Almost Autumn

It is hot and humid and in the afternoon I hear locusts buzzing. But do not be fooled: fall is almost here. The leaves have been falling off the black walnut trees for a few weeks, not to mention the walnuts. Acorns have started falling here and there, which is wonderful because New Jersey's acorn crop failed last year, due to a late freeze. Larry's hazelnut bush has produced its first hazelnuts ever, harvested last week, small but tasty (see photo). One of our neighbors has false dragonhead (Physostegia virginiana), a native September flower, in full lavender bloom, and mine has buds. Goldenrod is in bloom along the roadsides.

September first is the start of deer mating season, and the bucks begin to rub or scrape their antlers on saplings and exposed stems of shrubs, removing the bark. One friend in Franklin Township has seen signs that the deer are already scraping. Trees are often killed, or if not, the tree uses a lot of energy growing new bark, setting it back for a few years. Multi-stemmed shrubs usually can recover, but they look awful in the meantime, and if it happens year after year they can die. Now is the time to buy 12" or 18" wide chicken wire and cut four or four- and- a- half foot long sections to fasten around saplings with rope or gardeners' twist ties (you can buy a large roll of heavy-duty plastic-coated green twist ties for $5 to$10). You may be able to do the same for exposed stems of shrubs, or you can get four-foot-wide chicken wire and wrap the whole shrub. Vines growing up a sapling may provide protection from buck rubbing, but then you will have to save the plant from the vines in the spring. The chicken wire can also prevent rabbits from chewing the bark off the trees and shrubs, if it extends to the ground all the way around and doesn't have gaps.

Also around September first the deer start running around more, and deer-automobile accidents increase. Please drive safely, especially on back roads and at dusk and after.

Saving Energy Staying Cool

It is the perfect time to discuss low-energy ways to cope with hot summer weather! In an earlier post, I mentioned that we have one window air conditioner, an attic fan, bedroom fans for the kids, lots of shade and a light-colored roof. Usually the air conditioner only goes on for a few hours in the late afternoon, if at all, but this week it has been running almost all afternoon and evening.

We got the attic fan our first year in the house, 1986, and it has been trouble-free ever since. It sits in a window in the attic, and we take it out in September and put it back in May or June. We keep the house closed up during the heat of the day, with curtains and shades drawn, and when it gets hotter inside than outside (usually in the evening) we open windows and doors and turn on the attic fan. We turn it off at bedtime. This works very well when the outside temperature goes below 70 degrees at night, but this week has been challenging.

It helps to wear less and drink cold drinks, especially just after coming inside or working hard enough to get hot. The kids like popsicles. I have read that some people say you get used to living without air conditioning, but others say you don't. I think it is somewhere in between: you never get completely comfortable in the heat, but you do adjust a bit. I always have trouble sleeping the first couple of hot nights, then I acclimate.

The same tricks that keep my house livable without air conditioning are useful to reduce energy usage for people who air condition.

Do not underestimate the cooling provided by mature trees. It is much better than the shade from an awning or roof. For one thing, the leaves take energy from the sun and turn it into sugar, whereas a roof or awning can get hot. Furthermore, even on a windless day the transpiration of the trees apparently sets up a very gentle circulation of air under the tree canopy. This is another good reason to plant trees. I've had visitors get out of their cars on my driveway and tell me that my yard feels ten degrees cooler than theirs.

One strategy is to try to keep the heat out of the house. In winter when we waste energy, we waste it once. In summer when we waste energy we waste it twice, because we also have to run the air conditioner longer to get rid of the extra heat. Did you know that compact fluorescent bulbs save on air conditioning? I hang my laundry outside to dry in the summer, which keeps heat from the dryer out of the house. I wash more laundry in cold water, and take cooler showers. In the summer I turn off the water in the shower while I shampoo. I've tried this in the winter and I get too cold, but in summer it feels just fine. And a drip-dry hairstyle saves on blow drying.

Some nights we have a cold dinner, such as green salad with chick peas or extra cheese for protein, or tuna salad. My mother used to cook dinner in an electric frying pan on the back porch, but I haven't tried that yet. I suppose we could even take the toaster out there. After heating up a large pot of water to cook corn, I pour it down the drain immediately, rather than letting it cool down while we eat, because it heats up the kitchen. I have worked my way down from two minutes to boil a cup of water for tea in the microwave to one minute forty seconds. My dishwasher has an energy-saver button, but it doesn't have a dial that shows what cycle it is in, making it hard to know when I can stop the cycle and open it without interrupting the rinse. It does have a digital readout of how many minutes are left in the cycle, and when I am around the kitchen I open it earlier each time. Eventually I will figure out exactly when is the earliest I can open it. Unfortunately I won't be able to set a timer to remind me, because the minutes on the dial don't correspond to real minutes. Who designs these things?

Here is my last-resort cooling trick, one that I hit upon when I lived in Philadelphia in the early eighties in an un-air conditioned brick row house: I stick my head under the faucet, then towel dry and go around with moist hair. It really cools me off.

Garden Vegetables

I keep intending to write about important issues, such as how to save energy on transportation and housing and reduce our environmental footprint, but every day I am overwhelmed by produce from the garden. I spend my time cutting up tomatoes and cucumbers, kale, chard and squash. At this time of year Larry and I always remember our friend Chaz, who becomes a vegetarian just for the month of August. I already told you how much I love the farmer's market, but there are advantages to having one's own garden, for example, the tomato shown to the left. We think it is a Rutgers tomato, a particular strain of tomato that was chosen to thrive and produce well here in New Jersey. We are calling it the devil tomato. We haven't seen anything like it in the 23 years Larry has had a garden here.

Something fun that we often see is squash vines that grow up by themselves, known as volunteers. The vine in the photo above grew in the compost pile, from a seed that was dumped there. We think it is a pumpkin. It seems not to be attractive to deer or other pests. I have read that squash and pumpkin plants are deer-resistant because they are so fuzzy, but that isn't always true. Sometimes the scientists who produce hybrid plants knowingly or unknowingly sacrifice qualities of hardiness (including deer-resistance) in favor of bigger, tastier or more beautiful fruit or flowers, or perhaps some other valuable property. The volunteer squash vines, though, always seem to grow vigorously and resist deer. Another volunteer squash vine is growing inside the garden and out over the fence; we have eaten a few of its fruits and they are very tasty. Please note that you can have a volunteer squash vine if you only dump the seeds of all the squash you eat all year in your compost pile. Since pumpkins are edible, you can add the seeds from your Halloween pumpkin. With luck, next year you will have a volunteer squash of your very own. However, be sure to discard any ornamental gourds you may have in some other place. It is very disappointing to cook and serve what you think is a delicious squash, only to find that it tastes bitter.

Arboretum

Last weekend my husband and I went with a couple of friends to visit Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and the nearby Scott Arboretum on the Swarthmore College campus. Both were beautiful, and I'd recommend them to anyone who likes trees, flowers or gardens. Admission to Chanticleer is only $5.00 apiece, children under 16 free, and the Scott Arboretum is free.

Montgomery Township is fortunate to have its own Arboretum, an arboretum of native plants. Many people have already visited it without knowing anything about it, because it is attached to Montgomery Park on the east side. There is a kiosk with a map and brochures next to the main parking lot, and as you go downhill from the parking lot toward the bridge you are already in the Arboretum. The land was purchased through a grant from Green Acres, a New Jersey state program, and the application was written by Ewa Zak, the now-retired longtime chair of our Shade Tree Committee, who conceived of the arboretum as a place where people could see native trees and fall in love with them, as she had fallen in love with native American plants. This unusual concept was an award-winner, and we are all the beneficiaries. Now my husband is chair of the Shade Tree Committee, and he and the other members of the Shade Tree Committee are in charge of choosing new trees every year and generally keeping an eye on things.

While our arboretum has some large old trees, most of the arboretum trees are fairly young. This has the advantage that if you are looking for a tree to plant in your yard, you can see at the Arboretum what it will look like a few years after you plant it. It will be inspiring to watch them grow over the years. Some of the earlier plantings, e.g. the cypresses near the main parking lot, are already quite tall. If you are choosing a tree, be sure to research the conditions that the tree needs. Don't just choose a tree that you admire growing in a moist, sunny spot and buy it and take it home and plant it in a dry, shady spot.

The Arboretum is full of paths, and every time I go there I find people walking their dogs and kids riding bikes and skateboards. The paths connect Montgomery Park and a pathway along Millpond Road to the soccer fields and the Millpond Bridge, where there is a trailhead that leads along a boardwalk and through the Campbell Farm to River Road. It is a beautiful hike. Friends tell me that they hear and see frogs in vernal pools in the spring, and large patches of jacks-in-the-pulpit beside the boardwalk; I have missed the right time of year for those. In the arboretum itself you can see a variety of native plants, birds and butterflies. The trees are labeled to help you know what you are looking at. Every time I go there I catch a glimpse of a horse or two on a neighboring property, and I've seen huge snapping turtles in the streams.

I also have a tree at the Arbortum. My husband and I donated a tree in memory of my late father, Warren Roberts, who loved trees. We decided that a good candidate for his favorite tree was the American persimmon tree, Diospyros virginiana, because he grew persimmon trees in his yard; he admired its hard wood, used to make golf clubs; and he loved to eat persimmon pudding. There is a photo of his persimmon tree above. Many people, including my husband, have donated a tree or a bench in memory of a loved one. If you would like to donate a tree to the Montgomery Arboretum, you can inquire at the Municipal Building, or let me know in a comment and I will tell my husband.

Eating Green

A few days ago I saw the documentary "Food, Inc." I had read "Fast Food Nation" a few years ago and "The Omnivore's Dilemma" recently, and the film included interviews by the authors of both. Though much of the material was familiar to me already, it was more powerful to see the film. It made me glad I am a vegetarian (I eat fish a couple of times a week).

Food production causes pollution, uses fossil fuels, exploits workers and increases global warming--but we need to eat. Meat production is very inefficient because the animals need to eat a lot of plants to make each pound of meat, so it causes a lot of the pollution, energy use, worker exploitation and global warming. These problems are intensified at Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. Production of meat can also involve cruelty to animals, and eating too much meat causes a lot of our most common health problems. Then the sick people need doctors and medicines and hospitals, which sometimes cause new problems when they solve old ones (known as "side effects").

I am trying to avoid both sets of problems at the same time by being a vegetarian, but the rest of my family eats meat. I know that most people are not ready to be vegetarians, so why not start eating a bit less meat, and a few more vegetables? Your doctor will be proud of you. And buy local, or grass-fed, or organic meat, milk and eggs. We are lucky to have some local farms that sell meat, eggs and cheese at local farmer's markets throughout our area, not to mention all the great fruits and vegetables. I buy my eggs from a neighbor, year-round. That is good for me because the eggs are delicious and fresh, though not organic, and good for the hens because my neighbor treats them like pets. It is also good for the local economy, and good for the environment because I am supporting local open space, and my neighbor's eleven acres are enough that the chicken droppings are fertilizer, not pollutants. Next time you are driving along one of our scenic roads and you see a sign that says "eggs for sale," stop and ask about the hens and buy some eggs. Go home and make an omelette, or a frittata, or custard. I think you'll be glad you did.

Introduction

I live in Montgomery and I am trying to live sustainably. My family has gone green in some ways, and in other ways we have a lot of room to improve. I'll write about what we do well, what we are trying to improve, and where we are failing. I'll also write about what my friends are doing, and other ideas I hear about for sustainable lifestyles, all relevant to Montgomery.

My family is most sustainable in the summer. We have one window air conditioner, downstairs, which we only use on very hot afternoons and evenings. Otherwise we rely on an attic fan for the whole house and bedside fans for the kids. We have a fairly light-colored roof and lots of mature trees around our house, and that saves energy on cooling. This summer has been fairly comfortable.

My husband Larry has a mostly-organic vegetable garden, so we eat very locally. Tonight we had homemade tabouli, and zucchini and summer squash sauteed with onions and butter, and blackberries and blueberries, all from the garden, plus sauteed oyster mushrooms from the Farmers' Market. It was all delicious. I go to the Farmers' Market and look for items that Larry doesn't grow, partly just because it is fun and I see my friends there. It is on Saturday mornings until 1:00 in front of the Village Shopper. Some of the farmers grow the same vegetables Larry grows, but sooner or later than his are ready, and some have other vegetables, and some have fruit that he doesn't grow. I got early apples there last week, Seckel pears, and fresh corn.

Earlier this week, Larry and I went to the bridge on Harlingen Road across from Public Works. It is a historic bridge that was rebuilt a few years ago, and residents were invited to hear about the plans and make suggestions. We suggested some native plants to restore the streambanks. Joe Pye weed, ostrich fern, Itea virginica, silky dogwood, swamp white oak and American sycamore were our suggestions.

Now we go out and check on the plants and do a little maintenance once or twice a year. One of the neighbors has been keeping the weeds next to his property under control so they don't overwhelm the plantings (thank you, Todd!), and the plants on his side look wonderful, especially the ostrich ferns. Everywhere there are tall Joe Pye weeds in bloom, with lovely rosy-lavender flower clusters peeking over the railings of the bridge. There is also darker purple New York ironweed, and it and the Joe Pye weed attract butterflies. It is worth a detour to see the flowers.

We weeded around the trees and ferns. One of the sycamores had tipped over, so Larry pounded in a stake, and I helped him tie the tree up so it will have a chance to grow straight. Two swamp white oaks have died back to the ground and are sending up root sprouts, and Larry will prune off all but the strongest one from each tree and put on deer fences in the fall. They will grow into good-sized trees in a few years.

All the shrubs are doing very well. Some elderberries were planted and one shrub was covered with tiny dark purple berries in large, flat clusters. It was easy to pick the clusters so we brought a few home, but it took forever to take the berries off the stems to make a pie. Now I know why people used to make elderberry wine: you don't have to remove the stems! We combined the elderberries with blackberries, and it made a very good pie.

Tonight I am washing plastic bags. I soak them in warm soapy water in a bowl in the sink, then rinse in fresh water in the same bowl. I hang them to dry on a clothesline in the basement, using clothespins, the old-fashioned way. If anyone knows a better way, I'd love to hear about it. Some plastic bags aren't too convenient to reuse, so we recycle them at the grocery store, in a bin inside the entrance.

This week I saw monarch butterflies several places, yellow and black swallowtail butterflies (especially on the Joe Pye weeds), a tiny tan frog (a spring peeper), a green heron, and a great blue heron at the pond in our backyard.