​It’s autumn and it’s time to garden!  So put on your gardening gloves and that old jacket you can get dirty and get to digging!  If you want that extra pop of color in the spring, you gotta do some work right now to make it happen.  Autumn is go-time for all times of bulb flowers from tulips to crocus.  You can also plant lots of other things in cooler weather.  The opportunity is that when warmer weather comes, your yard will spring into life and give you nine months of dynamic natural beauty.
 
This autumn I’m in love with a few tulip types.  Tulips can be like fashion where you plant the best and greatest options of the year.  Overtime, you’ll fill your life with hundreds of beautiful flowers come March and May. 

My Picks for Spring
My picks this year are: Darwin Burning Hearts, Flaming Parrots, Wildflower Tulips, Queen of Night, Lilac Wonder and Black Parrot. I like all of these tulips this year because they contrast each other with color and texture.  Parrot tulips have the incredible serrated edge that adds a real punch of drama from the moment it emerges from the ground to the moment to opens up.  I’ve picked these six bulbs because they offer a short to tall-ish tulip.  The Wildflowers and Lilac Wonder are short tulips – between 6 to 8inches tall.  They give a backdrop of pink, yellow and other solid colors.  The others are 12 to 18inches tall.  My favorite of all these are the Queen of Night and the Black Parrot because they are nearly black when they bloom!   By mixing short and tall tulips, you have the chance to create a naturalized look where design and wilderness blur into each other.  The different heights also allow you to create a depth of field in your beds early in the year.   All the tulips picked also are an expression of that inner voice, and should expand a sense of yoga in your life.    

Tulips are for New Jersey
Tulips are perennial in northern New Jersey unless otherwise noted.  Tulips are super easy to get to grow even by a novice. They are native to Eastern Turkey and the foothills of the Himalayas.  They like cold and hot weather within the same climate. They really love droughts in the summer (or well-drained areas in places like New Jersey). They need to be in full to part sun.  The amount of sun they get really determines how soon in spring they actually bloom.  I love planting bulbs among an existing flowerbed with other perennials.  Typically, the tulips will blossom well before anything else wakes up and starts to sprout.  Right as the tulips begin to fall away, a second phase of plants like bee balm, blazing star and phlox will start to grow.  If you have grasses in the bed like Panicum or Pennisetum, they grow tall as the second phase pull back from their peak.  You’ll still have some color flowers, but the focal point is the explosions of green blades and seed heads.  By that time, it’s turning autumn again…and time to start thinking about planting more bulbs.  Yet, the full season flowerbed always begins with a healthy supply of bulb flowers.  Like I mentioned, tulips are not the only bulbs, but I do enjoy them more than other with the vast varieties, colors and textures you can’t get with other bulbs. 

​If you live near deer or squirrel, you will need to manage the wildlife right after you plant them and when they start to bloom.  I use an extremely effective eco-friendly spray for my yard and clients’ yards my company manages.  This way, you can enjoy your labors of fall for as long as they manage to stay vibrant. 

​This week, the cityscape of South Orange got a little greener with the unveiling of 2 super stylish solar benches. They were christened on Thursday (Nov. 10, 2016) and are now available for all to enjoy.  They are located directly outside of the Starbucks at the South Orange NJ Transit Train Station.  

Charged Benches
The benches are equipped with a built-in solar panels so that people can charge…or recharge their electronic devices while theist comfortably on a bench. Soofa, a startup company that spun out of the world-renowned MIT Media lab in Boston, MA, makes them.  The bench installation is an effort by the South Orange Environmental Commission as part of the Sustainable Jersey Small Grant Program funded by Walmart…or Walmart’s as my mom would say.  

At the unveiling Village President Sheena Cohen and Village Trustee Walter Clark spoke and expressed how awesome the benches are for South Orange. The two benches are the first to be installed by a municipality in New Jersey.  Three additional benches are planned for South Orange in the near future.
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Video Credit: Soofa

Bring Your Own​​
​The benches are BYOC (Bring your Own Cord).  They only provide the energy and the USB ports for plugging in.  Funny antidote, if you can’t figure out how to use the bench correctly…it might mean you are just old ;)  apparently, some people need instructs while other seem to intuitively know what to do to get a free charge.  And usually the demographic difference is age. 
 
Soofa is a very forward thinking company in the renewable energy space.  It was founded by three women, Nan Zhao, Jutta Friedrichs and Sandra Richter.  Since the company's launch, benches have been installed all over the US and several other countries.  The benches add to the intelligence of our daily lives while helping in a small way to fight climate change.  In fact, Richter has said that “Soofa is the first step into smart urban furniture. The possibilities to update the city for the mobile generation are endless and long overdue. We’re also overdue to see more female-led startups, which is why we hope to be a role model for women all over the world who want to found cool companies.” 

What is Sustainable Jersey?
For anyone not familiar with Sustainable Jersey, it is a state wide voluntary program that helps municipalities undertake real action for a more sustainable future.  Where many people are aware of things like climate change, sustainability and green buildings, Sustainable Jersey is offering a way to take real action toward solutions.  South Orange has already done a long list of green actions throughout the town from creating electric car charging stations, starting River Day and establishing an Environmental Commission, but these more public sustainable actions like the solar bench demystify how we can all do a little more for a better planet.  Plus, they are super cool!  
 
I personally love things like this.  When I work with people to create sustainable landscapes for their homes, it really makes all the talk about a more-environmentally-sound-world more real.  It's when you can see and touch something that really puts power behind good ideas.  Whether it’s native plants or chemical-free lawns or super cool public benches, the message is that we can all do things that are easy and makes our daily life better. 

Save Money
In fact, I want to offer a 5% discount on our custom blend (and very sustainable) grass seed or our bagged organic mushroom compact soil for anyone that takes a picture of themselves and/or of their family sitting on the bench and posts it to facebook and/or instagram. (Limit to one discount per household) Tag me and I’ll send you a coupon for the discount.
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Wanna Know More about Sustainability around Town:
Think Sustainability, Think Local Television
Parking Day in South Orange, NJ
Park(ing) Day was Big Success!
The Quest for the High Line in Suburbia