Out with the Old, In with the New.

5-30-18 VERMONT: The weather has been beautiful, warm sunny days with a breeze, low humidity—perfect. The only issue is that we need a bit of rain.

The turtle census is up to three, fish and newts have been seen. We had dinner with Andy and Katie at Elixir in WRJ. They have at least six turtles in their pond—we have a bad case of turtle envy.

I fertilized all the garden plants and shrubs. Using the appropriate pH balanced fertilizer and added lime or acidifier as necessary.

One section of the flowerbed below the deck on the east has been filled with phlox, a white phlox that blooms in September and that always get very mildewed. There were about two square yards of them. I dug them out, most of them, and transplanted them to various sunny spots around the pond. The mildew, I recently read, happens when phlox are packed together in a bunch. We’ll see about the mildew if they survive in the scattered around spots. I couldn’t get them all out because they mix in with other plants at the edges of the bed.

So I had a nice big empty spot to plant after I added some potting soil to make up for what was removed. I added three hollyhocks, Alcea rosea, Spotlight Mars Magic, Radiant Rose, and Blacknight, two daisies, Leuanthemum hybrid, a delphinium, D. elatum ‘Guardian Lavender’, a rodgersia, R. aesculifolia, a swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, an oxeye, Heliopsis helnthoides ‘Summer Nights’, a foxglove with no ID, and three lamium, L. maculatum ‘Pink Pewter’ that I cut up and put between the other plantings as a ground cover.

Today I added a tiger lily, Lilium tigrinum, and an astilbe, A. chinensis ‘Purpurkerza’ to the top wall bed.

New blooms: buttercup, bunchberry, Solomon seal, star flower, foam flower, Siebold viburnum, veronica chamaedrys.


Indigo bunting just turning blue, probably his first year as an adult.

Bunting, again...

And again.

First hybrid daylily.

Each game-cam caught a deer at night, maybe the same one, but in different locations on different days.

Catching Up with the Chores.

5-27-18 VERMONT: I finished the corn cage. I am sure no crows will be in there until the stalks are established, at which time I will have to take the whole cage down. I put up peony supports and meadow rue supports. I skimmed debris off the pond from last fall.

Lily and Sam were here for a visit. We all had dinner at Cloudland Farm, excellent meal. This morning they helped us get all the outdoor furniture set up and the little rowboat out of the barn and into the pond before they left to visit Sam’s family in Durham, NH.

Pond census—lots of frogs, two turtles seen at the same time, there may perhaps be more, crawfish and fish are present. I haven’t seen newts, but am sure they’re there.

New blooms: yellow lady slipper, Japanese primrose, hybrid daylily, geranium, May apple, bane berry, pink lamium, honeysuckle bush, yellow violets.


Eastern phoebe on her nest, which is tucked in on a lantern under the eaves by the back door of the mudroom.

Yellow Lady Slippers orchids are the earlier of the two types we have, the pink, Showy Lady Slipper, will be out in about a month. They are both happy in a wet area.

Japanese primrose like the waterside also. These are just getting started.

Bleeding hearts are in full blooms everywhere in the yard, all volunteers.

Lilac in violet and magenta, we also have white and pink lilacs.

Game Cams.

5-24-18 VERMONT: A rainy Tuesday gave me a day off, so I went to Home Depot for fertilizer and fencing and a couple plants, and then to Longacres for more perennials and tomatoes and herbs.

The last two days I have been doing the veggie garden. First I used the string trimmer to reduce the size of some massive weeds, mostly dandelions, and then I pulled back the black plastic mulch and the soaker hose and then tackled those weeds. After the weeds were removed, I graded the bed, added soil to a couple low spots. I had already put up the solar-powered fence charger so the battery could charge. I needed to replace the broken female end of the soaker hose and then test it for leaks.

Today I fertilized the bed, raked the fertilizer into the soil, positioned the soaker hose, and laid the plastic mulch back down. I planted 12 tomatoes—four Sun Sugar, two each of Early Girl, Parks Whopper, Heirloom ‘Hawaiian Pineapple’ and Heirloom ‘Cour di Blue-Oxheart’ and four Basil between the rows of tomatoes. Maybe in two months of so I can figure out which tomato is which.

Then I planted 85 corn hills with hybrid, bicolor, super sweet seeds, three seeds per hill. I will cover them with fencing so the crows can’t get in there and eat all the seeds like they did last year.

I looked at the pix from the game cameras, both of them were pointed in the same direction, as you can see from the pix. They both took a lot of pix, most with nothing but snow and ice. The Bushnell caught a couple deer that the Moultrie didn’t, but the Moultrie got birds that the Bushnell missed. One of several night shots showed a cat. I moved the cams, one to the back of the pasture, and the other to a woodsy path, otherwise they would just be seeing the dogs and us. There were a lot of shots of the guys mowing the lawn.

New blooms: blueberry, hawthorn, lilac, black mustard, gill-over-the-ground.


Deer, no rack, in early April.

A deer at the far end of the pond, snow disappearing in late April.

New snow in April.

Warm day in late April, snow and ice are melting.

Two water birds on the pond, Canada geese, I think.

A merganser has been back a few times, as recently as three days ago.

Blue heron posed for a lot of pix.

Back in VT.

5-21-18 VERMONT: I came up yesterday driving through a series of showers. Today was beautiful, warm and sunny with a breeze to keep the black flies away. Everything dried out quickly after the rain yesterday. We haven’t been here for two months. We didn’t get up in April at all because of winter storms.

I was afraid I would be too late to set up for summer, and that the gardens would be too far along, but the plants have waited patiently for my arrival.

I put in the screens and took out the glass storm doors, took the tarp off the terrace furniture, took down the dryer vent guard, put away the snow shovels and ice choppers and snow shoes, cleaned up a huge broken white pine branch that had fallen across the driveway. Actually one of Santa’s elves had already cut it up and moved it out of the driveway. [If you are reading this, dear Elf, thanks so much.] It took four cart loads to get it all on the compost pile. The honeysuckle bush that was bombed by the branch took a beating, but will be OK.

I turned on the outside water, set up the solar fence charger for the veggies, put up the pasture gate, opened the barn windows, [The barn BTW, for the barn fans, is 66 feet long and 30 feet wide and is 100 feet from the pasture fence.]

I put out a couple benches, cleaned up in front of the new house, put up peony supports and meadow rue supports, started putting up the bed barriers, emptied the mouse traps, treated the pond, talked to Andy and Steve, inspected the pasture, did a bit of pruning, and more that I can’t remember now.

In bloom: violet, bleeding heart, lamium—yellow and purple, ajuga, Virginia blue bells, trillium, dandelion, garlic-mustard, wild strawberry, pulmonaria, forget-me-not, pachysandra, sweet woodruff, jack-in-the-pulpit, star magnolia, apple, spurge, hellebore, Mohican viburnum, primrose, epimedium, azalea, alkanet, vinca minor, quince, wild ginger, lily-of-the-valley.

New blooms [Short Hills, yesterday]: star-of-Bethlehem, wild cherry.


Clear skies with a breeze from the NW.

This small blue flower is alkanet, it is related to the next flower...

Forget-Me-Not has a slightly larger flower but the leaves are quite different.

More blue--Virginia blue bells.

Sometimes the 'blue bells' are white.

Trillium does it in sets of three--three petals, three sepals, and three leaves, all oriented at 120° angles.

Do you think the painted turtle chose this warming spot because of the violet violets?

Green Walls.

5-17-18 SHORT HILLS: It has continued to rain with at least another inch accumulation. There was an intense storm with high wind, hail, rain and lightning two days ago. Two trees on the street fell, one was a huge oak that blocked the road for a while. We lost a moderate sized branch from a tulip tree and lots of small branches.

By the way, my definition of a moderate branch is one that I can lift, big branches have to be cut up to move, and several small branches can be picked up in a bunch. I needed three hours to pick up all the debris.

The yard is soggy, the grass is long and wet, soaked bushes are bent over and dripping. Everything is green and growing except the three butterfly bushes, the milkweeds, and two crepe myrtles, all presumed dead, but I’m waiting for a few weeks before replacing them with something else. Road traffic and neighbors have disappeared behind green walls.

New blooms: wild strawberry, hawthorn.


Hawthorne in the center flanked by red maple, hemlock, viburnum, on the left and yew, arborvitae, southern magnolia, and barberry on the right.

Hawthorne flowers.

bleeding heart and small columbine on the lower right.

Spirea, chestnut and lamium in bloom with currant finishing and lilac starting, house wrens are back in residence.

Double-fine viburnum looks a bit like a dogwood. Also leucothoe, mock orange, burning bush, red-twig dogwood.

New Shrubs.

5-14-18 SHORT HILLS: We have had rain on and off for two or three days with a total accumulation of an inch. Yesterday was barely in the fifties and cold, but today warmed up nicely after a cool start. More rain is on the way, but tomorrow is supposed to be in the eighties.

This morning I took a break from pruning and went to Home Depot for some nursery stock—a double knockout rose, Rosa radrazz, a yellow twig dogwood ‘Flaviramea’, Cornus sericea [stolonifera], two hydrangea, H. macrophylla, that all got planted near the house to replace plants damaged by the workmen here last fall—roofers, painters, carpenters, and window guys.

This afternoon Judy and I bought a double play spirea, Spirea japonica, at a different nursery that also went in a foundation bed. We also took the houseplants outside for their summer vacations, I gave them, as a treat, fertilizer and extra potting soil.

New blooms: siebold viburnum, double file viburnum, lily-of-the-valley, leucothoe.


Judy always draws a crowd.

The pack--Maizie, Kaley, Bally and Gus, all listening to Judy.

This corner of the yard will be in deep shade when the ash tree canopy fully leafs out. Something is in bloom every day during the season, at the moment it's dogwood, viburnums, may apple, lily-of-the-valley, lamium, pachysandra, vinca, march marigold, barberry, clatonia, burning bush, with blood root and privet about to open. Flowers aside, the beauty of the spot is the dozens of different greens-high, low, bushes and trees, ground covers, shiny, matte, dark, light and more variations, but no grass.

A redbud branch with the tiny flowers, each like a little lady slipper, and moss and lichen.

Siebold viburnum can get to thirty feet tall. The yard is filled with Siebold volunteers, like this one. Knowing the spot, I can also see in this image dawn redwood, yew, Norway maple, English holly, spirea, privet, elm, red maple and sensitive ferns.

Our sunsets can disappear in summer, lost in the foliage.

Meanwhile, Back in the Garden.

5-12-18 SHORT HILLS: I haven’t mentioned the gardens since April 30 because of the trip to Cornwall. Before we left it was cold here, colder than normal, but while we were gone it got hot. Literally dozens of plants bloomed.

I have been outside doing more spring pruning and clean up. The lawn was mowed for the first time this week. The grass looks better than it has in years. The trees are in leaf, even the ash trees, which are just starting.

The butterfly bushes all look dead, of about six that I have planted over the last few years, none have survived a winter. The milkweed plants don’t look like they’re coming back. Three small crepe myrtles are either sleeping late or dead.

New blooms: honeysuckle bush, ajuga, nannyberry viburnum, Korean spice viburnum, Chinese snowball viburnum, wood hyacinth, azalea, burning bush, yellow and purple lamium, blueberry, deutzia, first rhododendron, dogwood, red-twig dogwood, Virginia blue bells, barberry, redbud, Kwanzan cherries, lilac, Carolina all-spice, pulmonaria, columbine, sweet woodruff, may apple, chestnut, white spirea, garlic-mustard.


It's been raining today, and everything looks greener.

Azaleas and viburnums in bloom.

Cornwall V.

5-6-18 LONDON HEATHROW, UNITED KINGDOM: We did a change of plans and left Polperro this morning instead of staying there a second night because it’s a holiday weekend, and very heavy traffic tomorrow might have made us miss our flight. People told us that it took them nine hours to get to Cornwall from London instead of the expected five hours, and that we should anticipate similar delays going back to London on Monday.

We came to LHR today, making a few final stops in Cornwall. We made a brief visit to Looe, mostly to buy gas, I mean petrol, before the 275 mile drive back to London. Looe is another beautiful coastal town occupying both sides of the riverbank that turns into a harbor.


A bit more modern looking, Looe is another pretty coastal town, but with an attended gas station. Most of the petrol dispensaries are unattended and don't accept U.S. credit or debit cards. A helpful stranger led us to this one.

We went on to St. Neot, a tiny town with an old church down a long one-lane road. We didn’t interrupt the christening service except for a quick peek inside.


St. Neot church with the typical square tower. The church has stained glass from the middle ages.

Church yard and village, above and below.

St. Neot lived in King Alfred's time and is the patron saint of fish.

Stone house across the road from the church.

On to another tiny town, one small intersection, Blisland, was also down a one-lane road and half the size of St. Neot. There was another old church, this one out of service. It was open, and we got a peek at a moldy interior. Many birds are nesting in the exterior nooks and crannies.

Pam at the Cottage where we had stayed the previous night had packed a lunch for us, we ate the lunch on the village green in Blisland.


Abandoned church in Blisland with an unmowed church yard.

The birds, jackdaws, have taken over the church

Birds on the tower.

There are two birds and a nest in the top left opening.

On the green in Blisland. Where should we go?

A wide spot on the road into and out of Blisland. Oncoming traffic is scary.

After that it was a long schlep on A30, M5 and M4 back to LHR. From the highway we got several looks at the Bodmin moors. The traffic was never heavy. The next day was an early start to LHR and our flight to EWR.

Cornwall IV.

5-5-18 POLPERRO, CORNWALL, UNITED KINGDOM: We left Chapel House after breakfast heading east on A30 and got to Polperro a couple hours later after many twists and turns on wide roads and narrow ones. Polperro is a fishing village of decent size that now catches mostly tourists. It sits in a gorge formed by a couple of streams. The main streets parallel the rivers and empty into a rock walled harbor. It was low tide when we arrived and most of the boats were stranded on the mud, cars were parked in the harbor and people were on the beach. Much later after dinner, the tide had filled the harbor almost up to the street.

We checked in at the Cottage and walked down town. The town is filled with food shops, galleries, artisans, souvenir shops, restaurants, inns, B&B’s, hotels. Parking is at a premium and most people park outside of town and walk in.


Entering Polperro, ultimate pastoral.

Two streams parallel the main streets, spanned by many little bridges.

The upper harbor is dry at low tide. That water in the middle is the stream flow.

This sandy beach of the lower harbor is under water at high tide.

The cliffs defining the harbor are folded and fractured sedimentary rock, sandstone and slate.

We did a boat tour, 30 minutes, of the harbor and local coast. We saw lots of uplifted and folded sandstone and shale covered with colored lichens and flowering plants. There are many, many gulls and a few cormorants along the coast cliffs.


Cormorant warming up after a dive.

Fractured rock, yellow lichen, pink flowers and grass.

Red lichen and moss on tilted sandstone.

Flat water made for an easy boat ride.

After the boat ride, we found a fish-and-chip place for a lunch. We sat on the bridge over the harbor to eat. We were shadowed by a herring gull standing next to us while we ate who made frequent comments. We were both about done when Judy stood up, and the gull took it as a sign that the rest was his and jumped in. He/she was immediately joined by eight other gulls who all ate what we left in about ten seconds, including some of the wrapping. I would have videoed it, but it was over before I had a chance.


The bridge where we picniced with the gulls. You can see the high water marks on the side of the bridge and white building.

Later we walked along the cliffs which are a riot of vegetation and wild flowers, shrubs, trees and vines, some of it semi tropical. I saw a feral apple tree in bloom as well as azaleas and roses. Higher up the cliffs at the top there are pastures with cows and sheep. People are everywhere, it turns out that this is a holiday weekend and people are here from all over England, most of them travelling with dogs.


Cliff walk. There are several trails at higher or lower levels.

It was a hot afternoon and a bit of shade was welcome.

That's our boat out on another cruise.

Wild flowers border the trail.

The lower harbor before we came down from the cliff.

We had a late dinner, after naps, at Michelle’s near the harbor. The tide had filled the harbor.


The terrace at The Cottage B & B.