What's Bloomin' in the Barden in Early July

During our Sunday morning volunteer sessions at the Botanical Art Garden in Herrontown Woods, we've been doing lots of editing of nature's tremendous creativity. While we're weeding out low creepers like cinquefoil and vetch, limiting the prickly blackberries and wineberries, and pulling out vines like oriental bittersweet and Japanese honeysuckle, the native wildflowers have been cheering us on.

Here's the classic purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) blooming in the circle of labeled wildflowers around the gazebo.

Competing in the white spire category are bottlebrush buckeye,

Culver's Root,

Black Cohosh,

and Spanish Bayonet (Yucca filamentosa). Of these four spire-shaped flowers, only the black cohosh can be encountered along the trails. The others are native but not commonly seen growing in the wilds of Princeton.

There are still some clouds of Tall Meadow Rue blooming, 

and some beebalm poking through here and there.

This pokeweed was lucky to sprout in a spot large enough to accommodate its gracefully gangly growth. 

And I was surprised to find Enchanter's Nightshade looking so enchanting, on an embankment overlooking a stream next to the parking lot. 

One of my favorites, and a favorite of the pollinators, is Shrubby St. Johnswort. Walking by a six foot stand of it the other day, I was surprised by the intensity of the pollinators, and was reminded of a phrase in a poem close to my heart: "the bee-loud glade," from Yeats' The Lake Isle of Innisfree. To keep the paths clear, we're potting up this small shrub's many seedlings to sell to visitors to plant in their own yards.

Meanwhile, in the raingarden that protects Veblen House from runoff, a buttonbush is blooming near a bluebird house.

Nature Walk Led by Sarah Roberts

Thanks to Sarah Roberts, native plant advocate, for leading a June 4 nature walk at Herrontown Woods. Sarah and her husband Larry tend to a beautiful garden in their backyard in Montgomery. 

The walk was organized by FOHW board member Inge Regan (left). That's Sarah in the middle. 

Serving ably as a sort of sweeper for the walk was Inge's son, Aidan, who walked ahead of the group, pruning back any foliage overhanging the trail--a bit like those team members with the brooms in curling. 

Nature walks at Herrontown Woods tend to happen on first Sundays. Check events at HerrontownWoods.org for details. 

New at the Barden: Installations and June Blooms

We recently completed some new installations at our award-winning Botanical Art Garden (BArden for short). One involved great effort; both involved considerable doses of serendipity. 

Our new gathering platform is now complete, made largely of scavenged materials. It is a layer cake of reuse, with repurposed boards and flooring supported by long, sturdy pallets stretched across two fallen pine trees. The rustic railings are crafted from well-preserved eastern red cedars that died long ago in the nearby woods after being shaded out by taller trees. 

Thanks to FOHW board member Scott Sillars for applying his skill and determination to completing this project. Maybe we should call it "Scott's Landing."

If you're sitting in the gazebo at the Barden and suddenly hear a soft chime in the distance, it is almost certainly coming from a newly acquired grandfather's clock. I had spotted it, put out with the trash on Snowden Lane, and thought "Wow! A grandfather clock on the curb!" But it wasn't of the quality that you'd want in your house. It took our caretaker, Andrew Thornton, to see the potential new career for this discard at the Barden. The dial even says "Country Time." 

Every garden clock deserves a nice roof, and we just happened to have a spare roof lying around, scavenged from discarded play equipment earlier this year. Hopefully the roof is sufficient to keep ol' granddad chiming.

Among the flowers blooming at the Barden:

Elderberry -- we're hoping to serve an elder flower beverage at the Veblen Birthday Bash, 4-8pm on June 24 next to Veblen House.

Common milkweed. We also have purple milkweed at the Barden, which has a deeper color to the flower.

Fringed loosestrife, whose shy flowers point down.

Lots of sundrop blooms this year. The closely related evening primrose will bloom later in the season.

Up at Veblen House, in the stone circle horse run, is moth mullein, a non-native. Wooly mullein is another non native that blooms later.

Veblen Birthday Bash on Saturday, June 24, 4-8

Join us on the Veblen House grounds to celebrate summer and the birthdays of the Veblens, who donated Herrontown Woods as Princeton's first nature preserve. Dinner is potluck, so please bring a dish if you wish to partake. We'll provide drinks and appetizers, ping pong, badminton and other lawn games. We're also working on special beverages with locally harvested elder flower and spicebush, which may be available for the sampling.

Park in the driveway at 452 Herrontown Road, or walk up the orange trail from the main parking lot for Herrontown Woods, off Snowden.

Oswald Veblen was born on June 24, 1880, in Decorah, Iowa. Elizabeth was born a year or two later, on June 22 in Yorkshire, England. They found each other in Princeton, and together they had a transformative impact, on Princeton and the world beyond.

A Mothers' Day at Herrontown Woods

Mothers' Day, on May 14, coincided with our regular Sunday workday at Herrontown Woods. It was a day of beauty and serendipity as we mixed weeding with socializing with families out for a walk in the gorgeous weather.

This boy found a 4 leaf clover in the field next to Veblen House. Some people just have the knack. And while I chatted with his parents, he found lots of cool rocks, too. His parents told me he was already up for two hour long nature walks at the age of two. Looks like we have a budding naturalist here.

New volunteer, Kalyan, who has been helping pull up garlic mustard across the stream from the Barden, came across a box turtle in the area where we've been subduing a giant clone of wisteria.

Hard to capture in a photo, but it was a pleasure to gaze across this newly created vista: a valley coated with skunk cabbage and ferns, now relieved of privet and other invasive shrubs by volunteer Bill Jemas and other members of our Invasive Species of the Month Club, led by FOHW board member Inge Regan.

There were flowers large and small. The fragrant snowbell (Styrax obassia) 

was in full bloom behind the Veblen House. 

A tulip tree flower on the ground caused us to look up at all the others blooming high up.

Tiny blue flowers near the ground are called blue-eyed grass (Sisyrhinchium), 

though their flat stems show they are really related to irises, not grass.

The pagoda dogwoods we planted in the Barden are now big enough to bloom.

One of the pleasant tasks for the day was digging up volunteer native plants that have sprouted in the paths of the Barden. We can clear the paths while gaining a new plant to put elsewhere. Environmentalists love win-wins.

Still working on the installation of this little pond, but it's already attracting frogs. A vernal pool naturally formed by a fallen tree nearby was full of tadpoles and salamander larvae.

A new feature in the Barden, and also next to the Veblen Cottage, are arrow trees that tell of significant places associated with the Veblens' lives and legacy. 

So much to enjoy and be grateful for on a Mothers' Day in May.

A Misty, Moisty Morning at Herrontown Woods

It can be a delight to visit the Herrrontown Woods after a heavy rain. This past weekend, we had several heavy rains, with pauses inbetween that were ideal for seeing the preserve when it is rich with water. 

May Day, and the azaleas are blooming once again in the Barden. Though common in the past,  no native azaleas would bloom now in Herrontown Woods if not for human intervention to rescue them from deer and heavy shade.

I found a soaked frog puppet lying on the trail, and gave it a good perch to dry out upon.

Ostrich ferns from Rachelle's garden contrast with the fallen tree behind.

Rachelle and Andrew created this Zen Garden, with a small pond that swells in the rain. Rivulets flow through the Barden from higher up in the preserve, pausing on their journey here and there before feeding the natural vernal pools down the hill. The water that periodically flows through the Barden could be a nuisance, washing woodchips off of pathways, but we find ways to direct its flow, to play with it, so that it feeds and beautifies the landscape.

Victorino's bridge, hewn from fallen trees, leads towards the red trail. 

Blackhaw Viburnums are common in the woodlands around the Barden, blooming with the flowering dogwoods and, it can be dreamed, a growing abundance of native azaleas. 

The one cluster of trillium--the only trilliums I've seen growing in Princeton--has bloomed again this year, up on the Veblen House grounds.

Girl Scout Troop 71837 Points the Way at Herrontown Woods

Girl Scout Troop 71837 has returned this spring to Herrontown Woods to build on their good works two years back. 

This time, the project was to design and paint arrows that will point towards significant places in the history and legacy of Oswald and Elizabeth Veblen--the couple who donated Herrontown Woods for public use 66 years ago. 

The colorful arrows will be attached to a tall pole. Points of interest are Veblen House, Veblen Cottage, the Barden, the Institute for Advanced Study (where Oswald was a founder and first faculty member), Old Fine Hall (now called Jones Hall, which Oswald designed), Iowa (where Oswald grew up), Valdres in Norway (where Oswald's ancestors came from), England (where Elizabeth came from), and Einstein's house (from whence Einstein would travel to visit Herrontown Woods). 

The signs were made using a special kind of pen writing on a special kind of paint. We generate lots of fun ideas at Herrontown Woods. Thanks to the scouts and their leaders, Danielle Rollmann and Heather Harnley, for making these signs a reality. 

Postscript: One of the girl scouts' projects two years ago--birdhouses--got cleaned a few weeks ago and are ready for another season.

Boy Scout Troop 43 Helps Out at Herrontown Woods

Thanks to Leone Robbins and his fellow members of Scout Troop 43 for joining us at our weekly workday at Herrontown Woods this past Sunday. 

They along with some family members helped with a number of tasks that we had long wanted to get done. They raised our boardwalk higher so that turtles and other wildlife will be able to pass underneath, 

and cleared a better spot for our picnic table. That's our caretaker Andrew doing some followup.

For the morning's final finale, they carried a very long and heavy pallet from the boardwalk area

over to where it can serve as the base for a new gathering spot at the lower end of the Barden. 

Days later, it occurred to me that Scout Troop 43 sounded familiar. Sure enough, the troop had been active twenty years ago at Autumn Hill Reservation, which FOHW also takes care of. 

Birdwalks and May's Cafe Draw a Crowd

Thanks goes to many people for our birdwalk and May's Cafe event at Herrontown Woods on Feb. 19, which drew about 70 people in all. To Fairfax Hutter and MaryJoan Gaynor for helping lead the birdwalks; to the Princeton Public Library for helping to promote this event, 

and to Nicole Bergman and Joanna Poniz for organizing and hosting February's May's Cafe the same morning. 

These muffins were a highlight, and the 45 participants for the three walks were happy to discover the cafe still open and offering warm drinks and baked goods when they emerged from the woods.

The event was timed to coincide with the Great Backyard Birdcount. Fairfax documented what birds her and MaryJoan's groups saw. The "bird of the day" was a hermit thrush "with solid brown upper parts, rusty tail, and spotted breast observed hover gleaning berries in vines above stream edge of utility ROW."

Many of us lingered long in the Barden afterwards, enjoying the day and the company.