Yesterday in my garden
Yesterday, I opened my gates to a group of forty-five gardeners from The Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons. HAH is a club that started about twenty-eight years ago. This group has about four-hundred members who are dedicated to gardens and to green gardening on the South Fork of Long Island, New York. Membership is open to anyone, amateur or professional, who is serious about gardening. They hold monthly meetings and have interesting lectures, a plant and seed exchange, use of a comprehensive horticultural library, and the opportunity to tour many fine gardens. I was very happy that they came to see mine.
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Your executive assistant Suzie---
Tell us more about the hiring of your double!!
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Posted by: andrea and the weimaraners | June 2nd, 2009 at 12:26 am
Lucky ducks!
Must be nice.
Lovely flowers.
I love to go on tours you learn so much and meet such fun folk.
Franny's tour was fun today too over on Wag.
Pam from California
Posted by: Pam From California | June 2nd, 2009 at 2:15 am
thank you for the peony picture! i'll be waiting for more
Posted by: liisamarja | June 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 am
I always like seeing photos of your garden. They are so lucky to have been able to visit.
But I am sad, your Cupcake book, I am informed by Amazon this morning won't be in the UK for another two weeks. And I was all prepared! If you fancy Fed-Exing one over to me I would be only to happy to receive it! I don't think I can wait any longer for the book!
Pru
Posted by: Pru | June 2nd, 2009 at 6:45 am
Hi Martha!
Lucky group to tour your garden!
Lovely pictures, love the clematis flowers, the poppies are spectacular and the peonies are amazing!
God Bless
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | June 2nd, 2009 at 6:51 am
I also love the peony photo. It reminds me of a long (around 50 feet) peony border my grandfather planted in his side yard. As a little boy, I used to love to inspect the buds which always seemed to have ants crawling on them. When one plants so many in a concentrated area as you have, do they perfume the whole section of the garden?
Posted by: Wayne M | June 2nd, 2009 at 7:40 am
Good morning Martha,
I'm not familiar with the Red Zinger iced tea recipe. I will check your website for the recipe. It sounds mmmmmmm' good!
The weather was perfect for your garden tour and I love your bright poppies.
Fun tour!
Posted by: Gloria Brown, Winterport, ME | June 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
I love your garden pics and the pool looks inviting. We have always looked at gardens on our tours in Europe whether travelling on the Gold Wing motorbike or going by plane.
Gardening. My book of our motorbike tours is out now. We loved the Sunflowers in Andalucia, Spain.
Posted by: Rosalie Marsh | June 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 am
You are so right that everyone loves a garden tour -- esp. on such a gorgeous day. I'm having two open gardens myself this Sunday and it is a great deal of prep work, yet so worth it to share the beauty and love of plants.
Posted by: Kathy J, Washington Gardener | June 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
What a lovely day indeed for a garden tour and so much to see! Wow...just look at all those peonies about to open...spectacular. I have a very small peony garden that gives me many vigorous and pretty blooms...sigh...is there anything better? Well...perhaps hydrangeas...
Posted by: sherey | June 2nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Martha blog regular Andrea tweeted to me to check out pix #3 on your blog just now and she is right the person looks like they don't have a head it blends into the tree. So funny.
I agree the gal - new assistant looks somewhat like you in hair and figure.
The fella in the photo looking at the design of the house as you remark isn't really looking at the design, he is looking at the HOUSE to see a sighting of YOU. Don't you know it would make the tour complete a Martha sighting, makes everyone's hearts go pitter patter even the most devoted gardener wants to see Martha strolling along in a garden now that's a tour~
Pam from California who sadly no longer has a garden to stroll though~
It's 80 and lovely out today.
Posted by: Pam From California | June 2nd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Regarding your orchid collection being impressive...ANYTHING you have, Martha, is impressive! [giggle] That's why I love you so! And, hey, you got those urns planted just in time for this tour, didn't you?!!
I saw some peonies blooming (said here, in a half sing-song) - they're old-timey [to me] and I loveloveLOVE 'em!...and gee whiz, I didn't know you had a lily garden. You MUST show them to us when they come into bloom. I love poppies, too (there's nothing like that red/orange color!)
As you know, there's more to a garden than just the plants. I, like the one gentleman, would've taken in your house's architecture, too! You have a lot of structuring hardscape around your property, which lends particular interest to planting beds and seating areas, feature specimen trees - even your well-kept access roads as an example! I read yesterday's organizing tip about your attic craft room, and how dormers were added to afford more natural light into the work space. I hadn't known that, either, as I thought they were original to the house.
I am positive that those who attended your tour will NOT forget it for a long l-o-n-g time!
=^..^=
"Flowers are words which even a babe may understand."--Arthur C Coxe
Posted by: Cindy Bricker | June 2nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Thank you for sharing your Garden Tour photos. Your estate and gardens are lovely. Wishing you and yours a beautiful summer, a fruitful garden, and ratings that soar.
Posted by: Tonie Cook | June 2nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Hi Martha!
'...now I need a place to hide away, oh I believe in yesterday' in Martha's garden!
Thank you dear Martha (dirt-woman that you are), again, for this great blog sight and all the details of your garden.
Will tell my friend in LI about The Horticulture Alliance of the Hamptons!
Posted by: tinay | June 2nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
After being disabled for one year, today,I finally got my hands in some dirt! I purchased a large bag of Maricle Gro Moisture Control and filled my deck flower boxes with it in preperation for planting. What a wonderful feeling to have dirt in my hands again!!
Posted by: Mickey LeConey | June 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Ohhhh...I can just smell the lovely, dreamy fragrance of the peonies...I am in heaven!
I can never get enough peonies in the garden.
Happy gardening~
Debbykay at Rose Cottage Gardens and Farm
Posted by: Debbykay at Rose Cottage Gardens and Farm | June 2nd, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Beautiful. You are such a inspiration. Thanks for all the tips.
Posted by: rob barrett | June 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Hi Martha, Wow, another fabulous tour of your absolutely stunning garden and farm! Like many of your tourists, I love everything on your farm, including the animals and your staff. Suzie Ercole sure does resemble you; what a cutie! The plantings in your Kenneth Lynch pots sure did turn out spectacularly. I'm so glad you have this farm. I did love seeing photos of Turkey Hill, but your Bedford Farm is as good as that and many times better. I just love everything you have done to your farm and you have turned it into such a fantastic show place. Thanks again for sharing. Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | June 2nd, 2009 at 11:53 pm
I love these peeks into life chez Stewart - it's like country life cranked up several notches. Not just two orchids but twenty, not just ten peonies but a hundred. I'm glad that someone living on such a lavish scale is documenting it like this for us.
Posted by: Sophie | June 4th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Dear Martha,
Will you ever or have you considered opening up your gardens to the Bedford garden club tours? Maybe you have already. Would love to see your gardens - your horses and the donkeys!
Your peonies are gorgeous and the clematis are amazing! How did you get them to bloom now- my mother's are not in bloom yet- i give it another week...Thank you for sharing.
Kind regards,
Bernadette Durham
NYC/Bedford
Posted by: Bernadette | June 4th, 2009 at 11:39 am
OMGosh, they are so lucky. You can come and see my garden, but unfortunately you won't need a map. LOL I did see a bulb popping up yesterday!
Posted by: Ashjoy | June 5th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Hi Martha,
Your split rail fence looks marvelously authentic. It reminds me of the scene from the movie "Cold Mountain". Renee Zellwegger and Nicole Kidman's characters fix the fence by sliding new rails into the post slots as one of the chores to prepare their southern farm for animal stock.
Can you tell us how a proper split rail fence is constructed and perhaps about the different styling points?
Kind regards from rainy Wisconsin,
Laura Savatski
P.S. My peonies here are still in tight bud. Yours look heavenly. Looking forward to that sweet fragrance to linger. I have a 1844 farmhouse with several varieties I inherited. Don't know the names but would love to send you a root from my favorite. It's a very tall, large flowered, upright, magenta colored peony with vibrant yellow open center. If you can accept one in the mail, please send the proper address.
Posted by: Laura Savatski | June 8th, 2009 at 10:59 am
wow! gorgeous! you have so much talent. The peonies are divine
thank you for this!
Posted by: Daniela | June 8th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Martha your garden is spectacular! It is a great year for your poppies!
Posted by: Megan | June 9th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I have a Lily with 21 blossoms is this unualy, I can sent a picture.
Thanks Judy ^j^
Posted by: Judy Lundsten | June 17th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Yes in answer to your question (has your yard ever been destroyed??)........bunnies....lotsa lotsa bunnies! and small children with plastic swords taking a whack at all the newly budded flower tops.......pest control police please!
Posted by: Diane Cousin | June 19th, 2009 at 11:23 am