Sheddings of Honey Locust

 If the sidewalk is newly littered with brown, darkened by the recent rains,

and upon closer inspection the brown turns out to consist of thousands of tiny spent flowers,

and you look up to see fairly smooth, plated bark and a compound leaf like this,

then chances are good you're walking beneath a honey locust or two. Gleditsia triancanthus, as it is affectionately known among those with an inexplicable memory for latin, can be found occasionally in the wild, where it is typically armored with big thorns to ward off the now non-existent North American mega-fauna. The thorns can supposedly be used for nails.

A thornless variety is common along streets, such as at the township hall parking lot. In fall, the small leaflets drop onto the lawn, nestle between the grass blades and disappear without need of any raking.

Turf Pit Review

Compared to the amount of preserved woodlands, Princeton is lacking in open field habitat for wildlife. Walk through a typical woods in summer, and you'll find almost nothing blooming. How are pollinators to survive? One victory came when the DR Canal State Park agreed years back to sharply reduce mowing in fields near the towpath between Alexander and Washington Roads. After years of ongoing decapitation, wildflowers were finally able to grow to maturity, providing cover and a progression of blooms all summer.

Retention basins, such as this giant one at Elm Court, can also be converted to excellent habitat. Mowing is done annually rather than every week or two, saving money, effort, and any risk associated with mowing those steep slopes. This is just one of many such basins around town, designed to catch runoff from nearby buildings and parking lots. Their periodic inundation would be beneficial to the many kinds of native floodplain wildflowers available.

In this photo, you can see the "sidewalk to nowhere", a puzzling design feature that, last I heard, has been shown to be unnecessary.

Smoyer Park, out Snowden Lane on the northeast side of Princeton, has some fine prospects for reduced mowing. These basins are useless for recreation and may as well become habitat. A federal program, called Partners for Fish and Wildlife, has already funded the successful conversion of a similar basin at Farmview Fields on the west side of town. They replace the exotic turfgrass with "warm-season" native grasses (Indian grass and big bluestem).

The best thing about a sidewalk to nowhere is that it will eventually break up and make room for plants to grow.

Retention basins vary a great deal in how wet they remain inbetween rains. Some receive seepage from underground, which helps keep the ground wet and allows a greater variety of plant species to survive. Where there's good moisture, you can see small rushes and sedges already growing (dark clumps in photo), despite the frequent mowing.

One basin that has particularly great potential is just down from the office complex on Ewing Street. With the Princeton Charter School next door, it would make a great educational asset for the school if planted with native floodplain species. My efforts to interest the out-of-state owner in substituting habitat for turf were unsuccessful, but it was worth a try.

Severe Tree Pruning

A couple years ago, it seems that someone came through the neighborhood telling homeowners they had dangerous trees that needed to be pruned or taken down. One neighbor, apparently moved by fear or the low price, had a silver maple trimmed back to the trunk. The tree had a couple sprouts on its trunk last year, but otherwise no sign of rebound. The best one could say, on its behalf, is that it is storing some carbon, and may prove a good host for woodpecker food. Perhaps its slender shadow could be used to tell time.

Severe pruning is practiced in Europe, particularly along narrow city streets where trees need to be kept small, but obviously there's an art to it, and I have yet to meet a trained American arborist who would say anything good about the approach.

Goulds to Speak Tonight On Animal Navigation

One highly fortuitous place to find yourself at 7pm tonight (Tuesday) is in the Princeton Public Library Community Room, where Jim and Carol Grant Gould will be giving a presentation on animal navigation. An article by Linda Arntzenius in the current U.S.1 publication provides an excellent introduction to this local couple's life and work.

Bald Eagles Nesting Next To Carnegie Lake

There, on that tree across the lake, past the national women's rowing team training for the Olympics. Can't you see them?

Okay, maybe a different camera will work better. Thanks to Pam Machold for sending me these. Here's Mommy and Daddy Eagle, and Baby Eagle, feeling like they're on top of the world, or at least on top of the local foodchain.

Here's a particularly gallant pose,

and a shot of parents in action.

I happened to be at this remarkable home, perched on the edge of Carnegie Lake, for a New Jersey Conservation Foundation gathering. When Emile DeVito, NJCF Manager of Science and Stewardship, speaks, even the owls listen up.

Emile remembered visiting the one remaining bald eagle nest in New Jersey back in 1973. Since then, through considerable human intervention to nurture fragile eggs, and the banning of harmful pesticides, the bald eagle population has grown to 100 nesting pairs. Emile explained that, early on, biologists would take the thin-shelled eggs from the nests, replace them with artificial eggs to fool the eagles, then hatched the eggs in the laboratory and returned the hatchlings to the nests for the eagles to raise. As DDT faded from the foodchain, the eggs must have grown stronger, because the eagles have now repopulated NJ to the point that the best nesting sites are taken.

Though the recovery of the bald eagle is a great success story, it is not possible to intervene in a similar way to save the thousands of species of plant, bird and insect species that are threatened. He said that a third of plant species in New Jersey are now threatened, due to habitat degradation. Only the preservation and stewardship of habitat can preserve the many species pushed to the edge.

Frontyard Raingarden

Every homeowner has to deal with drainage, which could be considered dull if it didn't stir considerable passions in people, particularly those on the receiving end of someone else's runoff.

The traditional approach has been to either ignore runoff until it causes trouble, or to get rid of it as quickly as possible, typically through buried pipes.

My approach is to make runoff the central driver in landscaping decisions, to treat it as an asset while keeping it away from the house, and to take as much advantage of it as possible before it leaves the property.

One dilemma in our yard has been that much of the rainwater from the roof was directed into the driveway via underground pipes. From there, it was expected to flow away through a small drainage pipe that has never worked very well. The drain has become so slow, and unrotorootable, that the driveway now behaves like a retention basin. Not a bad use for a driveway, in some respects, but not ideal.

Part of the solution has been to reroute runoff into the front and back yards, away from the driveway.

The most recent rerouting takes runoff from the front portion of the roof under a walkway and out towards the street. Given how little fun it is to dig under a walkway, this project was mulled over for many months.

Sure enough, digging a ditch has not gotten any easier since the last time. It's always good to have a spot picked out for the extra dirt, which in this case fortified the Maginot Berm that diverts runoff from my uphill neighbor's driveway away from our house and into another raingarden in the front yard.

One less than optimal aspect, not considered until after the fact, was that quite a few tree roots got cut in the process. A lawn's monocrop appearance gives no clue to the web of tree roots just below the surface. Hopefully the trees will end up benefitting from the extra water coming their way.

Chunks of sod got flipped upside down and put back in the ditch, then buried with loose dirt. Tubing had been previously obtained from the neighborhood curbside kmart before it could head to the landfill.

Some leaf compost from the Lawrenceville Ecological Center probably wasn't necessary, but a little doesn't hurt. Many native plants do fine in poor soil, and since this raingarden overflows across the sidewalk and into the street, it's best to minimize nutrients.

Here it is in action, holding water that will seep into the ground over the next day. Plants include soft rush, turtlehead, monkey flower, a Carex sedge, and a few other plants thinned from backyard gardens.

Native Plant Sale at D&R Greenway Today, Tomorrow

The D and R Greenway is having its spring native plant sale today, Friday, 3-6pm, and Saturday 1-4pm. More info at http://drgreenway.org/PlantSales.html. They usually grow their plants from local genotypes, meaning from seed collected from naturally occurring local populations. Given that a species can vary genetically across its range, buying local genotypes can help preserve what is special about the local version of the species.

Black Locust in Bloom

If you see a tree with deeply furrowed bark,

leaves with lots of leaflets, and gobs of white flowers this time of year, chances are it's a black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). It's also called yellow locust because its inner wood is distinctively yellow.

Though native more specifically to the Appalachian Mountains, black locust is common here in town. The wood's resistance to decay made it popular for use as fence posts, and it makes great firewood, burning hot and clean.

A particularly statuesque specimen can be found in Princeton on Hamilton Ave. near Harrison St, with four trunks cabled together. A fly-by-night tree cutter tried to convince the owner to cut it down, but fortunately the owner wasn't swayed.

My first encounter with black locust was in Ann Arbor, MI, at the home of Dr. Duff, who studied the effects of radiation on survivors of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2. His home was filled with Japanese art, and a bamboo fountain decorated the garden. The grove of black locust fit right in as a backdrop, their dark, gnarled limbs contrasting with light green leaves.

Frontyard Vegetable Garden

"Hey, why not?", the statue seems to ask, from his accustomed vantage point in front of a fig tree.

Why not let chives turn sunlight, soil and air into flowers to greet the passersby?

Why not plant peonies, strawberries and cabbage, and let the thick mulch do the weeding?

Why not grow food where an ordinary, static lawn might ordinarily be.

This frontyard garden is actually part of a dietary movement led by Dorothy Mullen and written about this past week in a US 1 article. Her website is thesuppersprograms.org. Dorothy is also gardener in residence at Riverside Elementary, where the extensive school gardens have become incorporated into the curriculum.

Portrait of Sidewalk Neglect

When using Princeton's sidewalks, it sometimes pays to know your plants,

lest you brush against poison ivy that's been allowed to grow out over the pavement, for several summers now.

Elsewhere along this neglected sidewalk on a much-traveled street, the plant growing in your path might just be a box elder tree, which has leaves much like poison ivy, but less shiny, and has opposite branching instead of alternate, and is a tree rather than a vine.

Or it could be Virginia creeper, which has five leaflets per leaf instead of three.

And for the old guy who rides the little electric cart around town, now pulling a little wagon he uses to collect trash along the way, well, he'll have to cross the street if he wants to ride on a sidewalk kept clear of english ivy.

Other plants eager to fill the void in attention include a euoynmus vine,

a young cherry tree,

 a young pin oak,

an American elm (with a bit of honeysuckle shrub sticking out at the lower left),

and a black locust seedling.

Typically, neglected sidewalks are on the back side of properties, where the owners seldom go. But even front sidewalks can get overgrown and put the squeeze on pedestrians. What can be useful and even rewarding to cultivate is a sense of stewardship and pride in that small piece of public right of way--sidewalk and curb--each homeowner is entrusted with.

National Weed Pulling Week

Truth be told, it's not really National Weed Pulling Week. Sorry to get your hopes up. But with the recent rains, this is a primo time to be out there doing what needs to be done in the eternal struggle to steer nature's growth energy in a desired direction.

There's no better way to start learning to discriminate one plant from another than to plant seeds in a vegetable garden and then try to figure out what's what amongst all the eager prospects that soon appear. Hopefully enough of the intended plants come up to form a line. That's the best clue, and all one really needs to start weeding, but below is some more information for navigating the world of weeds.

Most everyone's seen the leaves on a mature carrot, but what do they look like when the plant is 1 inch tall? In this photo, the carrots have highly dissected leaves, like the one over towards the left. Smartweed--so called because it tends to grow in schoolyards, like the raised bed where this photo was taken--has the larger oval leaves. Grass has long, pointed leaves. And down at the lower left, partly obscured by a long dead blade of grass, is lambs quarters, which can grow to six feet if adequately neglected.

Here, the biggest plant (maybe 2 inches high), is one of the many kinds of smartweed. Carrot is hidden just below it, with lambs quarters just below that. A grass blade is at the lower right. Everything can be pulled except the carrots, though the lambs quarters is edible and its young leaves taste about as good as anything we grow intentionally. If you wait too long before weeding, all the root systems intertwine and the intended plants come out with the weeds. Having waited too long, you can press down on the soil on either side of the intended plant with your fingers while pulling the nearby weed out with your other hand.

In this photo, which I found from a past post by typing "garlic" into the search box at the top of this website, the big leaf is garlic mustard, surrounded by wood sorrrel leaves with three leaflets each. Garlic mustard is edible, particularly when the leaves are young, and wood sorrel has the tangy taste of oxalic acid. At the upper right is what looks like a small plantain leaf. All of these can be competing with your intended seedlings.

When pulling weeds, be sure to grasp them at the base and pull slowly, the better to get as many roots as possible.

Canada thistle spreads underground. It pulls up easily when the ground is soft, but will keep sending up new shoots. The strategy here is to be persistent (we're speaking hypothetically), wear gloves, and pull the shoots before they have time to feed energy down to the (seemingly vast) root system. Laying cardboard down, then covering with mulch, is a good way to prevent any sprouts from coming up, but usually the thistle is mixed in with desired plants that one doesn't want to bury beneath mulch.

This is what Hairy Bittercress, the seed-flinging weed mentioned in a previous post, looks like if it goes unweeded. Too late now. It's seeds are flung and ready for next spring.

Stiltgrass (mentioned in a previous post or two) is an annual that has invaded many yards. It can be made scarce in flower beds by pulling it before it goes to seed in late August.

It's a bit of a problem out in the woods, though. Here's a stiltgrass meadow with millions or billions of individual plants. Barring a National Weed Pulling Century, it's wise to pick one's spots.

Kentucky Coffee Trees Always Show Up Late For the Party

The Kentucky Coffee Trees across the street are taking their customary time leafing out, despite the warm spring. Given that each leaf is 3 feet long, waiting until the coast is clear to make such a big commitment in manufacturing is understandable. From past posts about the tree, it looks like the warm spring this year may have hastened the opening of its buds, but not by much.

The relative rareness of the tree in the wild suggests this very conservative strategy of remaining bare five or six months of the year has not proved very successful, but it probably helps these trees survive freak storms like the snow storm that hit Princeton in late October last year.

Internet sources mention it as highly compatible for planting next to passive solar homes, since it only obstructs the sun during the warmest months, and also as a tree associated with historic settlements. Wikipedia mentions a few of these trees in the gardens at Mount Vernon. The grove across the street from me grow on the original farmstead of Joseph Stockton, where Thomas Jefferson is said to have stayed on occasion.

To the left and lower right in the photo are Norway Maples fully leafed out.

FOPOS Speaker Focuses On Deer

 The Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS) had its annual meeting this past Sunday. Wendy Mager, now in her 20th year as the highly effective president of the organization, reviewed the past year's events, which included preservation of large wooded tracts along the Princeton Ridge, with more in the works. AeLin Compton, the new natural resource manager for FOPOS, was introduced to the membership.

The guest speaker was Emil DeVito of the NJ Conservation Foundation, who with voice resounding through Mountain Lakes House made some powerful points about the steep decline in habitat quality in NJ in recent decades. Everything from losses in plant diversity, lack of tree regeneration, soil erosion, the dominance of exotic stiltgrass, and the loss of organic matter in the soil is linked directly or indirectly to the dramatic rise in deer numbers.

He speculates that this imbalance, and the severe browsing pressure on native vegetation that it creates, is without precedent in history. If deer numbers had been so high in the past, native wildflowers like the swamp pink would never have evolved growth strategies that now make them extremely vulnerable to decimation by intense browsing.

Earthworms, too, though beneficial in a vegetable garden, turn out to be destructive in natural areas. He described the imported European earthworms as being slow-moving. Asian species have a higher metabolism.

How would deer and invading earthworms impact forest soil health and even contribute to climate change? If there are too many deer, they eat all the native shrubs that were deepening the shade on the forest floor. Sunlight warms the less-shaded soil as much as 10 degrees above normal, stimulating increased worm activity. The worms consume last year's leaf litter faster, reducing soil organic matter that would otherwise have absorbed rainfall, sequestered carbon and provided habitat for soil organisms.

Part of Emile's power as a speaker comes from his talent for intermingling comedy with tragedy. His stories about neighbors' reactions to his anti-lawn landscaping had the audience convulsing in laughter. 

Refreshments followed the talk, and then Emile led a walk in Mountain Lakes North. Of particular interest was observing what happens when a mature tree falls, creating an opening in the canopy. In a healthy forest, there would be young trees ready to grow into the gap. If deer have eaten all the young trees, however, the gap will remain open, feeding the growth of exotic stiltgrass on the forest floor.

Princeton's open space is better off than many woodlands elsewhere in NJ. Annual deer culling since 2000 by the township has helped reduce browsing pressure enough to allow a resurgence of native shrubs like spicebush. But until deer numbers are reduced to at most 20 per square mile (5-10 is better), the forests will not be able to heal.

Jazz Tomorrow at Labyrinth Bookstore

We temporarily interrupt the nature narrative to mention that tomorrow, Thursday, from 6-8pm, the Labyrinth Bookstore on Nassau St in Princeton will be providing habitat for my group, the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble, as  part of the 3rd "Art Walk". I write all the music, with names like Scrambled Eggs, Fresh Paint, Crying It Out and Forgotten Memories. A new tune may enter the repertoire Thursday, called Fed Up, which is how I feel sometimes when abuse of the planet is allowed to continue unchecked. Labyrinth will provide tea and coffee, or you can bring your own. Art Walk is a bit of a stealth event, but you can find some info at the Labyrinth Bookstore website, and particularly at the Princeton University Art Museum website.

Another great opportunity to hear the music and socialize is a potluck/performance on Saturday, May 19, at a private music room across Route 1 a short ways. That one starts at 7, with a couple sets starting at 8pm. Send me an email for details (click on "View my complete profile", over on the right on this blog, for my email address.)

Suburban Food Chains

A coopers hawk came over to the neighbor's for lunch the other day, unexpected. My neighbor got to teach his young boys about the different kinds of bird feathers--stiff for wing, soft for body--and their functions, and also about food chains. That way, the sacrificial mockingbird fed some imaginations, as well as the hawk.

Extending down the food chain from the mockingbird would be lots of insects during breeding season, and berries later in the year. The insects in turn tend to be finicky about their preference for native plant species. For info on native plants that are particularly supportive of foodchains involving insects, bringingnaturehome.net is an excellent source.