Metaphor Camp

Recent rains swelled our backyard miniponds, making a mini-heaven for the resident duck brigade. During the dry spell, they had wandered about the dessicated landscape as if transported to the moon. That's Daisy (a Pekin), Molly (a runner duck), Ronnie and Swee' Pea (male and female mallards).

Sometime I would like to conduct a Metaphor summer camp, in which the happy campers sit on the fence inbetween balancing acts and periods of toeing the line. They will learn what it really feels like to have a long row to hoe, or to herd cats, or, lacking cats in sufficient number, then how to save nine by stitching in time.

If they balk, then the resident fowl can show them how to take to a task like ducks to water, and shed life's setbacks like water off a duck's back.

And when they've thoroughly mastered their metaphors, they will leave camp at the end of the week

with their ducks all in a row.

Fragrant Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima)

One shrub that speaks louder through its fragrance than its bloom is fragrant (or "winter") honeysuckle. Unlike other honeysuckle shrubs from Asia, which bloom later, I've never seen this one spread into natural areas.

The fragrance is such that a large shrub in full bloom can stop you in your tracks from 50 feet away. If you've never seen it, ask the local bumblebees and honeybees if one's growing in your neighborhood, or keep an eye out for small white flowers, and follow your nose.

A row of them grows along the nature trail loop next to the towpath, west of Harrison Street.

Lawn Blotch

As master golfers stride the perfectly groomed grounds of Augusta National this weekend, showing their mastery over a landscape that's kept in a perpetual state of arrested development, let us glance out the window for a moment at the less applauded realities of the suburban lawn. In the Masters tournament, only the hazards--the trees and shrubs--are allowed to reach maturity. For the golfer, any encounter with interesting plants is a sign of trouble. And in the yard, the main threat to calm conformity is the plant that seeks to lead a full life, by flowering and maturing its seed. (Full disclosure: I lettered in golf in high school, spent part of a summer mowing fairways, and probably developed a keen eye for plants while searching for lost balls in the nearby corn fields and the very rough rough of our neighborhood's rough-hewn golf course.)

The grasslike imposter dotting the lawn in the first photo is Star of Bethlehem, which will later have a pretty white flower but tends to spread. It's in the lily family, is native to eastern Europe and the Middle East, and spreads to natural areas as well as across lawns.

Here's wild garlic, showing vertical aspirations far beyond the surrounding grass.

Blooming now, along with the dandelions, is Lesser Celandine. It shows up as one or two plants in a yard, then becomes more numerous each year until much of the lawn is displaced. Here's a new infestation, with maybe five plants or so. It would be easy at this point to dig it up, put the diggings in the trash (not the compost bin, where it will then be spread elsewhere), and avoid the takeover. But most people are seduced by its flowers when it first shows up, and don't grow alarmed by its aggressiveness until it's already become established.

Here's a more advanced example. You can type lesser celandine in the search box at the top of this webpage to see examples of it forming a green pavement in lowlands, apparently of no use to wildlife.

A related plant is Winter Aconite, which has dissected leaves and blooms much earlier in the spring. It spreads underground, but I've never seen it spread across lawns or invade natural areas. Both are non-native spring ephemerals that will turn brown in early summer.

Another spreader is Bermuda grass, which may originally have come from northern Africa and thereabouts. The photo contrasts Bermuda grass, which is a "warm season" grass that is still brown this time of year, with the "cool season" grasses such as fescue and ryegrass that are green in cool weather but suffer in the heat of summer. The owner of this lawn must have seeded a patch with Bermuda grass rather than the original cool season grasses.

The rhizomes/stolons/roots of Bermuda grass are so strong that they will spread into and break up asphalt over time. It is a very aggressive grass and hard to weed out of other plantings if it invades flower beds or natural areas.

This blotch-on-blotch effect of wild garlic sprouting up in Bermuda grass actually makes a nice contrast, though I'm not sure anyone would try to do it intentionally.

A modest proposal: One way to get rid of lawn blotch is to get rid of the lawn.

A Walk in Gulick Park

Thirty kids and adults, plus a dog or two, gathered on a beautiful spring afternoon this past Sunday for a walk through Gulick Park, a little known nature preserve in a part of Princeton out 27 that may once have been thought of as Kingston. The loop trail starts at the eastern deadend of Terhune Road, a road that changes name as it approaches Snowden Lane, then becomes a bike path before re-emerging as Terhune Road again over near Dodds Lane.

We found tadpoles in that there pond, which reportedly holds some water even in the drier depths of summer.

The paths through this lowland woods can be muddy after a rain, but had dried up nicely in preparation for our walk.

Some appeared skeptical as I, in my role as naturalist for the walk, demonstrated the craned-neck approach to identifying red maples, pointing towards their tiny red flowers high overhead. Other tree species spoke their names through their bark--the black "potato chip" bark of black cherry trees, the mottled, army fatigue bark of sycamores--or the downward slant of the many pin oaks' lower branches. The numerous eastern red cedars--the first trees to cast shade in the abandoned agricultural fields decades back--now hang on in the shade of the higher, deciduous trees that have since grown around them. A scattering of evergreen American hollies offered patches of green in a sea of winter's browns and grays.

Just to prove I wasn't pointing at phantoms, here's a closeup of the red maple flowers that give the high canopy of lowland woods a red tinge this time of year.

Ed Simon, who leads volunteer efforts to maintain the trails (no easy task given the tree-toppling storms of recent years), told stories of the park's past and present. Though he and others have removed most of the barbed wire from the woods, a few remnants still tell of a time when the Gulicks had a massive bull that would occasionally escape into the neighborhood.

The video camera on the right in the photo is being held by Kurt Tazelaar. He and Sally Curtis have been documenting many environmental events in town.

There was the requisite stream crossing to test our balance, beyond which we came upon the field of Christmas trees. It was interesting to hear that many of the spruce trees found in Princeton's parks, including those behind my house in Potts Park, got their start in this field. I pointed out the dried remains of purple-top grasses in the field, and the graceful broomsedge (actually a grass) that gives the field an attractive bronze hue.

Beyond this high fence is the land still owned by the Gulicks, whose family ownership extends back to Revolutionary War days. A part of their house facing Route 27 is said to extend back to the 1600s, when it served as an inn conveniently located halfway between Philadelphia and New York. Each 50 mile stretch was a days ride on horseback.

Near the fence was an impressive pile of firewood, which the Gulicks apparently sell as a means of satisfying the requirements of their farm easement.

Along the trails, where the sun gets in, are some fine stands of blackberry, with its ribbed stems, and wineberry, a non-native cane with fuzzy purplish stems that bear raspberry-like fruit. A number of hikers expressed interest in returning in summer for the harvest.

The walk was made possible through the organizational energies of Nicole Bergman. There's talk of an upcoming workday to clear some of the trails still blocked by fallen trees.

Spring Sightings

Here is lesser celandine, which people tend to like at first, but then soon regret as it starts to take over the yard. A non-native spring ephemeral, the leaves will die back in a couple months. It's often mistaken for marsh marigold--a native that is larger and so rare I've never seen it growing naturally hereabouts. Though it's pretty, I recommend digging out the highly invasive lesser celandine as soon as it shows up in your yard, and before it sets seed. There's another (unrelated) wildflower called celandine, in the poppy family, that blooms later and is not invasive.

Another exotic, but not known to be invasive, is astroturf, here used by a neighbor as some sort of lawn bandage.

In the "look down to see what's up" category are the spent flowers of red maple scattered on sidewalks all across Princeton.

Here's the flower on a red maple donated to Potts Park a few years back in honor of a new-born son. The play equipment the tree is intended to eventually shade is in the background. Anyone who has felt how hot play equipment can get in the summer sun understands the need to get some trees strategically placed on playgrounds.

Good News and Bad About Roses at JW Middle School

In the sudden heat wave, new growth is springing from the thorny branches of a row of rose bushes bordering JW Middle School. There is promise of flowers, but with these particular rose bushes, the good news is mixed with bad.

Most gardeners at some point plant a shrub too close to a walkway. These rose bushes have proven particularly unforgiving of that common mistake, sending out long, thorny branches across the sidewalk to draw blood from kids on their way to and from school.

The grounds crews have been better about keeping the shrubs trimmed, but an unlikely ally may eventually make their interventions unnecessary. Rose rosette disease, which has spread to New Jersey from the midwest, has been knocking out many a rose, including these. Some of the bushes here appear completely dead, while others appear unaffected. In the interest of pedestrians, I'm cheering for the disease, and a replacement planting of natives shrubs, like fothergilla or Virginia sweetspire, whose flowering doesn't come with spines attached.

By debilitating the once rampant growth of invasive multi-flora rose in NJ's nature preserves, the disease thus far has been of great assistance to land managers seeking to restore native diversity. Stunted growth of invasive species allows natives to better compete for sun and water. Though the disease has unfortunately affected some roses planted by homeowners, as far as I know, the native roses such as the swamp rose have not been affected--a miracle for land managers used to bad news for native species.

Some of the multi-flora rose bushes may in time prove immune to the disease, and spread to once again plague our natural areas. But in the meantime, the disease is doing what no number of land managers could possibly find the time and energy to do.

Nature Walk: How to get to Gulick Park

Thus far, my explorations of the little known patch of open space in Princeton called Gulick Park has consisted of finding out how to get there. For the nature walk today, Sunday, April 7, at 1pm, here are some ways to reach the obscure entry to the trails:

• Go to Google Maps and type these words--Concord Lane, Princeton, NJ--into the box at the top. The walk starts at the deadend of Terhune Road, just beyond the intersection with Concord Lane.
• Or take Route 27 east from Princeton towards Kingston. Carnegie Lake will be on your right. Before reaching Kingston, take a left on Dodds Lane, then the first right, on Corncord Lane, then turn right on Terhune Rd and you're there.
• To bike, take Terhune Road east. It turns into Van Dyke Road briefly before running into Snowden Lane. At that intersection, cross Snowden Lane and take the bike trail through Smoyer Park woods, staying to the right. At the other end of the woods, Terhune Road magically reappears and you continue east until you reach the deadend. 

The NJ Trails website (Mercer County page) is generally helpful, if you want trail maps for Princeton nature preserves, but Gulick Park isn't mentioned there.

Pipeline Right of Way's Impact on Habitat

Many of us have been mildly aware of the transcontinental natural gas pipeline that runs through Princeton. We cross it most every day, on Route 206 just up from the Ewing intersection, as well as on Bunn Drive, the Great Road, Cherry Hill Road, and other roads that traverse the high, boulder-strewn ground of the Princeton Ridge. (More info on the issue and the April 11 public meeting on the proposed expansion at the following links: 1) meeting and background, 2) opinion piece comparing regulation of tobacco and fossil fuels). 

The pipeline also cuts through Mountain Lakes, Herrontown Woods and other natural areas. Though a matrix of woodland and field can provide more diverse habitat for plants and wildlife, a linear swath cut through forest has the unfortunate effect of providing access into the forest for catbirds, which lay their eggs in other bird species' nests and therefore reduce the survival chances of bird species that need deep forest habitat.

The usefulness of these herbaceous right of ways, which are mowed annually, for grassland birds is limited. My understanding is that many grassland bird species shy away from meadows that have trees close by, where predators like hawks can perch and survey the ground. Even the fields at Tusculum, between Mountain Lakes and Cherry Hill Road, may not be large enough for some of the grassland birds.

Pipeline right of ways also promote the spread of invasive plant species such as the Phragmitis (shown) and Korean bush clover, which tend to take over and exclude native plants that wildlife depend on. Even if these species aren't planted intentionally, their seeds can spread from one right of way to another on the wheels of maintenance vehicles. Korean bush clover, also called Sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata), is a classic case of an exotic species that was promoted as a wildlife food, but whose small, abundant seeds were later found to pass through birds, undigested. The species has been widely used for erosion control, but its invasiveness and lack of utility for wildlife means that one environmental goal (reduced sedimentation in waterways) is achieved at the expense of another (habitat and biodiversity).

Since the pressure to build and expand right of ways, for electrical transmission as well as pipelines, is going to increase over time, it would make sense to manage them for native grassland, so at least they would provide a haven for herbaceous species that get shaded out elsewhere. It's a matter of making sure the plant lists used for revegetating these right of ways is the right mix of native species, and also providing early intervention to prevent highly invasive exotic species from getting established and spreading. Getting these concerns on the list of priorities for industry, and government regulators, is a challenge.

A Report of Dead Fish in the DR Canal

A friend emailed me this past Saturday about an accumulation of dead fish in the DR Canal near Alexander Street. I went down and took this photo, focused on the fish, not even noticing the beauty of the reflections until later opening the photo on the computer. There may have been twenty fish, total, perhaps suckers. Hard to guess at the cause.

Some Upcoming Events

Some talks, some walks. Follow links for more info.

TALK AT DR GREENWAY: DR Greenway's great series of talks continues tomorrow with Professor Ken Hiltner (we haven't figured out any shared lineage yet), Thursday, April 4, 2013, 7:00 - 8:30pm at the Johnson Education Center. The talk is entitled "From Shakespeare's London to Urban Gardening -- The Literature of Humans' Relationship with the Land" 

NATURE WALK: I will be leading a walk at Gulick Park/Preserve this Sunday, April 7, at 1pm. It's being organized by the neighbors of the park, but all are welcome to come. Gulick Farm dates back to the 1600s. Here's more info: "We will meet at the entrance to Gulick Park at 1pm on Sunday, March 10. The entrance is at the eastern dead-end of Terhune Road (east of Concord). The walk will probably take a little over an hour. It could be a bit muddy, so make sure to dress appropriately.  All ages are welcome."

COURSE ON MANAGING WATER IN THE LANDSCAPE--There are a few open spots in the course I'm teaching at the Princeton Adult School, starting with an introductory talk Thursday evening, April 11, followed by four Sunday afternoon field trips to examples of how runoff is being utilized aesthetically and ecologically in public areas and backyards.

ECO-CONFERENCE Our Future, Our Challenge: Student Eco-Conference 2013 , May 4, 9-1p, at Princeton Day School. Includes talks by David Crane, CEO of NRG: "Are the economy and sustainability compatible?", and Heidi Cullen of Climate Central, plus workshops on foraging, chickens, bees, and organic farming

CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAM: Two speakers with "inside scoop" on legislation to address climate change. April 7, 1pm, Unitarian Church

REGISTER SUPPORT FOR CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY--There's a quick way to register support for this group, which has a local chapter. No obligation to donate. Registering helps them in applications for funding. Took me about a minute. Here are instructions:

                 1.  Go to The Citizens Climate Lobby home page, and in the upper right corner find the DONATE or REGISTER SUPPORT box or button. Click on that.

 

                  2. That takes you to a second page, where down in the main text, the third option is REGISTER AS A SUPPORTER OF OUR CAUSE. Click on that.

                   3. That takes you to the sign up page.  Please fill out and submit.

Chickens at Princeton Day School

Many a happy hen resides next to the Princeton Day School gardens, across the Great Road from Coventry Farm. I visited them last week during the Bryn Mawr book sale,

where Princetonians were exhibiting flocking behavior in the PDS gymnasium, gleaning books to feed the mind, or at least to have a new lease on life on a new bookshelf.

The coop is located behind the playground next to the parking lot. I've been told that the kids love the chickens, which are used for educational purposes as well as food for the cafeteria. Only high schoolers are allowed to take care of them.

There are many versions of coop available at local farm supply stores like Rosedale Mills or Belle Meade Coop, though their price tag can sometimes motivate people to build their own. This coop's design has a very convenient door for collecting the eggs, and a tray underneath the inside roost, where most of the chicken droppings can easily be removed.

Early on, a fox found a hole in the caged portion and wiped out the whole flock. Though traumatic, the incident was used as an educational opportunity. Students came up with a better design for the chicken run.

Just past the chicken coop is an impressive retention basin where runoff--probably from the PDS parking lot--collects after a storm. Most developments in the Princeton area have these. Typically, such basins are mowed weekly, and the stormwater is allowed to run out so quickly it has no time to seep in. The result is a nearly useless expanse of turf.

At PDS, the basin is allowed to grow up as a meadow, then mowed once yearly. This is more attractive, easier to maintain, and makes better wildlife habitat. Unmowed vegetation has deeper root systems than turfgrass, which makes for a more porous soil that allows more runoff to percolate down to feed the groundwater. I don't know the story of Kristy Manning, for whom the meadow is named, but its a beautiful thing to have one's name attached to a well-maintained meadow that feeds both wildlife and the groundwater.

Food's already growing in the school garden nearby,

with spinach taking the lead.


PDS will host a conference on all of these installations May 4:   ECO-CONFERENCE Our Future, Our Challenge: Student Eco-Conference 2013 , May 4, 9-1p, at Princeton Day School. Includes talks by David Crane, CEO of NRG: "Are the economy and sustainability compatible?", and Heidi Cullen of Climate Central, plus workshops on foraging, chickens, bees, and organic farming

My discussions with Princeton's animal control officer and the mayor suggest that the public schools, in addition to their gardens, could also have chicken coops if there is sufficient parent and teacher interest.

Butterflies in and around Mexico City--a Princeton Connection?

Though I had hoped to visit the mountain range several hours west of Mexico City where our Monarch butterflies overwinter, I had to settle for a few sightings of tiger swallowtails in the city, along with this collection of butterflies suspended above Freda Kahlo's bed.

(Her other bed in the next room has a mirror above it, placed there when she was bedridden for a year, which might explain how she got interested in painting self-portraits.)

On the flight home, the United Airlines "Hemispheres" magazine featured an article on the Monarch butterflies. The article documents the struggle to save the mountain habitat for the Monarchs, particularly the efforts of the World Wildlife Fund to help locals develop income from tourism so that they don't need to keep cutting down the forest to make a living.

That effort has been successful, the mountain habitat is now protected and on the mend, but now the Monarchs' incredible annual journey is threatened by industrial farm practices in the U.S., and the human-caused climate change that is very rapidly altering the timing for the long migration, and increasing the likelihood of extreme weather like droughts.

The situation points out how even heroic efforts to restore habitat are vulnerable to being trumped by the rapid changes being wrought globally to our atmosphere and oceans. If hardships during the 2000 mile migration reduce the number of Monarchs that make it back to their overwintering site in the fall, fewer tourists will make the pilgrimage to see them, which will then undermine the sustaining tourist economy in the Bioreserve and prompt the locals to return to cutting trees down for a living.

The Monarch's precarious situation also points out the cumulative impact of multiple stressors. An overwintering habitat reduced by logging over the years from 50 acres down to 3; the loss of hedgerows and the introduction of Roundup Ready corn and soybeans in the midwest that allows farmers to kill all the "weeds" that used to provide food and breeding grounds for the migrating butterflies; the increasing extremes of weather. All of these conspire, and for those (probably not readers of these posts!) who don't care much about butterflies, the same cumulative environmental stresses can play out on human economies as well.

If one's looking for something empowering in this less than sanguine state of affairs, consider this. It may be that, as rural areas become less supportive of the migrating Monarchs, residential communities will become more and more important. Towns have the water infrastructure to sustain landscapes in deep droughts. A plentiful supply of nectar and milkweed plants in urban areas could keep the Monarchs and many other species going. It's mind-expanding to think that our work here in Princeton and in other towns across the nation could have consequence for a small mountain community in Mexico, and for sustaining an ancient miracle. (In the photo, a Monarch caterpillar feeds on swamp milkweed planted at Mountain Lakes Preserve.)

Other related posts can be found by typing the word Monarch into the search box at the top of this page. An example is "Native plants feed the needy next to Mountain Lakes."

When Gardens Crawl Up a Wall

Someone left a bike unlocked,

in the middle of a garden.

But I doubt that anyone will steal it,

being suspended twenty feet up,

on the side of a wall,

that serves as a backdrop for a restaurant a few blocks away from the Zocolo in Mexico City.

The plants on the wall grow in little pockets of felt-like fabric,

that look like an extension of this much older approach of putting ceramic pots on a wall.

The swirly patterns of the wall garden are reminiscent of these swirls of boxwood that serve as a pruned understory in a mini-forest in a Coyoacan plaza,

and this traditional motif on a wall along a narrow street that leads to the plaza.

A post from 2009 about a similar garden in Madrid can be found at this link.