Delaware Avenue near the Mt. Hermon Way corner. 6/22/23. Rainy, cool day. Paul Goldfinger photo. (see photo notes below) Click to enlarge.
By Eileen and Paul Goldfinger, Editors Blogfinger.net. June, 2023. Ocean Grove, NJ
A neighbor who parks his car near our home told me, a few days ago, that he enjoys watching the progress of this hydrangea which sits in our grassy strip opposite the hatched zone.
Eileen received this plant a few years ago as a Mother’s Day gift from one of our sons. She cares for it in a maternal way: pruning, fertilizing, watering and treating it with lime early each spring to encourage the pink color. She never, however, treated our sons with lime.
A few years ago something happened to all the hydrangeas in town, so she cut all ours way back,* and they recovered.
We were a little concerned about a month ago when all our hydrangeas looked peaked. So she did some cautious pruning, and they recovered with minimal loss of viable branches. We usually prune off dead stalks early each spring. We do have other hydrangeas on the Delaware side.
Hydrangeas do well in fertile soil, requiring frequent watering, and they are particularly popular at the Jersey Shore because they do so well here. They like partial shade, especially when the sun beats down on them in the afternoon. This one is on our west side, so it gets sun late in the afternoon. Hydrangneas do well in gardening zones (climate) 3-9 where the higher numbers are hotter climes. We are in zone 7.
*During that hydrangea situation, we received expert advice from Peggy Costantino who lives in the Grove. She is Commander-in- Chief of the Ocean Grove Woman’s Club and she has a long-running radio show giving gardening advice.
PHOTO NOTES: Paul Goldfinger.
I chose to make this photo in the morning of a cool and rainy day. The light was lovely. I don’t like to shoot when the sun is full blast. For you photographers, my camera for this image is a Leica M-9.
I shot with my old Leica Elmarit 2.8 28 mm lens. I was able to buy the M-9 knowing that my old lenses, used with prior generations of M film cameras could also be used on their new M digitals.
The M-9 was the first of Leica’s M series of digital cameras, released in 2009, and I drove an hour and half from OG to get one from Bergen Camera, a Leica dealer, even today.
The M-9 shoots color and black and white, but I always liked its color rendition which has to do with sensor design. Curiously, the sensor on this camera was eventually found, in some cases, to deteriorate over time, but I was not notified when Leica was replacing all the sensors for free about 8 years ago. I never noticed an issue—the color was always very special.
However, one day, while walking across Mt. Tabor Way with the M-9 on my shoulder, it slipped off my wax coat and crashed to the ground. Amazingly there was no visible damage except for the broken lens hood which saved my 35 mm 1.4 aspheric Summilux lens. These cameras are built like tanks.
I sent the camera and lens to LeicaUSA to have a thorough checkup–everything but a colonoscopy. Little did I know, but they replaced the sensor and never told me. I only found out recently when they were working on that lens to adjust its accuracy. So I continue using the M-9 for color and I know that this camera still has many fans who would not use any other version. (The M-11 is out now.)
Thanks to that color sensitive sensor, I don’t, like Paul Simon in his song below, miss my Kodachrome color film.
Also I disagree when he says, “Everything looks worse in black and white.”
PAUL SIMON: From the album The Essential Paul Simon. “Kodachrome.”
That is why our little hydrangea that could was planted safely where no one parks. But if you want to focus on environmental dangers in the Grove, look up to consider the monster branches on tall trees that are at risk of falling, and also look down to see the broken sidewalks. Neptune is useless in dealing with these issues, much less plants in the grassy strips.
DAvid. Can you find anything positive to say about my post?
This plant was placed adjacent to the hatched area where no one can trip while getting out of the car. It says so in the first sentence of the post.
But it is true that there are many areas where the plantings along the grassy strip are horribly dangerous.
Of course Neptune doesn’t enforce such rules.
For your information, the newly Master Plan Reexamination Report, which promotes the violation of the MLUL while dealing with OG, includes this OG Streetscape statement. “It is recommended that the OG streets cape standards be reviewed regarding the existing planter strips along right of ways. It is further recommended that standards be added to regulate what can be planted and or placed in the planter strip.”
People have created tripping Hazzards that endanger lives and violate the publics right of way between their car and the sidewalk. People and the OGCMA need to get a handle on this problem since it is getting out of hand.
While plantings between the sidewalk and curb can be attractive, I was under the impression that Neptune prohibited them as they made it difficult to exit vehicles.