A Summer Day.

4-29-21 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday was a mid-summer day—sunny and inn the eighties. We almost turned the AC on. Today is cooler and overcast with showers. The heat and sun set off a stampede of flowering. 

I planted that spirea that I bought a few days ago, it is a ‘Little Princess’ spirea, Spirea japonica. I also transplanted another Japanese maple across the yard to a better spot for the tree and us. 

The lawn guys were here for the second time to mow. All the trees are showing leaves except the ash and catalpa. 

New blooms: azalea, Korean spice viburnum, nannyberry viburnum, wild strawberry, acuba, sweet woodruff, clematis, Carolina allspice, boxwood, warty barberry, burning bush, hackberry.

Azalea responded to the 80's temps.

Redbud has thousands of tiny flowers.

Redbuds grow right out of the bark.

The individual flowers look like tiny orchids.

Clematis grow by the kitchen door.

Nannyberry viburnum is one of the earlier viburnums.

Korean Spice viburnum is another early one, that also has a lilac-like aroma, but with a hint of pepper.

What's prettier than a pink dogwood under the tall trees.

NYC, First Time in a Year.

4-26-21 SHORT HILLS: Today was cool, blustery but shiny. I decided to do some transplanting and planting chores that have been on my mental to do list. Two Japanese maple volunteers are growing in places where they have no long-term future. It’s always hard to pull something out of a busy bed without doing damage to its neighbors. It requires careful digging and careful stepping.   

The one that I moved today was in the living room window bed, very close to the house. I dug it out, hopefully not disturbing the St. John’s Wort growing next to it. I moved it to a spot in the southeast corner of the property, using a lot of potting soil to backfill around the tree in its new home. It will need a lot of watering to settle in. 

I filled the hole that it came out of with a rose, Pink Double Knock Out, from the Farm, moving the hole away from the house a bit. That was a day’s work. I also bought a spirea for the spirea bed. I will do that tomorrow, as well as move the other Japanese maple, which is in the viburnum/rose-of-Sharon bed.

While taking a break this afternoon, I saw what I thought was an orange and black bird land high in an ash. I took a pic with the iPhone, but it was worthless for ID, but, sort of, confirmed the color. I’m guessing Baltimore oriole, but will have to wait and see if it hangs around the feeders.  

Saturday we spent the afternoon in Brooklyn with Val and Steve at the big, waterfront park. The park was busy, busy, busy. Most people were wearing masks, we ate at an outdoor place. Sunday afternoon we walked with Bebe and Ronnie and the dog pack. There was heavy rain Saturday night and into Sunday AM.

New blooms: red bud, ajuga, blueberry, Virginia blue bell, new quince.

This schooner is destined to become, wait for it, a restaurant. That's the Hudson R. and the east side of lower Manhattan behind the ship. Jersey City, NJ is on the horizon on the far left.

Judy and I in the breeze.

Virginia blue bells, another spring ephemeral.

The new quince has quite a dramatic flower and will put on a show if it gets bigger.

Blueberry flower is another inverted, white bell.

The April Strikes Back.

4-22-21 SHORT HILLS: I was outside yesterday in a warm, sunny afternoon when the skies darkened and the wind roared in from the west and shook all the trees for about ten minutes. After that front came through, the temp dropped from the sixties to the forties and there was a splattering of rain and the wind continued to gust. We had no tree damage. Other places had hail and snow, but i’m not sorry about missing either.

Judy and I, mostly Judy, decided to scatter grass seed on the bare spots of the lawn. We did so and spread straw on the new seed and watered it all. This seeding goes against my philosophy of doing nothing for the grass except a bit of lime in the early spring. A lawn is just the stuff between the trees and shrubs and flowers and, generally, takes care of itself except for mowing. We’ll see what happens to the seed. The dogs enjoy rolling in the straw.

New blooms: apple, yellow lamium, Kwanzan cherry, Chinese snowball viburnum. 

Kwanzan Cherry tree for the fans of pink.

Apple, one of about three in this yard, in VT, there are about 100 scattered around the yard, woods and pasture , mostly volunteers. The flower resembles the other fruit trees.

Chinese Snowball Viburnum, the first viburnum to bloom here, has a powerful aroma a bit like lilac that announces its presence, if one hadn't noticed.

Lamium, the main and most vigorous variety, the yellow, spreads nicely as a self-respecting ground cover should. The flower is a complex little thing attracting flying pollinators with a little marked landing perch.

Dogwood, a favorite understory tree of eastern woodlands. It's hardy to Zone 5, we're Zone 6+, and it also comes in pink. There are a lot of cousins, some more hardy.

Another bunch of daffodils.

Back into Spring.

4-19-21 SHORT HILLS: The Subaru Time Machine transported us into the future here in NJ. It’s warm and green and snow free. Some trees are in leaf and most shrubs are green.

Before we left VT, in the past, most of the snow was gone. I set up the irrigator bags around the new red maples and Steve and Diana promised to water them if things dry out.

With the shrubs in leaf, I began pruning dead wood and overgrown bushes. Generally I’m happy letting them grow as they want, but sometimes a vigorous shrub will overwhelm a more desirable one, for instance, a rhododendron was getting lost among viburnums and burning bushes and I expanded its space today. We have a large yard with dozens of trees and hundreds of shrubs, so I will be busy for a few weeks before we can go back to VT.

New blooms: quince, apple, pear, trout lily, more daffodils, bleeding heart, barberry, dogwood.  

Saucer Magnolia means April here. We see several on every block as drive around on errands.

The secrets in the heart of the magnolia flower.

Pear tree cluster.

Quince. We have a new one, in red, but not open yet.

Clatonia are all over now, but will disappear soon.

The later daffodils are more interesting, to me.

Pink daffodil.

Sunset tonight.

That Was a Short Summer.

4-16-21 VERMONT: Ken and Jane came over for dinner last night. It was the first time we had seen them in a year—what a crazy year it has been. 

I mentioned yesterday that we were getting a nice, overdue rain fall yesterday. Well it surprised us last night. As the guests were leaving, about 10 PM, we noticed that there was a bit of snow on the ground.

This morning everything was covered with 4 inches of heavy wet snow. The temperature was at the freezing point and only crept up a few degrees during the day. It continued to snow, and we ended up with about six inches. A tree came down and blocked the road a few hundred feet up hill from us, and the town DPW were here immediately to clear it and to plow.

There are some branches down, of course. All day snow has been sliding off the metal roofs and landing with loud thumps and upsetting  the dogs. The feeder birds have been busy at the feeders, but I worry about the others, the robins and flycatchers whose work zones are buried. 

The ponds are unfrozen and look black against the snow. Snow clumps and drips from the trees land on the water surface, splash and look like fish or duck activity. 

The water looks black, usually blue-green.

The smaller pond and brook. The willow tree has just opening green leaves.

That red maple is in bloom with red flowers. You can just make out the weather vane on top of the barn.

Icy rocking today.

Another look at the little pond

Let it snow!

More snow.

Spring Inches Along.

4-15-21 VERMONT: It’s raining and supposed to rain until sometime tomorrow. We need every drop. I need the day off. 

The clean up is done, thanks to our lawn guys and me. The fertilizing is done as of yesterday, and it should get watered in by the rain. Judy and I bought two new outdoor benches and set them up as well as all the old ones so there is lots of seating out there in the rain. We also put the picnic table back on the deck and put out the deck furniture.

I skimmed a lot of floating algae from the pond when the wind had blown it all near the end of the pond. We took the granite plaque with the dogs names to the engraver so Gus’ name can be added to the others. We put up a brass plaque on Brady the horse’s barn to commemorate his death.

Two turtles have been sunning almost continuously on the edge of the pond. Last year there were four, perhaps five, in residence, but turtles come and go.

I have one tree irrigator, a big, 20 gallon, plastic bag that zips up around the trunk of a newly planted tree, to keep the new tree hydrated when things dry out. You fill it with the hose and it drips water for about 24 hours. I went to six garden/hardware stores to get another one without success. Two minutes on Amazon found them with two-day delivery promised. 

New blooms: hepatica, forsythia, daffodil, blood root, yellow primrose, colts foot. 

Primrose, one of several kinds, last post I showed a purple one.

Hepatica blooms early, but the unopened leaves, which someone once thought looked like a liver, last all season in deep shade. They don't look like livers to me.

Hellebore, Lenten Rose, is another early bloomer, but it so bashful you only see the back of the flower unless you ask it to smile...

It's pretty if you get it to look at you. I wonder who pollinates it when it's facing the ground.

Red Maples.

4-12-21 VERMONT: I went to Brown’s Nursery for their grand opening on Saturday to look for red maples, specifically ‘Autumn Blaze’, Acer freemanii. The trees have brilliant red fall foliage, like the one we lost two years ago. That one was so big and red that people would stop on the road and ask for permission to take pictures. 

Brown’s have dozens. I wanted to have them plant two large ones here, but they’re already booked up until mid-summer.  So I got two not quite so big to plant myself, and borrowed neighbor Andy and his pickup to bring them home. We unloaded them in the yard near the new bridge.

My intention was to plant them on the far, east, side of the new brook, about where the big red maple that died had lived. After much discussion about tractors to move them over the bridge, Judy and I did it manually by rolling the root balls into position. It was hard but doable. Judy is very strong.

Yesterday I planted them after we ran a bunch of chores in the morning. There were a zillion dead roots to contend with, but I cut or sawed them out to create holes and rolled the trees in—job done, after back fill. Now we just need a rainy spring.

New blooms: crocus, primrose.  

Pretty sunrise very early in the morning. I let the dogs out and they scared a pair of duck, who were exploring the pond.

The ducks, American Black Ducks, I'm guessing. It was early and light was poor, this image was severly tweeked.

Mr. and Ms. Brown Cowbird working the grass yesterday before I started planting.

The trees after Judy and I rolled them across the bridge and up the hill.

Now planted. The trees behing them are other red maples, a beech and a catalpa.

Primrose that I planted by the new brook last summer.

Crocus provide early color in the garden.

Vermont In a Warm April.

4-9-21 VERMONT: We came up this morning, getting here in the early afternoon to full sun and 75°. As I have said many times, it’s like traveling backwards in time, having just left NJ with flowers and green grass. While it’s a beautiful day, there are still small patches of snow. The snow has lasted until late April other years. The  road is fine, but recently had been closed for deep mud.

The game cam showed ice on the pond as recently as two days ago and still iced over about a week ago. The ponds are ice free now. One turtle was sunning itself this afternoon, and I saw a crawfish, a newt and am hearing the first notes of the frog opera. The waterfall is a trickle. The huge wet areas below the new dam are much dryer this spring.

I had time to do a bunch of stuff—I put away the snow shovels, took down the reflectors for the driveway plowers, put up the pasture gate, put away the big tarp covering the rockers and deck table on the terrace, started clearing the winter debris, repaired a wall, walked around the pasture with Judy and the dogs, put out a couple benches. We talked to Steve and Diana, the neighbors, who were taking down the sap buckets and taps. They said it was a bad syrup season. 

The grass is brown, the trees are just beginning to open buds. Robins are here working on the grass. If you look down in the beds, you can see tiny shoots of the perennials just starting to grow.

New blooms: snowdrops are everywhere, hellebore.   

A fox crossing the frozen pond a few weeks ago, there is extensive snow cover.

Four days ago, there are snow piles around the house and ice on the pond.

Two days ago, there is still ice on the pond and snow piles around the house as Diana walks across the dam.

Today, Bally sees his reflection in the pond. All the ice is gone and only a little snow left.

A little patch of icy snow still to melt.

It must be spring.

First day out of the mud at the bottom of the pond?

Snowdrops.