When we moved to our house in Grovers Mill in 1957, the area had been farmland only a couple of years before. The new houses — which were all quite small by today’s West Windsor standards — were built on lots that were also small. Our house on Bolfmar Avenue was on a little more than one-third of an acre — about the size of two baseball diamonds next to each other. For some of the houses a lawn had been planted by the builder, and some also had “foundation planting” put in, that is evergreen or flowering shrubs next to the house to provide a touch of class.
But there were no trees or flower beds unless the owner had made special arrangements or, in many cases, did it themselves. Since there was no such thing around here as a lawn or landscape service, everyone mowed their own grass and (sometimes) raked up the clippings. It was just part of living “in the suburbs.” (Incidentally, the foundation plantings for our house were put in for the previous owner by John Obal, the proprietor of the Obal Garden Market on Alexander Road, a long-time West Windsor business that shut down just last summer.)
On our street, in fact, there was a kind of informal competition to see who could have the nicest-looking lawn and the best plantings of all kinds, from trees down to ground-cover and things like radishes. When we moved in there were only four houses on the street, with another two under construction. And everyone had a vegetable garden. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. After all, it was the beginning of the “do-it-yourself” era. Who would want someone else messing with their place, anyway, even if you paid them?
There was a lot of satisfaction in actually growing for yourself part of what you ate. And the former farmland was quite fertile. (Another factor, which made a big difference, was that nearly everyone who lived here worked only a short distance away, so they had lots of time to spend doing things at home. The longest commute most people had was probably to Princeton.
Since there were so few large trees, there was plenty of sun, so you could grow almost anything, and we all spent part of the winter exploring seed catalogs and placing orders for everything from string beans to carrots and lettuce of all kinds. Purists even grew their own tomato plants from seed. For most of us, it was a new experience, but most everyone seemed to enjoy the challenge as well as the results, which started to come in by June when the first radishes were ready.
One benefit of living in Grovers Mill was our proximity to the mill itself. In those days it was owned by Bill Denison, who ran a retail business there. He sold lawn mowers and other garden tools, as well as fertilizer, peat moss, and just about anything else a home gardener would need. And he was within walking distance. The former barn across the road — which is now occupied by several businesses and a law office — was used to store bags of fertilizer and other bulky merchandise.
The first lawn mower I bought from Denison was a Lawn Boy. It had a two-stroke cycle engine, which meant that you added the lubricating oil to the gasoline and didn’t have to put oil in the crankcase separately as you did in a four-stroke cycle engine like the one in an automobile. I used that mower for well over a decade and replaced it with another Lawn Boy. Soon after that, however, as a result of new environmental pollution rules instituted in California, the two-stroke cycle engines were outlawed for use in lawn mowers and similar machinery. Therefore my next mowers were other brands of the legal type.
But the vegetable garden was a major family activity every year for a long time. It started with the seed catalogs and culminated in the consumption of the produce. In between were the cultivation — all by hand — of the “crops,” the harvesting, and the “putting up,” that is the freezing or other types of preservation. Since we grew both strawberries and raspberries, there was lots of home-made jam. We also grew mint, so we had the source for many jars of mint jelly.
The garden plot in the back of our house was about 20 by 40 feet, which was about as big as I was able to spade up and rake by hand each spring. (I never had a power tiller.) Over the years we tried growing just about everything you might find in a home garden: several varieties of string beans, lima beans, peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce of many kinds, and, of course, tomatoes and corn. Corn was not very successful because it took up so much space just to produce one ear. But the little we had was very good. I never tried growing asparagus since it took two years or more to produce the first crop.
One year I tried growing peanuts. That was partially successful. Until I tried it I had not known that they grow underground. They are actually seed pods that develop underground after the flowers bloom above. They take quite a while to mature. When I finally had enough to pick, we then had the problem of roasting them — they’re not edible raw.
With no knowledge on the subject, I took my pound or so of raw peanuts to Cox’s store on Nassau Street and asked them if they would roast them for us. They were always roasting peanuts in their front window, and they sold a lot of them. I assumed they were the local experts. But when I asked about roasting mine, they thought I was “nuts” and pointed out that all I had to do was put them in my oven for a while. We tried that and the result was just so-so. But it was an interesting side-show for the gardening. We didn’t grow them again. But we did plant an apple tree, a pear tree, and Concord grapes. The latter grew on a hand-made arbor that doubled as a swing set for the kids.
Aside from the foundation plantings along the front of our house and a few arborvitae shrubs at each end, the only tree on the property when we moved in was a honey locust in the back, about 25 feet from the house. It was less than 10 feet high and its trunk was about three inches in diameter. It’s still there, and today it’s about 50 feet high and its trunk is nearly three feet in diameter.
Like everyone else on our street, we started to plant trees where there had not been any before. In just about every case the house owners did the planting themselves. All you needed was a good garden book to tell you how, a good source for the trees, and the right tools. In my case I knew a man who owned property on Cherry Hill Road in Princeton who had many trees he was interested in selling — cheap. So I took advantage of his “forest” and harvested a number of evergreens of several species, mainly white pine and Norway spruce.
During our first 10 years or so, I planted around 25 trees. Some of these trees have been replaced due to storm damage and some have died, but most are still here, as are most of the other trees in the neighborhood.
My largest tree was a black locust that I was given by friends on Southern Way in Princeton nearly 50 years ago. It became our largest tree by far, but it succumbed to that big storm we had nearly two years ago — I try not to remember its name. Fortunately it missed my neighbor’s garage on the way down.
One of my largest trees is a pin oak that I took as a seedling from the lot next door shortly before it was about to be bulldozed for the new house. That was also nearly 50 years ago, and its twin is still there on my neighbor’s front lawn. They’re both about 40 feet high now. About the same time I planted a red oak sapling that I got from my neighbor on the other side. It and its brother that he planted at the same time are both still doing well. As the saying goes, oaks are “sturdy.”
Some trees prove to be useful in ways other than providing leaves that have to be raked up in the fall. One of mine was a beautiful white birch that I bought from Bill Denison at the mill. It was in a clump with three or four trunks. As it was failing after some storm damage, I cut down some of the trunks and used the wood with its white bark for art projects. Another decorative tree is an American Holly, the one with the prickly dark-green leaves and red berries that are so attractive for holiday decorations in the winter. Ours is still doing well, also after more than 30 years.
Dogwoods are another very decorative species, not only for their blossoms in the spring, but also for their berries in the fall. We still have two large white ones. We also had a beautiful red one for some years, but it succumbed a while ago and has not been replaced.
If you think your place needs some shade, plant some trees —and wait a few years. Get a good garden book that tells you how, and do it yourself. Do not assume that a lawn service will know how. Their business is lawn maintenance, not planting trees and shrubs. And beware of people who call themselves “arborists.”
Whatever you do, avoid piling up mulch around the tree so it covers the bark above the ground. There’s been a lot of that going on around here in recent years, especially along roads and near public buildings. But covering tree bark with mulch is bad for the tree and can kill it prematurely. Refer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its guidelines on planting trees. They point out that mulch should never be allowed to touch the bark of a tree. Before the recent “age of mulch,” trees grew very well on their own for centuries —even on suburban lawns, when they were planted and cared for properly — without mulch!!
And if you’re tired of frozen vegetables, try growing your own fresh ones. It can be done even in today’s West Windsor and Plainsboro. You don’t need a farm to do it. Just a plot of cultivated ground with a bit of sun.
