My flower cutting garden continues to reward me with beautiful blooms.
This perennial garden lies just beyond my main greenhouse, at the foot of my long pergola. My gardeners and I devote many hours to its care - grooming and weeding it through the season and thoughtfully planting each new specimen. This time of year there are hollyhocks, Shasta daisies, balloon flowers, Black-Eyed Susans, yarrow, coneflowers, lilies, and more.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Here is one of many kinds of lilies that bloom in my flower garden. In summer I also have lilies along my pergola, outside my Winter House kitchen and in the sunken garden behind my Summer House. My collection is a combination of Oriental, Asiatic, trumpet, and Orienpet lilies. Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants grown for their very showy, often fragrant flowers.
Lilies come in a variety of colors with multiple blooms per stem. This is white with bold yellow.
Yellow tiger lilies are vibrant, medium-yellow lilies with characteristic dark spots, known for their striking appearance and ease of cultivation.
The phlox is thriving in the garden. Phlox has superb heat and mildew resistance. Phlox is a tall and upright grower that’s great for the back of the border, or even planted at the edge of the garden among the shrubs.
Phlox also comes in a range of colors from pure white to lavender to even red, and grows happily in most parts of the country. If properly planted and sited, phlox is largely pest and disease free too – a perfect perennial.
Echinacea purpurea, or purple coneflower, is a hardy perennial. Echinacea purpurea has a large center cone, surrounded by colored petals that brighten the garden in mid-summer. Echinacea is a genus, or group of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family.
Butterflies are attracted to Echinacea, including this swallowtail. They love coneflowers for their vibrant colors and nectar-rich blooms.
This is Alcea rosea, also known as the hollyhock. These plants can reach five to eight-feet tall and up to about four feet across.
Shasta daisy flowers provide perky summer blooms with the look of the traditional daisies along with evergreen foliage. They are low maintenance and great for filling in bare spots in the landscape.
These are the showy flowers of rudbeckia. Rudbeckia’s bright, summer-blooming flowers give the best effect when planted in masses in a border or wildflower meadow.
In general, rudbeckias are relatively drought-tolerant and disease-resistant. Flower colors are yellow and gold with dark centers. The plants grow two to six feet tall, depending on the variety.
Growing on one side of the fence surrounding the garden are these dainty perennial sweet pea or everlasting pea flowers. The sweet pea is a herbaceous climbing vine with beautiful bright flowers that grow up to 10 feet long.
Here is one in pink. The old-fashioned varieties of sweet pea are grown for their vibrant colors and intense fragrances. Most sweet peas will begin blooming in late spring or early summer.
Looking carefully, one can still spot a poppy or two. Poppies require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil.
This is a seed pod of the poppy. It is what’s left on the stem once the flower blooms and the petals fall off. As the seed heads turn brown with ripeness, it’s time to cut them and harvest the seeds. One can tell when pods are ripe by shaking the stem. If the pod rattles, it’s ready.
This is a balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus – a species of herbaceous flowering perennial plant of the family Campanulaceae, and the only member of the genus Platycodon. It is native to East Asia and is also known as the Chinese bellflower or platycodon. The opened flowers resemble those of bellflowers, and while most are deep blue or purple, white and pink varieties are also available.
Balloon flowers get their name from the unopened buds, which swell up prior to opening and resemble little hot-air balloons.
This interesting foliage is Pulmoniaria. Pulmonaria are members of the Boraginaceae family and first cousin to other well-known garden favorites such as myosotis, brunnera, symphytum, and mertensia, the Virginia Bluebell. The name Pulmonaria come from the greenery, which is often green with white spots, resembling a diseased lung. In fact, its common name is lungwort. The silver spots on Pulmonaria leaves are actually the result of foliar air pockets used for cooling the lower surface of the leaves.
Just outside the flower garden, I have dark pink Astilbe – it adds whimsical texture to every space with its fluffy, pink spikes of flowers. Astilbes are wonderful shade perennials, known for their dark green foliage and plume-like blossoms. Flowers bloom mid-summer and make charming fresh or dried cut flowers.
Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a hardy perennial with fernlike leaves and colorful blooms. The large, flat-topped flower clusters are perfect for cutting and drying.
The flower clusters or corymbs are made up of dozens of tiny daisy-like florets. Here’s yarrow in light pink. Yarrow flower colors range from white and soft pastels to brilliant shades of yellow, red, orange, and gold. Enjoy the flowers around you this weekend.
Here on my farm, July is garlic picking time. The bulbs are ready to dig when the lower leaves begin to dry and turn brown, while the upper leaves remain green and the soil is dry.
Knowing exactly when to harvest garlic is key. Pick it too early, and the cloves will be small and underdeveloped. Wait too long, and the bulbs begin to split apart, leaving them more susceptible to decay. Yesterday, my gardeners harvested the entire crop - the softnecks, which produce long-lasting bulbs with many cloves around a soft center stem, and the hardnecks, which are noted for their stiff central stalk, fewer cloves, relatively short shelf life, and intriguingly complex flavors. And all from our friends at Keene Garlic, a family-owned farm in Wisconsin.
Here are some photos.
My gardeners waited for a dry day to harvest – this allows the soil to dry out, helps to prevent rot, and makes it much easier to pull the stalks and bulbs from the ground. The main harvest time is usually July through mid-August.
Garlic is planted in the fall. I’ve been planting Keene Garlic for quite some time and am always pleased with their growth and taste. The next several photos were taken last October.
The majority of garlic in the US is planted before the ground freezes. When planting multiple rows of garlic, the rows are at least one-foot apart.
It is also important to give each clove enough room to grow and develop. These are at least two to three inches from each other.
And then the garlic is pushed several inches into the ground using a bulb planting dibber.
The holes and garlic bulbs are covered and the garlic is left to grow. Garlic loves a rich fertile loam soil or a silty loam soil. It also grows best in an area that drains well – the cloves can rot if they sit in water or mud.
By mid-June, the scapes appear. Garlic scapes are the flower buds of the garlic plants. They’re ready about a month before the actual garlic bulbs. Scapes are delicious and can be used just like garlic. Scapes can be cut when the center stalks are completely formed and the ends are curled.
And like clock work, a few weeks later the garlic leaves begin to brown.
Yesterday was a good, dry day to harvest garlic. Matthew uses a pitch fork to gently loosen the soil in between the garlic stems.
Matthew is careful where he places the fork so as not to pierce any of the garlic heads.
Each garlic is pulled out from the base of the leaves so that the head comes out completely.
As Matthew continues to loosen the soil, Ryan picks the garlic – it’s a very systematic process. It doesn’t take long before many heads are removed from the soil.
The whole garlic is called a ‘head’, a ‘bulb’, or a ‘knob.‘ Each small, individual segment of a garlic head is a clove. Garlic is both delicious and nutritious. It is known to lower cholesterol, decrease the risk of coronary artery disease, and is an excellent source of minerals and vitamins, such as vitamins B6 and C.
The next step is to prepare the garlic for curing. Matthew cuts off the bottom roots.
The top of each stalk is also trimmed and the first layer of skin removed. Trimming the stalks makes it easier to store and keeps them neat and uniform.
Here is a very clean garlic head ready cure.
After cleaning and trimming, the garlic is put into crates.
Here are some harvested shallots. A shallot is a small, onion-like bulb from the allium family, known for its mild, sweet, and slightly pungent flavor.
By day’s end, crates are filled with garlic and shallots.
This is not ready to eat just yet. It must still dry. Curing is a process of letting the garlic dry in preparation for long-term storage. There’s no need to wash garlic – the point is to completely dry them out. Well-cured, well-wrapped garlic bulbs will keep six to eight months or longer.
The best storage temperature for garlic is between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with low humidity at about 60-percent – and never store garlic in the refrigerator. I will soon have lots of delicious garlic to use and share.
The gardens at my farm are always evolving. I’m constantly searching for beautiful and unusual plants to enrich the ever-changing beds.
The area surrounding my pool is planted with a dramatic collection of burgundy and near-black foliage, creating depth, contrast, and year-round interest. Along the inside of the pool fence is a growing hedge of purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple,’ prized for their elegant form and rich, deep-purple foliage. To continue the dark foliage palette, I’ve underplanted sections of the hedge with different varieties of Ajuga, including ‘Black Scallop’ and ‘Chocolate Chip,' and most recently Ajuga 'Bronze Beauty.'
Here are some photos.
The skies over large parts of the Midwest and Northeast are very hazy because of the drifting Canadian wildfire smoke. The skies above my pool look orange in color. Hopefully the air quality will clear soon.
A couple of years ago, I planted six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees. They’re growing so nicely around my pool.
New foliage on the Ginkgo Goldspire™ emerges a rich shade of green, fan-shaped, and slightly curled. It keeps its color through summer, then turns buttery shades of yellow and gold in autumn before dropping.
The trees are interesting in shape, narrow and upright tower trees, which look so excellent on both sides of my pool. Behind, one can see the hedge of columnar beech trees, which contrast so well with the bold green ginkgo trees.
At the north end of the pool, I have these five antique staddle stones. I bought the staddle stones in 2017 from the annual NYBG Garden Furniture & Antiques Fair. Staddle stones were originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders.
They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but mine are square – a more rare and unique version.
Ajuga reptans ‘Bronze Beauty’ has glossy, bronze-purple foliage. It’s a semi-evergreen, fast-growing ground cover that grows to six inches tall.
Matthew starts by digging the hole at least twice the size of the plant’s root ball.
He matches the hole depth to the root ball height and adjusts the hole slightly with his hands. It’s important not to bury the crown more than one inch below the soil surface. The soil was already fed earlier.
After removing it from the plastic pot, Matthew teases the root ball just a bit to stimulate new growth.
And then he plants the Ajuga. Ajuga naturalizes easily, spreading by stolons, or horizontal stems that creep along the ground, so be sure to plant it appropriately.
Matthew tamps down gently to ensure good contact between the soil and the plant. If there is mulch in the bed, be sure to go beneath it to plant the Ajuga properly.
What is so nice about adding Ajuga to the pool garden is they hold their leaf color and stay attractive almost all year-round.
Nearby, I decided to plant this Selanginella braunii, an arborvitae fern, in two of the stone troughs I have at the back of my pool area. This plant has an upright fern-like appearance and grows six to 12-inches tall. The foliage turns a russet brown in the winter and remains upright until spring.
Matthew does the same with these plants, teasing the root ball just a bit to encourage root growth – it is a process called scarifying.
Then he plants the Selaginella about 10 inches apart to make sure the plants can grow without overcrowding.
Because it will get moderate shade in this location, these plants will thrive through the season.
Selaginella foliage is scale-like and fern‑like in texture, giving it a mossy appearance.
This Selanginella ground cover will fill in this planter nicely, creep along the surface soil, and trail over the edge.
And look who came for a short swim at the farm? It’s my beautiful niece, Sophie Herbert Slater, and her wonderful children – Silas and Felix. Hope your summer is filled with fun gardening projects and good times with family and friends.
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