-Sharon, lamium, clematis, St. Johns wort, caryopteris.  

St. Johns wort has been blooming since June. This is one of two varieties we have.

Rose-of-Sharon is a late bloomer that has volunteered all over the yard. It's actually a hibiscus, not a rose.

Another Rose-of-Sharon, different flavor.

Caryopteris is another late bloomer. The blue will keep happening for weeks.

This clematis is thriving. Unfortunately, it's smothering every thing underneath it and will need to be cut way back.

Last Minute Planting.

8-28-22 VERMONT: We leave in a few days for NJ and are busy closing up, packing, making lists. The split-rail fence was repaired with many new rails and a few posts and the gate posts opposite the barn. The canine fence now seems fully functional after the fourth house call and replacement of a section under a stone wall. I  cut down some burdock and thistle in the pasture. It crops up every year, and as it’s only a few, it’s easily controlled. 

I did some last minute planting. I moved five blue lobelia from near the brook and in the lowest terrace bed that were all close to the lawn and might have gotten mowed. I put them on the pond bank where the goldenrod had ruled. I dug out the goldenrod roots and plants and chucked it into the weedy parts of the pasture. After one day they seem happy. That was yesterday. 

Today Gardeners Supply called about the milkweed that I had been looking for there a few weeks ago. I bought three, got a free fourth, nice looking Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’ and planted them next to the lobelia and lambs ears on the pond bank. Another load of goldenrod was dug up. I added one Asclepias incarnata that had been growing in the old steps that I had potted and watered for a few weeks, and one oxeye clump that was growing at the base of the wall in the bed below the deck. I think it didn’t get enough sun there, and had been infested by orange bugs. I had cut all the buggy parts off, and it was regrowing.

The hollyhock seeds are germinating! We have a dozen and a half as of this morning. A lot of the seeds came from Shari and Dave, at whose house we had dinner last night—Texas ribs!

We had 0.75 inches of rain—hopefully, a sign of a wet fall. 

New blooms: more phlox.

An afternoon shot of our horse guests by the game cam.

After the big rainstorm, the first rainbow of the summer.

Two turtles huddled together, perhaps threatened by that frog.

While the other two turtles were confronting the frog, this turtle was soaking up the sun.

Will there be a ménage-à-trois in the future?

September Looms.

8-24-22 VERMONT: Well, the Vermont part of our summer is almost over, we will be in NJ by Labor Day. We have had scattered showers here the last few days, but no significant accumulation. Most of the showers don’t get the ground wet under the trees and shrubs. I have been spending a lot of time watering.

I got more hollyhock seeds from neighbors, Valerie and Fred. I made a new bed on the far side of the pond between two stands of Joe Pye weed for the hollyhock and transferred the pots to the new bed, filled around the potting soil from the pots with new potting soil and spread the rest of the seeds. From the first batch of 50 or 60 seeds, I got three little seedlings. That seems like a low rate of germination, but we’ll see. 

The three tall clocks all went to the clock repairman from Randolph. I still look at the empty cases for the time but only see the empty bonnet. The canine fence people have been here three times and need to come back again. The split-rail fence repairmen were also here to do work on that fence, and they may have damaged the canine fence. 

Addie and I have been weeding the beds, mostly Addie. We have added to the upper terrace bed perennials—swamp milkweed, coreopsis, liatris and ironweed. Shrubs also got planted there—weigela, butterfly bush, and an abelia.

We went to Cloudland Farm for an anniversary dinner with cousin John. When Lily and friends were here we went to Saap, a Thai restaurant in Randolph that won the James Beard award for all of New England. That may sound unlikely, but it was excellent, and the law students, fresh off high-paying internships, treated us! 

Sadly, Judy and I started putting lawn furniture away.

New blooms: white star clematis, pink turtlehead, sedum.  

White Admiral butterfly feeding on the clematis under the tomatoes.

Pink turtlehead, much later than the white turtlehead.

The white-star clematis has swarmed up to the deck as usual before blooming.

A big caterpillar, half the size of a hot dog, might become a Cecropia moth.

The pond bank is starting to look like a flower bed.

Mid-August.

8-14-22 VERMONT: The summer is slipping away. In September we go back to NJ until October when we come back for the leaves. Gardner and Anna were here for a day, they were up in the area for a wedding. Lily and some law school friends arrive tomorrow for a few days. 

We had dinner with Dave and Gail at Elixir a few nights ago. Valerie and Fred, new neighbors, were here last week for an outside visit. We drove up to Hinesburg, near Lake Champlain, to see old friends, Ken and Jane in their new old house. The house and gardens will be great when they’re finished getting rehabbed. Judy got a pair of miniatures at Smith’s Auction a few weeks ago. 

Yesterday I repaired the steps on the back of the old mudroom. I also got some hollyhock seeds from Shari and Dave and started them in pots. 

The dog invisible fence was knocked out by the lightning strike a few weeks ago. It was repaired, but went out again a few days later, and was repaired again, but now it’s out again. Re-re-repair scheduled. 

New blooms: ligularia dentata, mint, Casablanca lily.

Casablanca lily, smells as good as it looks.

The other ligularia, L. dentata.

Stare-down from a hummingbird.

Hummingbird moth video.

Heat Wave.

8-5-22 VERMONT: Yesterday was in the mid-nineties. We had the house open and fans going all day, and it was hot, hot, hot. It’s supposed to get back there today and the next few days also. We closed the house today as soon as the temp started to climb to see if that works better. As bad as it is for us, it’s worse for the dogs in their fur coats. 

There were T-storms all around the state last night except here. We had a little rain, very little, 0.05 inches. Fortunately I watered all the newly planted stuff yesterday.

Speaking of newly planted stuff, I couldn’t find nice looking milkweed plants so I bought three perennials to fill the newly cleared upper terrace bed. First I planted a tickseed, Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’, then an ironweed, Veronica noveboracensis, and a gayfeather, Liatris spicata ‘Kobold Original’. I have tried liatris a few times in different spots without success, maybe this one will work. I also planted a swamp tickseed, Coreopsis palustris ‘Summer Sunshine’, next to the lamb’s ears. 

Next week, we’re getting an assessment for a heat pump, which is supposed to help with winter heating and summer cooling—we’ll see. 

New blooms: Joe Pye weed, first aster, fleeceflower. 

Here's a better picture of the hummingbird moth. I should have done a video.

The hosta take over the front of the new house in August.

The pond bank with all the echinacea and some other red stuff. It all draws the butterflies.

Monkshood says purple.