Planting the Terrace Urns at Skylands
This week was the big move of tropical plants from my Bedford greenhouses to my home in Seal Harbor Maine. The greenhouse at Skylands isn’t large enough to accommodate these big plants over the winter so they’re carefully loaded into a trailer and driven to Maine in the spring and back to Bedford in the autumn, a journey of about eight hours. I have quite a collection of fabulous urns that adorn the Skylands terrace and this year, there was just a small group of us getting the plants into the pots. It’s a job I thoroughly enjoy, despite the rain that was falling.
1 I wanted to show you what I've been busy doing this week at Skylands, my home in Maine.
2 When we arrived to do the planting, the pots had already been positioned, lined with plastic, and partially filled with rich compost and potting medium. Some of the plants I had sent up from Bedford were already on the terrace.
3 Not all of the pots were in the correct places. I try to vary the look and assortment of plants every year, just to try new things and adhere to the old adage, 'variety is the spice of life.'
4 Many alocasias, succulents, and agaves had grown nicely over the winter in my greenhouses in Bedford.
5 The terrace will be transformed from kind of empty, to full and luscious, in a few weeks.
6 Break time! A cafe au lait to keep us all going on this chilly, rainy day
7 Looking out the dining room windows to the big terrace - It was kind of bleak and dreary, but great planting weather!
8 I love this new plant medinilla magnifica, native to the Philippines. I have quite a few, which we will use on the terrace as a focal point this year.
9 Two giant Soderholtz pots are planted with alocasias - one green and one purple. Eric Ellis Soderholtz was a pioneer in American garden pottery at the turn of the last century, turning concrete into magic.
10 Ryan, my Bedford gardener and Peter helped move and plant so many things.
11 Peter is the new manager at Skylands and has never planted with me before. He did a spectacular job!
12 We planted one of the largest pots with purple, or black-leafed alocasias.
13 And I planted the other with green and chartreuse elephant ears.
14 I divided some of the elephant ears so I would have smaller plants to insert around the larger ones.
15 Mike, another Skylands employee, and Peter were wetting down some bagged potting medium. It's best to moisten this soil, which is rich in peat moss, before putting it into pots.
16 Mike shoveled the soil into tubs for moistening. It's incredible how much soil is required for the several dozen planters on the terrace.
17 Here I am preparing one of a couple Lunaform planters for the giant agaves, which will grace the terrace walls. Lunaform is a coastal Maine studio producing handmade, all weather garden containers. http://www.lunaform.com/
18 The terrace began to look a bit better with plants in place. The stone trough against the windows looks great with the pink medinilla magnificas.
19 Lunch break! It was delicious! We all sat in the kitchen and ate one of the roasts I had prepared the day before in a 'Cooking School' segment - standing ribs of beef.
20 A closeup of the delicious meat, which came from Pat LaFrieda in New York City - The recipe to come this fall on 'Martha's Cooking School' on PBS!
21 All the Orienpet lilies from B&D Lilies http://www.bdlilies.com/ are staked with thin green bamboo. These lilies grow more than seven-feet in height!
22 The two French glazed terracotta sphinxes live on the terrace steps during the summer.
23 More agaves planted in Soderholtz
24 The western terrace is planted with hanging ferns, and a variety of begonias, cycads, and other specimens, all in Soderholtz bowls. We changed the tops of the tables from zinc to glass this year and that looks very good.
25 Even more plants for the pots
26 The Council Circle garden - This was part of Jens Jensen's original plan for Skylands, which I actually had constructed. The gardens are verdant and blooming.
27 More than twenty lady slipper orchids were blooming there!
28 A closeup of these extraordinary blooms
29 The Meconopsis, or blue Himalayan poppies, are beginning to open. This is the first one to bloom.
30 A side view
31 And a front view
32 Fog rolling in over the 'Rockefeller teeth' - These are stones, which were placed along the garden drop off.
33 Another view - The pathways at Skylands are all lined with pine needles.
34 And another view
35 More fog
36 The back yard of the house in the fog - All of the drives at Skylands are covered with pink granite gravel.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
I really like the planter on the right of picture #16, and I don't thnk I've ever seen a more beautiful flower color as the blue poppy in pictures 29, 30, and 31.
The woods are so beautiful in their maintained "natural" state.
By the way, what is the difference in a forest and woods? It is like up-town and down-town, a castle and a palace, all things beautiful and Martha Stewart.
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | June 15th, 2012 at 12:51 am
Welcome back to Maine Martha! You know that it's summer when you arrive! http://www.themalemartha.com I have the same plants potted by my stairway to my house! They can be really magnificent! Let's just hope the rain lets up a bit this summer! Things have abeen way to soggy!
Dan Viger
Hollis Center, Maine.
Posted by: Dan Viger | June 15th, 2012 at 3:40 am
Hello Martha,
All I can say is that I LOVE SKYLANDS. Spectacular place.
Karen
Posted by: Karen Tracy | June 15th, 2012 at 6:20 am
Now this is a trip of all the ones you show, that REALLY appeals to me! Working in the garden, preparing for a summer of lushness, and all that good hard work rewarded with a glimpse of the blue poppy (which I cannot grow here on my little spot of CT)!
Posted by: Jayne | June 15th, 2012 at 6:32 am
If you ever need a handy helper in Maine, just give me a holler! I'm in NH!
I really love the moss growing in between the stones.
I see Uncle Carlos showed up for meal time!
gail
Posted by: gail pierson | June 15th, 2012 at 6:33 am
Paradise indeed! Skylands is such a remarkable home. I would never want to leave those beautiful surroundings. I love the new look of your blog. The pictures of you on the headings are beautiful. You should offer signed images to fans for purchase (proceeds could go to a favorite charity).
Posted by: Bill | June 15th, 2012 at 6:46 am
Good morning Martha! Stunning photos of your home in Skyland. Love your urns and the exterior of your home, would love to see photos of the interior. Gorgeous blue poppies wow perfect color, love love it. Wish you a wonderful weekend Martha xo
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | June 15th, 2012 at 7:23 am
Martha, what a beautiful setting! Every morning, I sit with my coffee and enjoy your blog. Oh! how I would have given just about anything to be there planting all those wonderful plants. That is what I call heaven on earth! Your hosta in the corner of the patio is to die for, the agaves, ferns and the elephant ears are so wonderful!. The rainy day was so perfect for planting, like you mentioned. I get inspired and enjoy your transformations in your garden settings. Thank you for sharing your home, garden, horses and landscapes. I so enjoy them.
Posted by: Syls | June 15th, 2012 at 8:05 am
Martha, stunning picture of your new header, you're so pretty! I love this post about Skylands. It looks so enchanting. I have no doubt you do enjoy working at your homes getting them ready for the seasons! I like the glass tops on the tables and the hanging ferns, but my favorite picture is of the lady slipper orchids, just beautiful! Thanks for having this blog Martha.
Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
Posted by: Cindy F | June 15th, 2012 at 8:07 am
Lovely photos and so timely for arrival of summer. Although part of Dakota have been fortunate with thunderstorms every day and enough moisture, our ranch is desperate for grass already with fires raging in neighboring states. After years of transportation, today, time has come when I can sit and watch the rest of the world moving dirt and water in Bakken Boom. I do have some large aloes and other easy to grow succulents,echaverias, and 'weeds' in pots ,that somehow make their way inside during winter, thriving outside during summer. You have inspired me LIVING to get outside and design my own world and think I will put a roast beef in oven.
Posted by: ann | June 15th, 2012 at 8:44 am
Hi Martha, How fun it is to see you, Ryan, Peter, and Mike planting those beautiful tropical plants in pots on your fantastic terrace at your Skylands home in Maine! The rain and fog are very usual here near the Puget Sound and you still looked happy working out in it on the terrace there at Skylands! These photos are tremendous and the four of you certainly did get a lot done! I'm sure all of those plants in the big pots will survive and can't wait to see them again and again this summer when you go there to have more fun with your friends! I've been doing a lot of planting in pots of many of your fabulous vegetable seeds I got at Home Depot and I am praying that our cool weather will finally warm up and dry out! So far my tomatoes, peas, green beans, cucumbers, zucchinis, and strawberries are doing very well and the strawberries are starting to ripen! Even my small pear tree is full of lots of pears this year! I've got lots of plants to plant elsewhere to improve my yard and you have inspired me to do all that I can out in my gardens! Thanks for your great ideas, inspiration, and encouragement! Hope you are having another great day no matter where you are! Have a terrific weekend, too! Off to see The Daily Wag where GK was helping Uncle Carlos take your plants to Skylands and F&S flew up there with you! Take care everybody! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | June 15th, 2012 at 9:37 am
Hi Martha,
Thanks for the Skylands update – I always did like seeing that terrace and the views from it and the birthday party celebrations out there for you and your August birthday friends. I still have my treasured Special Decorating Issue from September, 2000, the one with the ‘great wall of China’ on the cover and the French sphinxes on your ‘letter from Martha’ page. You wrote about the art of decorating and your own personal style and how you had the patience to wait until you found just the right table for a narrow space. The best was when you said you were ‘addicted to decorating and it can be time-consuming, but if treated as a passion, instead of a chore, decorating can indeed be a most delightful part of living’. I thought then that you even decorate your gardens and terraces, you don’t just stick plants in a pot, you have planned out how they will look and I’m always fascinated with the results. You’ve always been the whole shebang for me Martha, cooking, gardening, and sewing; crafting, decorating, you name it, and you’re still the best! Trish
Posted by: Trish | June 15th, 2012 at 10:41 am
Martha,
Thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | June 15th, 2012 at 10:47 am
Hi Martha! Thank you for these amazing pictures from Skylands that I have been anxiously awaiting! Even on a dreary day, the property and terraces look magnificent! I love all of your beautiful urns and plantings and thanks for providing Lunaform's web address, I will definitely check that out. And that lunch looked fantastic - your employess are so fortunate to work for you. Thank you for continuing to inspire us and hope you have a great weekend! Walter
Posted by: Walter H. | June 15th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Martha - I look so forward to your posts about SKYLANDS. It's an incredibly magical place and it gets me in the mood for summer entertaining. Have you ever considered running a contest among your best Blog readers for a chance to visit Skylands? I know it's your summer residence and I hate to be too personal but all of the time and special attention you and your staff devote to this property would be an amazing Best Practise to share among your devoted readers ... especially Canadian ones like ME! Best wishes in the gardens this summer.
Posted by: Laura Pallotta | June 15th, 2012 at 11:11 am
more skylands. more hamptons, please. i would love if you did more organizing of the interior as many of us poor folk don't have acreage. love this.
Posted by: chris | June 15th, 2012 at 11:31 am
Hi Martha,
What an inspiration you are! The patio garden at Skylands looks beautiful. I have never seen nor even heard of a Meconopsis before but now I will search some out. My husband and I love finding new (to us) plants and trying them in our gardens. We grow some poppies and anemones but none that are blue. Thank you for your blog and beautiful photos.
I am looking forward to your show on PBS this fall.
Posted by: Lauren | June 15th, 2012 at 11:35 am
Hi Martha,
Phid, Rick, Wayne and I were on MDI today to do an installation. We are fair weather installers I guess. All of friday has been beautiful, a nice breeze and sun.
Thank you for sharing the photo of the Fluted Tulip, it looks awesome!
Posted by: Dan Farrenkopf | June 15th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
Hello Martha! All i can say is WOW>> I love your Home in Skylands, Everything is so GREEN" And Beautiful. As they say Maine The Way Life Should Be! Hope To Seeing You In Maine Again:-) Have a Great Summer!
Posted by: Darlene Martinez | June 15th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Martha, what a trooper you are. Love that you are out there in the cold and rain and getting your hands dirty! Coming in for a latte is perfect!!!! This always happens to me in rainy B.C.
Posted by: Frances | June 15th, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Those blue poppies are fabulous! Thanks for sharing this process blog entry, Martha. It's fascinating to see the work that goes into your beautiful homes.
Posted by: BG | June 15th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Those plants going in the terrace urns looks like what we call Taro, Dasheen etc. Put them in the ground and eat them!
Posted by: Richard Ram | June 15th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Lovely, lovely! And I can't wait for your new show on PBS this fall! You're a wonderful teacher, and I'm sure I will improve my cooking skills. Have a fun rest of the summer, and woofs to the dogs! Marilyn B in TX
Posted by: Marilyn Bartlett | June 15th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Martha I am in awe of your grounds and gardening
Way to girl. Wish we could see you in our town. AT&T stopped carrying Hallmark channel
Boo Hop for us!
Posted by: Nanci Martin | June 15th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Dearest Martha,
I am very happy to read that you will be on PBS teaching cooking. Good luck to you on PBS.
Cheers,
Thomas
Posted by: Thomas Burger | June 15th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Looking great Martha!
Why do you always stick with the plain elephant ears when there are so many varieties? I love your Skyland's posts, I noticed the back porch planters were still bare... after the stunning huechera last year I can't wait to see what you're up to this season!
Posted by: Rebecca | June 15th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Just stunning photos, and oh my gosh, the blue poppy!
Posted by: Debbie Mahoney | June 15th, 2012 at 8:22 pm
I could spend days with my camera, and some coffee in your garden. Amazing!
Posted by: CYNDY B | June 15th, 2012 at 8:24 pm
I'm trying. I really am. Slugs, Gray, rainy days here in the PNW. 1 acre and 13 years ....I love my garden. Thank you for sharing your East side of the States.
Posted by: Susan Wynans | June 15th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Martha----Commenting on how someone else looks is always fraught---but you look lovely on the new header for Up Close and Personal. The blue shirt (color and style with the gold necklace) are perfect. Pretty and elegant. Also have meant to write to say how happy I am that your new program will air on PBS. All the best to you, N from VA
Posted by: N from VA | June 15th, 2012 at 8:56 pm
Skylands is always so beautiful. The blue poppies are stunning. I, too, will call Maine my home one day.
Posted by: Mona C | June 15th, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Wonderful photos and a great project! Absolutely enjoyed thumbing through.
Posted by: Michael Ryan | June 16th, 2012 at 12:29 am
Skylands the beautiful! So inspiring to see the work that is involved...makes me feel i can tackle my small space garden quite handily. Wishing you many wonderful days at this most incredible vacation home.
Posted by: Sherey | June 16th, 2012 at 12:46 am
i love everything. Ms. Martha, you are are winner. cheers to you, zimar from Philippines
Posted by: zimar b. mendiola | June 16th, 2012 at 4:56 am
Great job as always Martha. Just have to let you know that I've been infatuated with you. You're quite a woman. No I'm not a stalker, just a secret admirer in N.W. Ct.
Posted by: Jason | June 16th, 2012 at 9:29 am
WOW! That looks so beautiful. I wish I could visit.
Posted by: Joanna | June 16th, 2012 at 1:39 pm
MARTHA,
I HAVE BEEN A FAN OF YOURS FOR YEARS - I ALSO PLANTED ELEPHANT EARS IN A LARGE POT VERY LARGE ON MY PATIO.
IT HAS GROWN SO LG. I DID NOT KNOW I COULD USE SOME FOR
ANOTHER PLANT.
HOW BEAUTIFUL SKYLANDS IS. I LIKE YOU LOVE PLANTS AND
ENJOY THEM.
YOU GO GIRL.
PATRICIA
Posted by: PATRICIA VECCHIONE | June 16th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
I love these photos Martha...am a great fan of ladyslippers...the pink showy are one of my favorite which I have in Minnesota, but failed to do well at my Illinois residence....Love your blue Poppy.
It may have been dreary, but it is merely another lovely way to capture nature in fog and drizzle...I love it. Thanks
Posted by: Becky | June 17th, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Oh, Martha, on Father's Day I served your corn on the cob with husks attached and tied. My son in law grilled them and my daughter brushed on the Hellman's mayo, fresh grated parmasean cheese, ground pepper, and fresh lime juice. WHAT A HIT! Martha, you made my day! I love everything about your show and can't wait for the PBS cooking school!!!!!!!
Posted by: Barbara S. Greer | June 18th, 2012 at 10:33 am
I love your gardens, Martha. It must seem like heaven on earth to walk through the grounds in all types of weather. I especially love your lady slipper orchids. I look forward to enjoying more photos of your lovely homes, and I am also eager to see your Cooking School program on PBS.
Posted by: Karen | June 19th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Martha, I noticed on one of your porch ceilings that it has been painted a light blue. We have always heard that light blue paint keeps hornets and bees away, so we're now planning on having our painter do the same on our new construction of a covered patio. i would like you to confirm this fact though before i actually have it done. Thank you.
Posted by: Lynda Krauser | June 21st, 2012 at 10:47 pm