Spring in Full Swing.

5-11-17 SHORT HILLS: We’ve been back for a couple days of cloudy skies and jacket weather, hoping for some warm soon. Today I replaced a rotted fence post that had fallen over. Once, I could do several in a day, but now it took most of the day to do just the one. There were a lot of roots and rocks. The hardest job is always getting the remnants of the old post out of the hole.

Yesterday I was back to pruning. I found more clusters of wild garlic mustard both yesterday and today. That makes about six garbage bags full over the last week.

I noticed a few colonies of poison ivy, so I got out the Roundup and sprayed them. I know. I know. It, or something like it, is useful in situations like this. I don’t want to handle the poison ivy, and I don’t want it to persist.

I also use Roundup on wild grape vines, which are all around the area. The vines climb up the desirable trees and shrubs and get thicker and denser, bending them down and strangling growth. You can pull them off the shrubs, which causes damage to leaves and branches, but they will grow back unless you uproot them. But, the roots break off, and there are multiple roots. If you cut off the vine just above its root and spray it, it dies. Gardening is not all blossoms and perfume.

New blooms: May apple, lily-of-the-valley, chestnut.


Vivid crimson azalea and blue ajuga.

Chestnut.

Hawthorn.

Lily-of-the-Valley.

May apple.

Azaleas make a statement.