Home & Garden

Your guide to home improvement, gardening, entertaining and design in New Jersey

Q. We own a 100-year-old house in Bradley Beach. We are getting our hot-water heating system ready for the start of the fall season and noticed that one of the cast-iron radiators has developed a leak. A while back, you published the name of a company in Barnegat that carried and sold old radiators. Unfortunately, we did not save that article. Could you tell me the name, address and phone number, so that I could contact them for a replacement radiator?
-- via e-mail

A. The firm in question is Recycling the Past. Its website is recyclingthepast.com. Click on "Building Material," then on "Radiators." If you do not find what you need, another choice is Radical Radiator Restorations in Everett, Mass. They sell steam and hot-water radiators. Their phone number is (617) 733-7163, their e-mail address is radiatorsrcn.com, and their website is radicalradiator.com. There, you will find the questions you need to answer to get the right replacement. Have you thought of calling a heating contractor to find out whether your radiator can be repaired?

Q. I can recall your writing about commercial gutters several times over the years, most recently mentioning the improbability of these gutters clogging. I live in a 3-year-old, two-story home on a wooded lot in northern New Jersey. Our gutters always clog with leaves and spring-tree debris to the point of overflowing.

With more than 15,480 acres of woods and lakes, Stokes State Forest in Sandyston Township in Branchville is a prime attraction. I visited the park last weekend, when the autumn leaf color was breathtaking throughout the Kittatinny Mountains, which include part of the Appalachian Trail.

Just northeast of Stokes State Forest is High Point State Park, with an additional 14,193 acres of forest, lakes and wetlands. The camping sites at both parks were booked solid over the weekend as campers enjoyed the spectacular views.

These state parks are very important for all residents of our region. The trees and wetlands help to filter and purify air and water and provide a home for wildlife. There are numerous hiking trails at both locations, several leading to the top of Sunrise Mountain, which is the second-highest peak in New Jersey at 1,600 feet.

When you think of late-season flowers, you probably think first of chrysanthemums and asters, the dynamic duo of autumn. But let's face it: As garden subjects, neither is without issues.

Chances are you're buying potted mums every fall, since many grown for mass markets today are not reliably winter hardy. Even if you have mums of the sturdier perennial kind, they won't be at their best unless you pinch them back several times early in the season and divide them regularly to keep them vigorous.

Asters? Lovely. But lacking a rabbit-free zone, you may not be able to grow them at all, since they are high on the bunny snack list. And a fungus disease known as aster wilt can strike without warning, reducing your plants to blackened sticks.

It's pumpkin season and rural neighborhoods like mine are under siege as hordes of folks clog the roads in search of the Great Pumpkin -- or maybe just a great pumpkin.

They won't have much trouble finding a good one. New Jersey farmers are reporting a bumper crop. Pumpkin growers expect to exceed totals achieved last year, when nearly 13 million pounds were harvested and $2 million in sales rung up.

The eager masses creeping down congested two-lane roadways have a shopping cart full of harvest-time options. There are bushels of crisp apples, bundles of cornstalks, cider (hot and cold) and rank upon rank of potted mums -- not to mention hayrides, corn mazes and haunted houses. (Never mind that the locals can't get much of anywhere on fine, sunny weekends in October.)

"Guide to Coin Collecting"

As the "father of the state quarters program," David L. Ganz already has made his mark on American coin collecting.

Now he has contributed a book that should be in the library of every numismatist and would make a perfect holiday gift for a beginning collector.

"Guide to Coin Collecting" (HarperCollins, $19.95, paper) begins with a history of coinage -- the first coins were used in the kingdom of Lydia (now Turkey) 2,800 years ago -- and continues with a history of U.S. coins and a close-up look at coins. In "What to Collect," he talks about getting into coin collecting.

Ganz

Subsequent chapters get into the terminology, tools and equipment, and how to go about acquiring coins for your collection. It is a very readable volume, beautifully illustrated with color photos and graphics, that should appeal to veteran collectors as well as newcomers.

A coin collector since he found an Indian head penny in some change when he was about 9, Ganz is a past president of the American Numismatic Association and is the author of a number of books on collecting and numismatics. He agitated for circulating commemorative coins -- the state quarters program -- as a member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, appointed by President Clinton, in the 1990s.

"Halloween Tricks and Treats" by Matthew Mead

Even if you're not planning a Halloween party, Matthew Mead's latest book has a few tricks that might get kids to actually eat a good meal on the night that's all about candy.

In "Halloween Tricks and Treats" (Time, $19.99), Mead, a stylist, magazine editor and photographer, turns enthusiasm for the holiday into treats such as orange hot chocolate (made with white chocolate and food coloring) and Candy Corn Freeze (layers of colored vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet).

The time-starved will appreciate projects that make over packaged snacks -- Oreo Cakesters and tinted fondant stack into a Black Magic Dragon. Archway iced oatmeal cookies become "Icy Stares" whose spooky eyes are drawn on with food markers. Easy instructions are often explained in a few sentences.

Every Halloween, black is the new black -- while hints of red and a veneer of the Victorian complete the Gothic look.

Going for seriously spooky decor? Celebrating the holiday by transforming your house into a place where Edgar Allen Poe would feel at home?

We've got some decorating ideas -- and there's not a pumpkin in the lot.

GOTHIC GLAM

A black candelabra is a haunted house decor must, but it gets even more ghostly when paired with black taper candles. Candelabra, $59, and black taper candles, $10, set of four, at Pottery Barn stores, potterybarn.com or (888) 779-5176.

Martha Stewart makes cupcake-size Halloween stencils that can be used to apply colored sugar or food color spray. $4.99 for eight reusable stencils at marthastewartcrafts.com or Michaels stores.

Halloween lacks the standard cuisine of the more protein-centric American holidays, like Thanksgiving or Easter.

Instead, it's a chance to get creative, to disguise food much the same as we disguise ourselves. And thus, peeled grapes (eyeballs) and blood oranges combine for a creepier fruit salad, cheese fondue goes ghoulish with green food coloring and all manner of candy creatures become fair game as garnishes.

"Halloween has more of a relaxing, party feel to it rather than just being so rigid and traditional and having these strict guidelines about what you have to do," said Vanessa Johns-Webster, director of Seattle's Blue Ribbon Cooking & Culinary Center, which hosts a family cooking class each Halloween.

We got some advice from party planners, authors, caterers and big fans of the holiday to help make your celebration spooktacular.

AKIRA SUWA/McCLATCHY-TRIBUNEDon't put a dog in costume unless he likes it.

Masked intruders lurk on the doorstep, making demands and threatening mayhem.

You know it's all in fun, but Halloween can be anything but a treat for the dogs in your family.

"We hear about more dogs dying or straying during Halloween than any other holiday," says dog behavioral therapist Liam Crowe, president of canine training company Bark Busters USA. "Halloween is intended to scare and startle us, making it a haunting holiday for dogs, too."

Dogs are creatures of habit, he says, and "the unusual set of circumstances that Halloween provides is very unsettling to them." Think about your dog's safety in the same way you would think about the safety of a small child, he advises.

Here are some more tips from Crowe and the American Veterinary Medical Association to keep your canine companions from getting spooked this year.

JOHN WALKER/McCLATCHY-TRIBUNETurn your kid into a bird on the cheap this Halloween with the help of a decorated baseball cap, feather boas and rubber gloves.

A glue gun, fabric, odds and ends plus a great imagination are all Tracy Bohren needs to create a photo-worthy Halloween costume.

The Clovis, Calif., resident has been making homemade costumes for years. Inspiration is as close as your closet, says this former craft-store employee.

"The best advice I can give is start early," Bohren says. "Start at home. Once you have an idea for a costume, start thinking about what you can use that you already have. You can do a lot with an old white T-shirt."

This year, inspired by an idea at the Martha Stewart Web site, marthastewart.com, Bohren is making a chicken costume for her daughter using feathers from a feather boa, a white baseball cap with red felt "comb" and yellow rubber gloves for feet. "I made my own little adjustments," she says.