Rummage Sale

Today I shopped at a rummage sale, and I intend to visit at least two more this fall. Rummage sales are one of my favorite ways to reuse, from the great trilogy of "reduce, reuse and recycle." I know some people who prefer garage sales, and some swear by flea markets or thrift shops. I prefer rummage sales because everything is already sorted for you, and if you are looking for children's books or men's shirts they will probably all be at one table or rack. Also at the end of the sale everything unsold has to be packed up, so there are further markdowns.

In general, I try to avoid buying new things except food and toiletries. Mining, logging, drilling for oil, farming and manufacturing all use lots of energy and create lots of waste. Most of these impacts are far away where I never see them, but I am still responsible for my share. If I object to the number of trucks on the road and the pollution from diesel engines, the exploitation of workers around the globe, or destruction of the earth's natural resources, I should just buy less stuff. So I try to take good care of what I have, repair what is broken, share and borrow, find someone to use what I can't use anymore, and buy secondhand.

Here's why I try to avoid buying new clothes. Synthetic fibers are usually made from petroleum, take a lot of energy to produce, and aren't biodegradable. I used to think that because cotton was a natural fiber it was good for the earth, but I have since learned that growing conventional cotton is very bad for the environment. I remembered from American history that cotton is a crop that depletes the soil, and it turns out that cotton uses more pesticides than any other crop in the world, an outrageous amount. The pesticides used on food are regulated to make sure that they break down quickly or aren't too toxic, but we don't eat cotton, so more toxic or longer-lasting pesticides are used on it. As a result, it turns out that cotton is anything but natural or kind to the earth. There is organic cotton, and I try to buy sheets and towels made from organic cotton. I've read that all Egyptian cotton is organic, but during harvest season the children in the farming areas are taken out of school and pick cotton for a month or two, so I avoid Egyptian cotton. I get a couple of catalogs that carry organic cotton and hemp clothing, but I rarely find anything I like and need in my size.

Furthermore, dying is very bad for the environment. Even if the dye is natural, and they rarely are, the chemicals used to set the dye cause pollution. Organic cotton or hemp clothing, which are usually made by environmentally responsible companies, sometimes feature low-impact dyes, but once again the selection is not vast.

All of which brings me to rummage sales.

Today I arrived in time for the last hour of the rummage sale, and I missed lots of the best items. At that point in the sale the shopper must buy a bag (a paper grocery bag) for $3 and then may fill it with whatever fits in the bag. I bought three bags and filled them with: a covered plastic coffee cup that says "reduce, reuse and recycle" on it, a wine glass, six flower vases, two picture frames (for a dollar extra), 12 cloth napkins, a coat with a removable lining, one skirt, one dress, one linen jacket, and 27 blouses and tops. I didn't get to try anything on at the sale except the coat, and I couldn't even see myself in the mirror. However, the staff or other shoppers will usually give an opinion if asked. I even have friends I see at every rummage sale, who give me advice and point out clothes that they think will suit me. I am lucky because if those 27 blouses and tops don't fit me, they might fit my daughter. And if not, I can always donate them to another rummage sale!

I only picked up those six flower vases at the last minute when the staff called out "everything is free!" When I got home I found that one of the free vases is stamped on the bottom with the words "Coors Golden Colorado Pottery." I searched the internet and found similar vases selling for $50 to $60, so mine is a pretty good bargain and a nice addition to my pottery collection (see photo). My daughter wants three of the tops and the dress, and I think I will be able to wear fourteen of the tops. That leaves ten to donate to another sale.

One friend of mine from time to time gives a party, a women's clothing exchange. She sets up some racks and a mirror, and invites her (female) friends to bring all the clothes they no longer want and something to eat. We hang up the clothes we have brought and try on everyone else's contributions. Then we eat. We all go home with new clothes. One year I was surprised to find two new dresses that fit me that had previously belonged to women who were eleven inches shorter than I am. You never know! So, try giving a clothing exchange party or attend one if you are invited. It is one of the most fun ways I can think of to reuse.

The First Day of Autumn

Today is the first day of Autumn, and I feel that I should write something to mark the change of the seasons. It was warm today and the ground is dry enough for July or August, but lots of plants are putting on a show. Maybe the various migrations have already begun, but I haven't seen any signs of them yet. I'll bet that the birds are fattening themselves up as fast as they can.

My friend Marie, whom I mentioned in my last post, plants flowers that attract hummingbirds to her property (red, bright pink, orange or purple tubular flowers), and she is still seeing hummingbirds in mid-September. The green herons haven't left yet. Today I saw one of the green herons that visit our pond, and as I watched, it caught a frog. I caught a photo! I hope you'll forgive the poor quality.

Today I went out walking and took a camera, so I have a few pictures of early fall to show you. One is a monarch caterpillar that has eaten all the leaves on its milkweed plant and is eating the seed pod. I hope it has enough to eat and enough time to pupate before it has to fly to Mexico to its wintering ground in the mountain forests.

Most of the trees have not begun to change the color of their leaves yet, but many native shrubs and vines are covered with ripe berries. It is an advantage for the plant if birds eat its berries because they spread the seeds in their droppings. The shrubs often have berries that are a contrasting color to their leaves so the birds can find them. Sometimes the leaves are green or yellow and the berries red or orange, such as Euonymus americanus, also known as hearts-a-busting (see photo); sometimes the berries are blue or black and the leaves red, such as Virginia creeper (see photo). One shrub, the red panicle dogwood, has dark leaves, with white berries on bright red stems (see photo).

Other native plants are blooming now, and the bees are busy. I saw several varieties of goldenrod, a white wood aster, and the violet New England aster (see photos). In my husband's garden, I saw false dragonhead (Physostegia virginiana) with some of the largest bumblebees I have ever seen diligently poking their heads into the little blossoms (see photo). Bees don't migrate, but soon there will be no more flowers, so they are busy taking advantage of what is here now. Native bees are important pollinators of farm crops as well as wildflowers.

Stream Corridor Restoration

I have taken on a long-term project, probably longer term than this blog. I am going to watch over the restoration of a small stretch of stream bank at the Village Elementary School (VES) in Montgomery Township (first two photos).

I got the idea from an expert who has consulted on managing Montgomery's Open Space. Her name is Leslie Sauer, and she has written a very interesting book about restoring native landscapes called "The Once and Future Forest." She suggested that all the streambanks in Skillman Village should be restored, and since other parts of the site may be developed or changed, she suggested we start with the VES. My husband was there when she made the suggestion, and he passed it on to Mr. Al Hadinger, the vice principal, who liked the idea. Mr. Hadinger found a girl scout troop that was interested in a project and we got together. They planted some native plants along the edge of the stream last spring, including bee balm (third photo), and now that area is not mowed, so the plants can grow. As the roots get stronger, they can hold the soil and soak up the rainwater, cleaning pollutants out of the runoff and infiltrating the rain into the groundwater. They also provide food for birds and butterflies.

This summer Lauren Wasilauski, the Township's Open Space Coordinator, put me in touch with Alyssa Gartenberg, a Montgomery High School student is wanted to do a Girl Scout Gold Award project. She decided to create a rain garden, and since the Village School stream corridor is very similar to a rain garden but a different shape, she was interested. She has been busy getting permission from the Village School, the Board of Education, and the Girl Scouts. Alyssa is almost ready to plant, and is now buying the plants that her research has indicated would be right for the stream corridor. I am also donating some native plants that I dug up from my yard.

Recently my friend Marie offered me some of her Liatris spicata. I know Marie because we both love English and American country dancing. The American dancing we do is mostly contra dance, and it is so much fun. It has evolved over the generations so that almost any able-bodied adult who can find the beat of the music (and even many who can't) can do this dancing. Like square dancing, there are callers, and at our weekly dance in Princeton, every dance is taught. There is always live music, which sounds a lot like traditional Irish music, and it makes you want to dance! English country dancing is less vigorous and more graceful, and the music is more like the composer Purcell. You've seen English country dancing if you've ever seen a film of a Jane Austen novel. You can probably find Purcell's music and contra dance and English country dance on the internet if you search. I think anything that has been around that long must be sustainable.

Marie is a great dancer, and it turns out that she is a great gardener, too. She lives near the Millstone River and is concerned about the effect that runoff from lawns has on flooding and water quality. One solution: more trees and gardens, less lawn. Marie has been planting lots of native plants in her yard, though she also has other plants. Now her gardens attract hummingbirds, butterflies and goldfinches. Liatris, also known as gayfeather, is a native plant here in Somerset County, with three-foot tall wands of lavender flowers. Marie's has spread, and now she wants to give some away. Today I was on my hands and knees on her front walk digging out Liatris. After a while I gave up and just cut the dried flower heads off the flowers so I can scatter them at the Village School, and she won't get so many new ones next year. I am going back tomorrow to get more. I wish I had some photos that do them justice, but they finished blooming months ago. She also gave me some purple coneflowers, though she doesn't have too many of them; she's just being generous. Thank you, Marie!

Marie also recommended a book that she knew I'd be interested in. It is called "Nature's Second Chance: Restoring the Ecology of Stone Prairie Farm," by Steven I. Apfelbaum. I would like to recommend it to you, too. It tells the story of the author, a restoration ecologist, and how he has restored the farm he bought in 1981 at age 26 and has been working on ever since. The prairie is a different ecosystem than we have around here, which is interesting to learn about, but they have many of the same issues we have. I don't have as many years to work on the Village School stream corridor as Steven Apfelbaum has had to work on his farm, but I'll stick with it as long as I can.

Native Plant Sale

Last weekend I went to a native plant sale. I would like to give you the name and directions, but I am not allowed to endorse any organization if I want a link on the Sustainable Montgomery webpage. Probably if you do an internet search for "native plant sale" or "native plant nursery" and New Jersey you could find a place to buy native plants.

Several years ago I noticed that the literature I got in the mail from environmental organizations recommended native plants. These sources advised that native plants provided food for native animals. I thought that we already provided enough food for deer, mice, rabbits, raccoons and woodchucks, so I didn't pay any attention. Eventually I learned that it is primarily insects, especially butterflies and moths, and birds who need native plants. Butterflies are beautiful, but you don't get butterflies without caterpillars, and most caterpillars can eat the leaves of only one plant or family of plants. Native caterpillars need native plants. Many birds eat seeds or berries, but they all feed insects to their babies, so birds need native plants, too.

I recommend a very informative book on the subject: "Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens" by Douglas W. Tallamy. The author is an entomologist who explains that we need insects to maintain the balance of nature. He recommends a variety of native plants to support a diversity of insects which will attract birds that will then keep all types of insects under control.

However, even if you don't want to read the book, you can still visit a native plant sale or nursery. If you do, you will probably find someone who can advise you on which native plants will be suited to your property: which are deer-resistant, which like average or wet soils, which like sun or shade. Allow me to recommend Monarda didyma, or scarlet beebalm, which thrives in full or partial sun and average soil, resists deer and attracts hummingbirds. Monarda fistulosa, its lavender relative, likes similar conditions and is just as deer-proof. Butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, loves sun and dry soil, resists deer and attracts Monarch butterflies, which must lay their eggs on milkweed. I also recommend Physostegia virginiana, false dragonhead, which is usually deer-resistant and blooms in September (see photo). Bottle gentian (see photo), Gentiana andrewsii, a darker violet flower, is now finished blooming. All are native to New Jersey; look them up on the USDA website:
http://plants.usda.gov/checklist.html

I never saw a maple-leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerfolium) until I went to a native plant sale a few years ago and bought some because it was supposed to grow well in shade with average moisture and it is deer-resistant. It is not a huge shrub, only up to five feet tall, and it has the most beautiful fall color. They also have cream colored clusters of flowers in late spring or early summer. A local naturalist told me recently that maple-leaf viburnum was the most common shrub in New Jersey 30o years ago. Now you often have to go to a native plant sale to buy one.

Native plant sales are also good sources for other native shrubs, as well as native ferns and ornamental grasses, flowers, vines and trees. Some native plant sales have demonstration gardens so you can see the plants in their natural settings. Fall is the best time of year to plant many plants, because they have a chance to get established before the hot, dry summer. So go search out native plant sales and nurseries in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.

The Worm Lady

Today I met a woman named Jane Coale, who had set up a table at an area nature preserve. She uses statistics and information to encourage people to compost. I spoke with her for a few minutes and took one of her handouts.

Jane lives fulltime in an RV and she is passionate about compost. She has been composting since 1965, with or without worms, and she has helped various institutions start composting programs or solve their composting problems. If you tell Jane what your compost is doing, such as smelling bad or not decomposing, she will have a pretty good idea of what is wrong and how to fix it. She recommends a balance of brown (dead leaves, straw, sawdust, paper napkins and cardboard, etc.) and green (fresh organic matter, such as kitchen scraps or weeds). Jane says to always cover your green stuff with brown stuff to prevent smells and fruitflies.

I have never composted with worms except those that make their way into the compost pile from the ground, and I was very interested in the red wigglers she had in a box on the table. She said that they are native worms, and if they escape they won't harm the environment, but they don't try to escape. She has had hers for years.

Jane told me that 70% of the trash we send to landfills can be fed to worms or composted: yard waste, manure, and kitchen waste. Worms eat their weight in kitchen scraps in two days, and they produce 60% of the weight they eat as fertilizer. They can live between the temperatures of 45 and 90 degrees, but thrive from 65 to 75 degrees, and in ideal conditions they double their numbers in two to three months.

The worms didn't look disgusting to me, and they sound easy to care for. If I didn't have room in my yard for several compost piles, I would definitely get a worm bin for my basement.

Jane Coale calls herself the Worm Lady. She says "Help the planet--small and simple deeds can make a huge difference if enough people do them."

Conserve water everyday

It has been raining today and I love rain. I love the sound of rain, and I love the clean feel of everything after rain. This year it has rained a lot, and I am always amazed to hear people complaining about the rain. If you have had flooding, I apologize, I don't mean you. You have a right to complain. Some farmers have poorly drained fields and their plants haven't done well, and they have my sympathy. I am sure, however, that in many other years those farmers needed more rain.

In the summer of 1999 we were in the third dry year here in central New Jersey. My part of Montgomery was especially hard-hit, and I remember times when it rained an inch or two in Princeton and not a drop here. Full-sized trees were losing their leaves, and many have never recovered. The reservoirs in northern New Jersey were running low and there was a drought emergency in effect. That summer I vowed that I would never complain about rain again.

Rain makes plants grow. I never understand when people complain about water standing in the back of their yard. Why not plant wetland plants there? I understand if they complain about water in their basements; that is not good. But there are all sorts of beautiful plants that need lots of water, for example, cardinal flowers and swamp milkweed (see photos), river birch and sycamore trees, and ferns.

The real problem is not enough water. That is where the world is heading--not enough fresh water. Not enough water to drink or to water crops. Not enough water in streams, rivers, lakes or underground. And especially not enough clean water.

I've read that there are 60 million automatic sprinkler systems across the United States. Some of them no doubt leak underground, undetected. Some have sensors to turn them on only when the ground is dry, but some of them don't work. I have seen sprinklers going in the rain. I have seen sprinklers spraying people's driveways, decks, and septic mounds. Meanwhile, the groundwater slowly drops. Many of us here in Montgomery have wells. Did you know that even the water we get from the water company includes some groundwater, too? Everyone here needs groundwater, let's conserve it. Even when it won't stop raining.

Composting Workshop

I got an announcement for a composting workshop sponsored by Somerset County on September 15th. There are two sessions, 10:00 to 11:30 and 6:30 to 8:00 at the 4H Center in Bridgewater, and you must register by the 8th, this Tuesday. There is a $40 admission fee to either session, which includes a compost bin and literature. Here is a link: http://www.co.somerset.nj.us/spotlight.html

I am still trying to decide whether to attend. The cost of a compost bin is $35, so if you need one the workshop is a bargain, but I don't need a compost bin. My husband composts our kitchen waste in his vegetable garden, which has a fence that keeps animals out, so we don't really need a bin. We already successfully compost everything we can think of.

But if you don't compost, you should consider it. Composting saves landfill space, and it saves fossil fuels that the trash and recycling trucks would have to use to haul our organic waste away. It enriches the soil, and it actually reduces greenhouse gases. Doesn't that at least make you want to try composting? I have been used to composting since I was 12, when my parents decided that the soil in our new garden needed improving. I knew composting made sense and was good for the environment, but I never knew that it would become fashionable: recently I learned that Julia Roberts composts.

Here at our house we actually practice several types of composting. The first is kitchen waste, the obvious thing to compost. We also compost leaves in the fall, the easiest thing to compost. The leaves almost all decay in a year (oak leaves may last a little longer), and you don't need to worry about keeping the animals out of them.

We compost garden waste in three piles. The first year, we make a pile of weeds, clippings and flowers we dead-headed. The second year, we make another beside it and ignore the first pile. The third year we make a third pile, but by then the first pile is composted and ready to use. By the end of the third year it should be empty and ready for the next year's garden waste. We keep rotating the three spots.

We also have a couple of piles of sticks and branches that fall from trees. These take longer to decay, so they need to be separated from other compost piles. We also throw in wine corks. Christmas trees can go in this pile.

You don't have to do all these types of composting all at once. Try one kind and see how easy it is. When you get confidence, then try another kind. I think the secret of composting is in organisms that are found in the ground, that break down the organic matter. This is nature's way of handling waste; just let nature do it.

Hiking Trail

Today I took a hike with a young man named Jeff Mertz, a Montgomery High School student who is doing an Eagle Scout project to improve Montgomery Township open space. He is working on the pathway that starts at the end of Linton Drive (off of Cherry Valley Road) and leads through the Cherry Brook tract. He and the other volunteers he recruits are improving the pathway by filling in holes that could trip hikers or sprain an ankle, and he is also mapping the pathway and posting an informational sign. The volunteers will distribute flyers with information about the trails to all the homes in the nearby neighborhoods of Woods Edge and Yorkshire Woods. He asked me to help him identify some plants along the trail so he could mention them on the sign.

We walked around two fields full of beautiful fall flowers, passing small vernal pools which are the perfect amphibian-breeding habitat. We saw milkweed plants covered with brilliant orange milkweed bugs, New York ironweed with violet blossoms, goldenrod, and a flower that was new to me, the rose-pink. Above all there were dragonflies zooming around. Jeff told me that a couple of years ago he volunteered as part of a group that was planting trees and shrubs in those fields for a reforestation project that is supported by a grant from the Fish and Wildlife Division of the NJDEP. The goal is to eventually reforest those two fields, which are surrounded by forest, to create a tract of woods that is large enough to support migratory songbirds. These birds need a large area of uninterrupted forest to protect them from nest predators, birds whose habitat is wood edges, and who lay their eggs in other birds' nests.

The trail also leads into the forest, which felt ten degrees cooler than the field today. There were some large trees, but the places we walked were not climax forest. They contained mostly trees that grow up in sunny places. When they die they will be succeeded by climax forest trees, which grow in the shade. There was not much to be seen on the forest floor, partly because of over-browsing by deer. Spring is the time to see the forest floor in bloom: small plants, called spring ephemerals, come up before the trees leaf out, photosynthesize as much as they can, bloom and then die back after the tree leaves block the sun. Daffodils are a non-native example of a spring ephemeral; mayapple and trillium are native spring ephemerals.

This trail skirts an approximately 90-acre wooded wetland that has been identified as the largest contiguous special resource value wooded wetland in Central New Jersey. Special resource value means that it is home to endangered species. Wetlands are valuable to the unique plants and animals that live in them, and important for their role in the hydrologic cycle. They act as sponges, storing rainwater that would otherwise add to flooding after a rain, then releasing is slowly during dry periods. The plants in wetlands clean polluted rainwater runoff, and wetlands provide groundwater infiltration, giving us the well water we drink. Recently I learned another important function of wetlands: they sequester carbon not only in wetland plants but also in wetland soils.

The trails Jeff is working on will someday connect with other trails in the area, so that people who live in Woods' Edge and Yorkshire Woods can enjoy this beautiful place and walk to visit friends on Cherry Hill Road. Eventually, other trails will join them and we should be able to hike from the Millstone River (and the Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath) to the Sourland Mountains. I hope they will be used to reduce driving as well as for recreation. Thank you, Jeff, for all your great ideas and hard work.

Municipal Farmers' Market

I have been visiting my mother in Bloomington Indiana, where I grew up. Bloomington is home to Indiana University and like most college towns is a rather progressive place.

This week I attended the local farmers' market in Bloomington, which is spectacular. It is run by the Parks and Recreation Department of the municipality, and they have a spot for it downtown with a plaza and roofs to cover the stalls that the farmers put up. There is plenty of on-street parking plus downtown parking lots. In addition there are nearby sidewalks, municipal bus routes, and a newly-paved and landscaped off-road bike and pedestrian pathway next to the market. The farmers range from Amish to hippies with everything in between. At the peak of the season there are up to 115 vendors! The produce includes everything I have ever seen at a Farmer's market, plus Asian bitter melons, nursery plants, peacock feathers, beeswax candles, homemade jellies and condiments, maple syrup, and yarn. There are also cheese tastings and musicians. I spoke to one farmer, who told me that there are farms in the area ranging in size from 600 to 6 acres, and he said that even some of the small ones are self-supporting. The local market and probably other farmers' markets in nearby towns are important to the success of these farms. It seems to me that Bloomington's farmers' market would not have become so successful, and include so many farmers, without the support of the city of Bloomington, which provides the perfect venue for the market. I wish Montgomery would do something like this!

My husband and daughter took a tour of Indiana University, and they came back and told me something I didn't know. The family that sold the land to the University (maybe 150 years ago) made three conditions. The first was to preserve the family burial grounds, which has been done. The second was that for every tree cut down, another must be planted. The late, great Herman Wells, longtime president and chancellor of the University, changed that to a policy of planting two trees for every one cut down. As a result, IU has a beautiful tree-covered campus.

The third condition was to preserve a tree on which many family members over the years had carved their initials, with the initials of their sweethearts. When the university planners wanted to build a classroom building on the spot where the tree stood they approached the family for permission to move it, but the family said no. The building was built around the tree! I don't recommend carving initials in trees because it damages the bark, which is very important to the health of the tree. Still, this is one example of the importance of trees to people: sentimental value. Some of the other reasons we need trees are for shade; to reduce energy costs, air pollution, water pollution, flooding and global warming; for tree products (wood and food); to protect against wind; and to support native wildlife. Why don't our Montgomery Township Schools have a long-term tree-planting policy, so that someday their grounds will be covered with beautiful, mature trees? Montgomery Township has a Shade Tree Committee and a long-term tree-planting policy. In fact, it is to the township's Shade Tree Committee that we owe some of the mature trees growing at our Upper Middle School. The schools also should have a policy against planting non-native invasive trees and shrubs, such as Bradford pear, which spreads in the wild and takes habitat from native plants while failing to provide native birds with the nutrients they need to store energy to migrate.

Naturally, I am proud of my hometown. I am also proud of Montgomery Township, and I report these observations and opinions in the hope that we might be inspired by Bloomington's good ideas. I am sure that Bloomington could learn a lot from Montgomery Township, too.