A Utilitarian Area of Skylands
On a recent visit to Skylands, my home in Maine, I took a camera down to the stable area, which is where the vegetable and cutting gardens are. Unlike most of the grounds, which are pristine woodlands, this area is a utilitarian space and has been cleared of trees. Years ago, a kitchen garden was planted there. After I obtained ownership, that garden was expanded and improved. I even had a small greenhouse installed. With cooler temperatures and a shorter growing season, I’m always amazed how well things grow in Skyland’s northern clime. Please enjoy this little stroll in the garden.
1 This is the utilitarian area of Skylands. Across from the stables is the greenhouse, storage garage, and the lobster cooker.
2 Built many years ago, this is a traditional lobster cooker, found in lobster shacks along roadsides throughout coastal Maine.
3 With grills at either end, this stove can cook a variety of food for a very large crowd. It can handle 100 lobsters at a time!
4 Traditional hand-made wooden lids cover giant pots.
5 The pots rest in holes on the surface of the stove.
6 A fire is built beneath each pot.
7 We use only birch wood and hardwood lump charcoal.
8 The utility area is also where you find the cutting garden and kitchen garden. This is where herbs grow.
9 Vibrant Chinese lantern plant (Physalis alkekengi) is also called the winter cherry or bladder cherry.
10 A member of the nightshade family, ornamental Chinese lanterns are related to potatoes tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and petunias.
11 This perennial plant is a vigorous grower. Like mint, it sends out underground rhizomes from which new plants sprout. Be careful where you plant it.
12 This sliding wooden door is the entrance to the garden.
13 The garden at Skylands has always been colorful and thriving.
14 And the views are spectacular.
15 With the cooler temperatures in Maine, it's possible to have leaf lettuce growing all summer long.
16 The tomatoes grew nicely.
17 Beautiful red onions
18 These are great sliced and eaten raw in salads and sandwiches.
19 The fluffy tops of carrots
20 The healthy stalks and leaves of Swiss chard
21 The black-eyed susans are spectacular!
22 Salvias in the foreground and zinnias behind
23 A lovely row of mixed bachelor's buttons or cornflowers
24 Bachelor buttons are a cutting garden favorite, and they are one of the easiest flowers to dry for everlasting arrangements.
25 Its edible flower petals can be used to add color to salads.
26 Bachelor buttons are also called the 'boutonniere' flower because the small, one inch flowers are perfect for button holes on suits.
27 A tripod sprinkler is great for watering a wide swath.
28 The unfurling petals of a dahlia
29 Long-lasting dahlias make excellent cut flowers.
30 Zinnias are such happy flowers.
31 Zinnias are a member of the large Aster family of plants and originated in Mexico and the Southwest United States.
32 They come in a form suitable for every garden situation, including single, double, cactus, ruffles, and pompom.
33 Colors include every shade except blue, and many are multicolored.
34 Zinnias are started incredibly easily from seed and they grow and flower very quickly.
35 Obviously this wonderful flower thrives at the Skylands garden.
36 The garden at dusk - those box-like structures are cold frames and have glass covers for colder weather.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
Hi Martha,
You amaze me with everything that you do - I could never keep up! Your gardens at Skylands are beautiful.
~
Fun show today with vintage clothing and I enjoyed last night's The Women Who Dress America. If you remember all those emails I would send about coloring, the Tory Burch outfit was a prime example as well as the Indian blue outfit from Donna Karan. Those colors look great on you! Trish
Posted by: Trish | September 20th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Beautiful!!
Awhile back you posted the camera that you use and of course I cannot find that post. Can you or anyone tell me what that camera was????
Heidi
Posted by: Heidi | September 20th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Hi again Martha,
Tory Burch is great but I actually meant the colors you had on from J. Crew were great on you as well as the blue from Donna Karan. The J. Crew grayish brown jacket and that necklace really brought out your brown eyes. Okay, I'm gone. Trish
Posted by: Trish | September 20th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
What a lovely stroll through your garden Martha, it's all very beautiful. The lobster cooker looks like so much fun. Ever since I moved from Maine to Oregon, I've missed going to the lobster shacks on the Maine coast!
Trina
Posted by: Trina | September 20th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Hi Martha, So nice to hear from you again. I know you have been very busy. Love all of your programing on Hallmark Channel-it just makes my day everyday! It was so much fun to see your twitpics on last Thursday when you were going from Bainbridge Island at Dan Hinkley's to downtown Seattle! You photos were great! Hope you were here early on Saturday when the weather was so spectacular until the later afternoon. Just listened to you and Michael White on Sirius radio-terrific program! Love this latest blog about your wonderful garden area at Skylands! All of your photos were superb! I love growing lettuce, spinach, swiss chard,etc. here in the Puget Sound area in the fall and early winter, also! I finally got my greenhouse erected and will use it especially for my meyer lemon plants and many other plants. Have you ever grown wheatgrass? It's growing very well in this cooler weather. How would you use it other than for making a juice and what could you add to it especially for health reasons? Know you are having a great day after listening to you on Sirius radio! Thanks for everything, Martha! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | September 20th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Martha, you have everything I've ever wanted, except...I don't want quite as much, just a nice home, a beautiful garden and a few animals and chickens.
Since I can't have what I want, I'll enjoy what you have. Thanks for continuing to share with all of us.
Gloria!!
Posted by: Gloria | September 20th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Oh Martha you did not forget us, your blog was in delay mode for this posting. We who are limited regarding watching your Hallmark shows live and thrive with these blog posts.
Posted by: Margie | September 20th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Today's post inspires me to grow Zinnias next year!
I think you could also use your lobster cooker for Maine's traditional "smelt and fiddlehead" feed in late springtime. This is at the top of my favorite dishes! Martha, have you had this dish in the past? If not, I will gladly come to Skylands with all the fixings and cook it for you and your guests on your lobster cooker next spring.
Gloria
p.s. I recently launched my website for vintage and pre-owned Chanel jewelry ... please take a peek.
http://www.VintageChanelJewels.com
Posted by: Gloria Brown, Winterport, ME | September 20th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Hello MArtha,
One of my favorate name I call you is The Energizer Bunny on a Redbull!! Your energy level and work you do is unreal!!Here is under truth: I actually I bought your magazine first time ever is the one with Kevin Sharkey( Only reason). I think I will stop taking your magazines from my dentist office, and i will actually just pay from now on...:)
Posted by: kyle kahriman | September 20th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I agree with Trish - you amaze me with all that you do, and you take us all along with you so that we can enjoy everything from the comfort of our homes!
-
We all know though, that it's hard work and diligent planning that lets you reap these rewards - and you richly deserve them.
-
Thanks again Martha - for sharing with us!
Posted by: Donna | September 20th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I've tried to grow Chinese lanterns two years in a row with no success. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or it's bad seeds. Yours are lovely however. I'm going to give them one more shot next spring, until then I'll have to drool over yours!
Posted by: Shelly | September 21st, 2010 at 12:39 am
Love the flowers. I have some wonderful dahlias now here in Oregon which I think has a similar climate to Maine. I don't have zinnias though and need to remember to plant them next year.
Martha, I am making pies to sell during this harvest season and can't make enough to keep people satisfied! I wrote a little rant on my blog about the difficulty of finding good pie these days. I think your show is one of the only programs on TV that keeps good old-fashioned American pie on the forefront of our dessert menus. Thanks for teaching me and others how to make our iconic American dessert.
Posted by: Clayvessel | September 21st, 2010 at 12:43 am
I love your shows and your craft products . I am having a fall party this weekend and theme is retro toys . The girls will be getting popbeads and the guys have balse airplanes prizes are jacks pic up sticks o
Pop guns candy cigarettes root.beer barrels . There are 17 guest coming . Maybe someday you can come what a once in a life time experienc that would be bea kroh
Posted by: Bra kroh | September 21st, 2010 at 1:08 am
Amazing gardens. Thank you for sharing.
Posted by: Shannon | September 21st, 2010 at 1:51 am
I just love your show I think we are about 2 years behind here in Australia but I love everything you do all the crafts cooking etc
so Martha I hope the show will be up to date here one day.
Hugs & love from Nantje
Posted by: Nantje Cook | September 21st, 2010 at 1:55 am
For Heidi,
When traveling, I like to use my Canon G11. It's great!
Posted by: Martha Stewart | September 21st, 2010 at 6:54 am
Good morning Martha - Love the Maine garden thanks for showing us! Is it possible to have a segment of your show demonstrate that incredible lobster cooker/grill that you have? Would love to see it in action. Maybe a little video on you web page?
Posted by: maria | September 21st, 2010 at 7:53 am
An early frost in Dakota blackened many of my annuals while I was in Minneapolis seeing THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB at the Guthrie. My heart was warmed when a friend sent me a note
via mail telling me how she had been uplifted seeing them when driving by my home. So it goes!Fall brings asters,mums, sedums and more.
Posted by: ann | September 21st, 2010 at 11:12 am
Skylands is by far the most magical of Martha's homes. Each time I see a feature on it, I get a little ping of excitement. What a treasure. Thanks so much for sharing your detailed photos. Such an escape from my day to day world.
Posted by: Kates | September 21st, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I'm so disappointed - In August we switched from Charter Cable to AT&T Uverse because Charter is soooooo bad...only to find out this week that AT&T lost their Hallmark agreement. I can't watch Martha anymore...I want my Hallmark Channel back!
Posted by: Carlene Roche | September 21st, 2010 at 2:04 pm
.
Hi Martha!
.
Do you have Indian Pipes? What can you tell us about them?
.
Andrea and the Weims
.
Posted by: Andrea and the Weimaraners | September 21st, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Gorgeous garden Martha! love the plants and flowers soo beautiful collection!
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | September 21st, 2010 at 5:24 pm
I really miss all of your shows. I now live in the Philippines. AT Lifestyle Network here they are showing Martha Stewart Classics such as Martha Stewart Living. I miss your newest season, but the new show of your daughter and her friend Jennifer is showing here. I find it funny especially when they are making fun of you. This morning your guest was Jennifer Garner but I'm not sure if how new is this episode.Anyway I enjoy watching it especially the gardening segment because I love gardening.
Posted by: edith ghanz | September 21st, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Hi Martha ~ Your gardens are just beautiful, n i love your recipes you share with all of us. Your so sweet, generous and kind
Your giving truly comes from your heart <3 . Well, if i could share one thing about myself it would be this; My favorite pie to bake is Apple, my family <3's it. And about my daughter n i, we Love your show! Take care, may you enjoy the beautiful autumn foliage.
Posted by: Lori Searls | September 22nd, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Please bring back Martha by Mail!!
Posted by: Marcie | September 23rd, 2010 at 11:18 am