Diamonds in the Rough

Parks and Gardens of Somerset County

Somerset County is blessed with an exciting variety of parks--some wild and kept by man as conservatories of life in the natural state; others designed and created by people--flamboyances of the originals. They offer good times and solace to the visitor who enters these protected places. Surrender your senses at the door.

Portraits by Mary Jasch

Sourland Mountain Preserve: Spring Sprints

The Sourland Mountain Preserve in Hillsborough and Montgomery Townships was once a farm with cows and a pond. Crops couldn't grow on the rocky mountainside, so cows grazed the hills until they were treeless. Now turtles and frogs live in the pond, and the forest is about 50 years old, with a few 150 year-old trees that probably stood near the farm's buildings.
Trails are easy or moderate on steep slopes, with plenty of pretty streams. A favorite spot for picnicking is at the top of the pipeline cut where, on a clear day, you can see New York. Many wildflowers, including the fussy showy orchis, bloom along the trails.
Birders have the advantage in the Sourlands, where many bird species, like summer tanagers and winter wrens, American woodcocks and warblers, appear in this overlap of north/south bird boundaries. According to Dave Dendler, Park Ranger Administrator of the Somerset County Park Commission, birders know it and come here all the time. Over 30,000 people a year visit this preserve.
more....

Rudolph van der Goot Rose Garden: Painting the Roses Red

If you love fragrant flowers or want to grow beautiful roses in your yard, the Rudolph van der Goot Rose Garden at Colonial Park Arboretum in East Millstone is A MUST! It is a living catalogue of roses where you can learn what every winning variety looks like, smells like, what it needs, how it grows and which are almost maintenance-free.
In the 1970s, Rudolph van der Goot, horticulturist, rolled out the garden carpet through roses trained on tall trellises down through an acre of three gardens filled with every kind of rose that will grow in Central Jersey and surrounding areas. There are modern hybrid roses like polyanthas, musks, rugosas, miniatures, climbers of all kinds, trees, shrubs, grandifloras, floribundas, teas... Isn't that all of them? No! There are species roses--gallicas, glaucas and others with complicated names. There are old garden roses like bourbons, cabbage, damask, perpetual, albas, moss and many more. There are unusual roses, but all are on the market and the home gardener can buy and use them, assures Jeff Van Pelt, Supervisor of Horticulture.
In the first section, the old flagstone walk circles a stone pool with a fountain. Kids love the frogs, tadpoles, fish and tropical water lilies that live here. In the second section, climbers fill a wooden trellis that surrounds the garden and the Millicent Fenwick Walk. The third section is formal with raised beds.
The Fragrance and Sensory Garden has a sunken walkway so that the flowerbeds are at wheelchair level. Plants are identified in Braille on signs that says "smell me" or "touch me."
About 50 plants are replanted each year in the rose garden and are replaced with All American Rose Selections. There are over 3,000 roses of 325 varieties. So, put a foot on the trail or step inside the gate and surrender.

Leonard J. Buck Garden: Paradise Revisited

Leonard J. Buck Garden in Far Hills is a garden of splendor and inspiration--a landscape of art, sprung from a love of the beauty of plants and a reverence for nature. The garden is sculpted from a glacial stream valley where waterfalls once cascaded, then subsided, leaving behind rock faces, outcroppings, ponds and a stream. It took the eye of a geologist, fascinated by topography-plant relationships, to see the valley's potential to showcase the finest of human-bred cultivars and nature's prettiest wild plants.
>At the Visitor's Center, pick up a list of what's blooming for the week and a map of where to find it. Then step out the door to a few hours of awe.
Take the pathway leading to the Fern Garden where pink mountain laurel blooms with wildflowers and tameflowers. The grass path, once a waterfall, winds through the entire garden, edged with bright Virginia bluebells. On Bit o' Rock (the outcroppings have names), wind anemones bloom with small alpines. Across the path is Big Rock, the northern wall of the valley left by the glacier, covered in the bright colors of bulbs and perennials.
The Moggy Brook, a small stream bordered by hand-placed rock and lined with maidenhair fern and forget-me-nots, seems almost out of a storybook. Throughout the garden, crooked trees and those with unusual bark are planted. 908/234-2677
More...

White Rock at Washington Valley Park: A Biking We Will Go!

Whether your pleasure is birds or a hillside under siege, the view from the in Bridgewater Township is amazing. White Rock, otherwise known as the hawkwatch, hovers above the migration flyway and also men at work mining basalt.
Reach the hawkwatch from Rt. 22 East to Chimney Rock Road and follow a fascinating stream with small flirty falls, a dam and impressive boulders. Turn right on Gilbride Rd., then Millers Lane that starts out macadam and turns dirt as you enter the 687-acre county park that straddles the First and Second Watchungs.
Take a walk on a smooth trail with the scent of pine down to the rock. Warblers flit in the pines--blackburnians, black-throated, blues and greens, and in the brush there are LBJs.
As you step out onto the hawkwatch, a panorama of terraced earth, piles of basalt, trucks in miniature scooping, dumping and carrying away spreads before you. If there are no hawks to watch, you can watch the quarry operation.
White Rock is one of the hottest hawk watching spots in New Jersey. There's a good spring migration down through the valley from the mountaintops and along the streams. The hawks catch the thermals along this ridge, glide towards the Sourlands and fly to the Delaware River.
This is mountain biker heaven too, with a good combination of level and rocky trails, and lots of them. "I live in Hopatcong and have a friend in Ocean Township," says mountain biker Adam Divine. "We meet here because there's not a lot of places to go. This is central. It's nice because there's different types of terrain here--hard-packed trails and rocky trails and logs, good views and a lot of miles."

Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park: All Along the Tow Path

The Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park runs 66 miles from Bull's Island to New Brunswick, with 16.5 of them in Somerset County. Recently Six Mile Run Reservoir in Franklin Township was added to the park, where three easy trails skirt farm fields and wind through woods and old fields, and one crosses a slow, shallow stream. The trail begins at the park office at 625 Canal Road.
A walk along the towpath in Spring can reveal treasured glimpses of wildflowers. Spring beauties and blue and yellow violets bloom along the sides of the path, and horsetail, jack-in-the-pulpit, sensitive ferns and other flowers and greenery covered the floodplain between the river and canal. Tiger lilies grow luxuriantly along the roadsides. The towpath is a long shaded dirt path along both sides of the canal. It's a great place to enjoy birds and turtles, flowers and trees. Access the towpath on Rt.514 in East Millstone, Blackwells Mills (Park HQ), the Griggstown causeway, Rt. 518 in Rocky Hill and Rt. 27 in Kingston.732/873-3050
More....

Lord Stirling Stables: They're Off!

At Lord Stirling Stable in Basking Ridge, one can enjoy the bridal paths by either horsepower or human power. Every day is horse day, but on Saturday mornings at 10 o'clock, the Friends of Lord Stirling Stables run a dog walk--two miles of brisk fun for canines and humans. In sunshine or rain, paws and boots pound wide grassy paths through open fields and meadows and zip along skinny trails through grand woods. This 450-acre landscape is minimally maintained and wildlife is at home here. The magic for many on the dog walk is this special place that is seemingly far from the crowds. One can feel life's stresses disappear on the trail as Spike, too, may revert to his wild beginnings.
The Lord Stirling Stable is part of 925 acres of Lord Stirling Park. There are twelve miles of bridal trails and every week the hike's route changes.
Yes, for three dollars a dog, you and your pooch can get a great workout, an equalizing Zen type of morning, camaraderie with other dog people, and your pooch has a great time doing a dog thing with others of her kind--all this on an otherwise sleepy Saturday morning spent laying around the house.
Saturday is the only day people are allowed on the trail without a horse. All other days, the Stable goes equestrian and is not just for locals. People come from New York and Hoboken to take classes and guided trail rides out on the trails and in the indoor arena and outdoor rings. "They love us. They like our safety record and our horses are very tolerant of people's mistakes. Our instructors are patient and express things in many ways to make students understand and make it fun," says Nancy Williams, stable manager. And there's the landscape... "They come for the trails that are the best for horse-back riding in the state." If you don't have boots for riding, you can rent them here with a hard hat too. 908-766-5955

Hutcheson Memorial Forest: Amazing Grace

Hutcheson Memorial Forest, a 65-acre tract of old growth forest in Franklin Township, is one of three patches of un-cut virgin woods remaining in New Jersey. Also called Mettler's Woods, the forest is part of 525-acres owned by Rutgers University that is comprised of abandoned farm fields, young forest, ecology research plots and farmland.
There are treasures in this primal forest, such as the regeneration of elephant-skinned American beech and 300-year-old black oak trees.
Along the skinny footpath through the woods, there are tall slim persimmon trees with black alligator bark. There are great horned owls and red-tailed hawks, northern harriers, coopers hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk.
In spring and summer, the forest looks like a garden. The fields are covered with wildflowers. The huge Eastern red cedars have the look of junipers planted in old English gardens. Paths along the edges are covered in moss, perfect for a wild garden.
The forest is listed on the National Park Service Registry of Natural Landmarks. Open by tour or appointment.
More...

Duke Gardens

Visitors to Duke Gardens marvel at beautiful exhibitions of plants, landscapes, and architecture as they would in a fine arts museum. These are display, not botanical, gardens, and thousands of species from all climates thrive under an acre of glass houses. They are constantly- but invisibly- manipulated by a staff of fifteen full-time gardeners to provide a palpable elation with nature and a unique aesthetic appreciation of world history. Each chamber is a portrait of an entire cultural environment, painted with plants, soil and sculpture. The more you look, the more you see, and the perspective of so many extraordinary formulas for beauty helps one understand what it really means to BE in a garden.
Walk through a wonderful succession of natural expression: romantic Italian, American Colonial, French parterre, English, America desert, Chinese, Indo-Persian, and tropical rain forest. When you're done, and probably not sure how long its taken, you've walked around the world in about 1/4 mile, thanks to an expert arrangement of botanical sights and aromas. Doris Duke's gift has been to make it abundantly clear that, while plants may seem to have a low profile in our society, they are, both biologically and culturally, necessities of life.
The gardens, located on Route 206, 1 3/4 miles south of the Somerville traffic circle, are open every day, October 1-May 31. Because the houses can easily reach 90 degrees in warm weather, the facility is closed between June and September. A staff of about 20 conducts tours for individuals and small groups, but you must call to reserve your choice of day and time.
To visit the gardens, just south of Somerville on Route 206 in Hillsborough call 908 243-3600 weekdays between 9am-4pm to reserve a time. Admission is $5/$2.50 seniors and ages 6-12. Tours are complementary for school sponsored and scouting groups. No food or drinks are allowed in the gardens. Still photography that does not interrupt the tour is permitted.

More...

Route 206 in Hillsborough, 908 243-3600