As you may know, pumpkins grow on vines, which means they take up a lot of space. I always plant my pumpkin patch in a roomy bed that can accommodate a large crop of big, colorful fruits. Last year, we I created a space next to the chicken coops and the vegetable gardens - it is the perfect spot for our expansive patch. And just last week, we planted lots and lots of seeds - more than 70-varieties of pumpkins, squash and gourds. Some of the varieties should be ready to harvest in 75 to 100 days.
Enjoy these photos.
Wilmer put down mounds of good aged manure. I am fortunate to be able to make such nutrient-rich compost right here on the farm.
The soil must be thoroughly warmed to at least 70-degrees Fahrenheit – pumpkins are very sensitive to the cold.
To make the rows look tidy, Wilmer uses his feet to measure equal amounts of space between all the mounds. Each mound should be at least six to eight feet from the next on all sides.
Wilmer measures each mound carefully.
And then puts down a couple shovels full of soil.
Pumpkins are planted in “hills” to allow the soil to warm more quickly, while encouraging the seeds to germinate faster.
These round hills are the perfect size for planting the pumpkin seeds.
Once all the hills are done, flakes of salt hay are spread out all around the bed. Do you know the difference between hay and straw? Hay refers to grass that has been cut while green, dried, and made into bales. When hay decomposes it adds nutrients to the soil to increase fertility. Straw is the stalk of a cereal crop such as oats, barley, wheat, or rye after harvesting has removed the seed heads. Always use salt hay, not feed hay, for your gardens.
Meanwhile, Ryan prepares all the seeds for the new pumpkin patch. This year, the majority of our seeds are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Whenever I can, I also like to use seeds I’ve saved from interesting or tasty pumpkins I’ve enjoyed. https://www.johnnyseeds.com
Ryan starts placing packets on the mounds of soil. Hay mulch enhances the look of the garden, avoids muddiness in the paths, keeps the pumpkins off the earth, and most importantly, enriches the soil.
Each mound will be a separate pumpkin variety. These small hills are now ready for planting.
As Ryan plants the seeds, he makes individual markers, so the pumpkins can be identified during the growing process.
Pumpkins do best when the seeds are planted directly into the ground. Pumpkins prefer rich soil that is well-drained and not soggy.
Check your seeds – be sure they are not hollow, or old – they should be firm and evenly colored without blotches or discolored patches that could indicate disease. Choose seeds that have also been air dried instead of oven dried, which could remove too much of the seed’s natural moisture.
Plant about five seeds per hill, with each about an inch to an inch and a half deep into the mound.
Seed orientation makes no difference to germination or growth. The important thing is to keep them consistently moist. Pumpkins are 80 to 90-percent water depending on the variety, and adequate moisture is crucial for healthy, productive plants.
Ryan gently pushes each seed down into the mound.
Pumpkin seeds should sprout within seven to 10-days from planting.
We always choose a large variety of seeds. For this year’s crop, some of them include Galeux d’Eysines – a unique heirloom with a flattened-globe shape and salmon-pink skin. Galeux d’Eysines is an ornamental pumpkin with a lot of character but also lends good flavor to soups and stews.
Sunlight is a true yellow pumpkin as its name suggests. These four to six pound yellow pumpkins are great on display.
Kakai is an eye-catching, medium to small, black-striped pumpkin. After displaying the pumpkins in the fall, scoop out the large, dark-green, hull-less seeds, which are delicious roasted. The seeds also yield savory oil.
Spark pumpkins have a flattened shape, wide moderate ribs, and yellow-orange skin with deep orange stripes.
Moonshine is a wonderful small-medium, white pumpkin. It’s very uniform, smooth-skinned and perfect for decorating or carving.
Rival is blocky and beautiful. This variety is a round, medium-sized jack-o’-lantern type with intermediate resistance to powdery mildew.
Porcelain Doll is a popular favorite. It is a pink pumpkin and the sweet flesh can be used for pies, soups, and other gourmet delights. Full vines bear blocky, deeply ribbed fruit averaging 16-24 pounds.
Big Moose are giant pumpkins with bright color – orange-red with some lighter streaking and light ribbing. Great for eye-catching displays on the front porch.
Darling is a unique upright pumpkin ideal for painting. It is very uniform, with an elongated fruit shape and stocky handles. The skin is smooth, lightly ribbed, and a vibrant medium-orange color.
Speckled Hound is orange with green splotches. It has yellow-orange, thick, dense flesh with dry matter and an oblate shape with shallow ribbing.
And Valenciano has snow-white skin. Clearly the whitest pumpkin; unique for doorstep decorations and painting. These are slightly ribbed, with a smooth white skin.
Before we know it, this patch will be full of colorful and unique pumpkins.
Occasionally, I agree to open my gardens for private walking tours. Most of them are conducted in the spring and early summer. Earlier this week, we welcomed a group from the New York based private investment firm, Fir Tree Partners, and winners from their recent auction. And yesterday, a lovely group of students from the New York Botanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture came by for a visit. Through its highly distinguished two-year program, the NYBG combines academics with hands-on training, externships, field trips, and special lectures, to prepare its students for positions in both public and private sectors.
Unfortunately, because of my busy work schedule, I wasn’t able to lead these tours myself, but both groups were in good hands with my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, who guided them through the allees and gardens - enjoy these photos.
Eric Lieberman, Garden Education Manager for the NYBG, and nearly 15-students, arrived mid-morning for their tour. Ryan explains how my farm has evolved since I purchased the property. This guided walk began in the main greenhouse and my cutting garden.
The main greenhouse is where I store my tropical plants, many of which I use for decorating my home when entertaining. On these moveable tables, I store all sorts of ferns, begonias, orchids and other tropical specimens. The greenhouse tables slide from side to side to allow easy access to all the plants.
Another stop was the Party Lawn. It is looking so lush and green. On the left is my long clematis pergola, and on the right, the weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. During summer parties, this lawn is great for playing croquet, badminton, and cornhole.
The group saw the Pin Oak Allee, Quercus palustris, which looks fuller every week with its distinguishable lower, middle and upper branches – such a lovely stand of trees.
Ryan also pointed out my newest project at the farm, my pool, and orchard, which I will show all of you in a future blog.
Ryan pointed out my grove of weeping willows at one end of my pinetum. Weeping willow, Salix babylonica, is a medium to large sized tree, with alternate and spirally arranged, narrow light green leaves.
There is also a weeping larch, Larix decidua ‘Pendula’ at the end of the Pin Oak Allee. It has bright green needles in spring, which turn gold before dropping in fall.
I love these dark red barberry bushes and the graceful weeping willows beyond. This is down another carriage road on the way to the run-in.
Next, Ryan and the group walked to the chicken yard and vegetable gardens.
The students saw several of my Guinea fowl – they eat insects and seeds, including ants, flies, and ticks. They are quite loud, but very interesting to look at with their featherless heads and polka-dotted feathers. Native to Africa, guinea fowl are known for traveling in large, gregarious flocks.
And they saw my adolescent chickens. In their fenced enclosure, all the chickens are provided ladders and natural roosts made out of felled trees. As you can see, my chickens are very happy birds.
The vegetable garden is doing so well – so much growth has occurred over the last week.
Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family. Members are informally known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, or mustard plants. They are also sometimes called cole crops.
Look how my tomatoes are doing. If you grow tomatoes, it’s a good idea to grow a range of varieties, including at least one or two disease-resistant types, since, of all veggies, tomatoes tend to be the most susceptible to disease.
Lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is a cultivated plant of the daisy family, Asteraceae. Lettuce is a fairly hardy, cool-weather vegetable that thrives when the average daily temperature is between 60 and 70-degrees Fahrenheit. I love all the different colored lettuces.
Ryan, and the group, passed the tropical hoop house and explained how many of the plants have already gone up to Maine or to East Hampton for the summer.
The group loved seeing the Catalpa trees. Catalpa trees are 40- to 70-foot tall trees with arching canopies. The leaves are arrow-shaped and glossy bright green. Flowers appear in spring and last into early summer.
The students also loved the upper terrace parterre, especially this big pot – one of two huge cast iron sugar kettles I keep as fire pits at the farm. They add such a nice accent to the landscape and have always been fun conversation pieces during gatherings.
Here is a group snapshot of the students including Eric on the bottom left, and Ryan, who is at the top left.
My longtime housekeeper, Laura, set up some refreshments on the lower terrace parterre outside my kitchen. Here she is pouring some cool pomegranate juice made using concentrate from our friends at http://www.pomwonderful.com/
The cookies are always made fresh in our test kitchen the day before by one of our test chefs.
It was a fun walk with this year’s young students from the NYBG.
Earlier this week, Ryan toured a group of auction winners. He began this tour from the lower gate, which is just off the Linden Tree Allee.
First, they stopped at my stable to visit my five Friesian horses, Fell pony and three Sicilian donkeys.
This year, behind the stable, I decided to plant some giant agaves in large pots – I think they look great here.
My Black Shoulder Pied peacock was out strolling also. My peafowl are all very curious – this male loves to walk around, and watch the activity around the farm, especially by the stable.
The Boxwood Allee on the way to the stable always grabs everyone’s attention.
The Boxwood Allee separates the north and south paddocks – I am so proud of this allee and how it has developed and grown over the years. This is why feel it is so important to protect these specimens in winter, so they are lush and green come spring.
The group saw my Winter House, and carport from the Boxwood Allee. It is a beautiful view on a nice, sunny day.
Across the paddock is my American beech grove. The American beech, or Fagus grandifolia, is the species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and Canada.
This is one of the most popular views during tours – the winding road through the woodland under a canopy of green foliage.
The gooseberry bushes are located at the rear of the greenhouse, where they can get morning sun, afternoon part-shade, and buoyant air circulation. The gooseberries in my garden include ‘Pixwell’, ‘Invicta’, and ‘Hinnonmaki Red’.
Cotinus, commonly known as smoke tree or smoke bush, is an upright, loose spreading shrub with leaves that are deciduous, and oval-shaped. The smooth, rounded leaves come in shades of yellow, deep purple, green and pinkish bronze.
As our guests continued their tour, Ryan showed them these gorgeous Bald cypress trees, or Taxodium distichum. These trees are deciduous conifers that shed their needle-like leaves in the fall. In fact, they got their name “bald” cypress because they lose their leaves so early in the winter season.
A cypress knee is a term used to describe the distinctive structures that form above the roots of cypress trees. The knees are woody projections that grow above the water line. Some botanists say they provide oxygen to the roots, while others claim it serves a more structural support function.
Planted at the foot of each bald cypress is a clematis vine – all of my clematis are blooming beautifully.
Here is a new pergola built by my carpenter, John Kowalczyk, owner of JK Home Remodeling in Stamford, Connecticut. It looks so pretty.
The group stopped for some refreshments before heading back to their van.
I love entertaining outdoors, especially when it’s for a good cause.
Last weekend, at the East Hampton, New York home of my friends and neighbors, Lisa and James Cohen, I co-hosted a lovely dinner for a group of nearly 100-supporters of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, the nation’s oldest and largest LGBTQ youth service organization. James and Lisa have hosted their annual HMI “School’s Out” cocktail benefit for several years, but this year, they wanted to add an intimate dinner to the evening gathering. Chef Pierre Schaedelin, from PS Tailored Events, and I planned a delicious meal, inspired by some of my favorite summertime dishes. The menu included gazpacho, paella and grilled ribeye steaks - plus a buffet of delectable desserts. I was so happy to take part in this fun and successful event.
Enjoy these photos.
Here I am with Thomas Krever, Chief Executive Officer of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, and our hostess, Lisa Cohen. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Chef Pierre Schaedelin’s team from PS Tailored Events taped the dining tables together to create a smooth tabletop surface. http://pstailoredevents.com/
Neutral linens and bright blue accents complemented the ocean views and beach atmsophere.
Here is Lisa putting finishing touches on the colorful dining tables. Lisa is passionate about design and art, and loves to entertain in this beautiful home. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Simple yet elegant floral centerpieces adorn the tables. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com)
Handwritten place cards directed guests to their seats. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Cheese straws and long, thin grissini added height to the tables and gave guests something to nibble on before dinner was served. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
The chefs set up a staging area in the Cohen’s berry garden to plate the first course – what a beautiful setting.
WNYW’s Good Day New York anchor, Rosanna Scotto, and Galerie editor-at-large, Margaret Russell served as event co-chairs for the event. Here they are with Lisa. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
My event director, Heather Kirkland, matched the evening’s colors beautifully.
My make-up artist, Daisy Schwartzberg Toye, posed with Jamie Unwin of PS Tailored Events before dinner started.
The cocktail party and sit-down dinner drew hundreds of supporters. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com)
Here is a lovely snapshot of our hosts, James and Lisa Cohen. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com)
The first course featured fresh summer flavors – a delectable yellow and red gazpacho with crushed avocado, accompanied by crudité and heirloom tomato crostini. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Here I am with Jamie and Pierre – we stopped for a quick photo as the paella cooked. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Paella requires attentive care. Here I am stirring the rice with the seafood, chicken, pork and vegetables. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
I love paella – and it is such a great option for large parties. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
This 36-inch pan is perfect for feeding this large group, and the round grill ensures even heating during the cooking process. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Here is Pierre, who took over the paella mixing. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Pierre grilled ribeye steaks on a second grill. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
100-guests attended the dinner.
Here are Rosanna Scotto, Thomas Krever, Gerard Turner, Merritt Baer, Darra Gordon, and Ben Dixon. Merritt Merritt Baer CEO & Co-Founder TodayTix, which helps people find last-minute theater tickets. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com) https://www.todaytix.com/
Wait staff served the first course. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Fitness and wellness entrepreneur Tracy Anderson also served as an event chair. Here she is posing with Rosanna, Lisa and myself. Guests went wild when Tracy auctioned off private training sessions—five people signed up! (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Here are Russell Pagliughi, Greig Todd, Thomas Krever, Bradley Silver, and Michael Franco. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com)
The beautiful Sperry Tent created a lovely dining atmosphere. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)http://www.sperrytents.com/.
Here’s Lisa visiting with all the the Hetrick-Martin supporters and welcoming them to her home. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Pierre roasted potatoes to accompany the steak and paella. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
The paella pan was stationed on the buffet table so that guests could help themselves. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Wölffer Estate Vineyard generously donated their delicious rosé wine. (Photo by Phillip Lehan) http://www.wolffer.com/
Guests enjoyed the beautiful evening – it was a perfect night for entertaining outdoors. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Kevin, Daisy and Will Maerov took a moment from dinner to smile for the camera.
William Li, President of Ralph Lauren Home, and Jacqueline Terrebonne, design editor for Galerie, were instrumental in orchestrating the evening.
As the sun set, beautiful interior lighting created a lovely glow. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
Dessert was also served on a buffet. The table included rhubarb crumble, lemon mud pie, chocolate caramel tart, apricot tart lattice, poached cherry financier, fresh strawberries, short bread & whipped cream, caramel flan, and soft biscotti with coffee.
Torches lit the path leading to the beach. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
I was so happy to help support the Hetrick-Martin Institute and to help create such a successful and fun benefit. (Photo by Phillip Lehan)
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