Today is the first day of fall - a wonderful time of year to walk through the gardens of my Bedford, New York farm.
As you all know, every now and then I agree to a handful of special guided walks to show visitors how we care for all the many plantings at the farm. Most of them are conducted in the spring, but a select few are also scheduled at the very end of the season, as leaves begin to fall. This week, I welcomed a couple of groups, including the Bedford Farmers Club, one of the country's oldest farm organizations, which works to foster awareness of the area's remarkable agricultural heritage.
Here are some pictures of what they saw - enjoy.
Before the garden tour began, members of the Bedford Farmers Club held a meeting in my Carriage House next next to my stable. Ryan showed the group the map of the property and what areas they would be touring.
As always, I provide a few refreshments for the groups visiting my farm. On this day, several of the club’s members also brought treats – homemade cookies and brownies.
Here is our platter of cookies prepared by the chefs at my New York City headquarters. My longtime housekeeper, Laura, always makes such lovely presentations.
This group was very interested in all the trees I have planted over the years – thousands of trees. Ryan walks them up along a carriage road lined with several types of trees, including Paulownia, horse chestnut, crabapple, and Nyssa trees.
Ryan also pointed out the climbing hydrangeas, which feature large, fragrant clusters of white flowers against a backdrop of dark green, heart-shaped foliage.
Climbing hydrangea plants can grow 30 to 80 feet tall. I have them growing on several trees on the farm.
The group made a brief stop in my sunken garden. This garden behind my Summer House is always a favorite stop on the tour. The boxwood look very lush and green. Ryan pointed out the tall, old Ginkgo tree at the back – the focal point of this space.
As they walked towards my Winter House, the group started to smell the wonderful apples that filled the trees. We have so many, many apples this season – I have been pressing lots of apples into cider for my family, friends and visitors to the farm.
Here is a view of my expansive Winter House porch, where I love to hang lots of staghorn ferns during the warmer months. Platycerium is a genus of about 18 fern species in the polypod family, Polypodiaceae. Ferns in this genus are widely known as staghorn or elkhorn ferns due to their uniquely shaped fronds.
Here is a view looking down toward the stable and the four chicken coop houses in the distance – it is among the most favorite views on the farm.
This dwarf apple orchard is just behind my long carport and flower room. Father Legendre of Hannonsville, France is credited with pioneering the espalier growing method in 1684. Because sunlight reaches every piece of fruit that these trees bear, espalier pruning continues to be a standard procedure at commercial orchards in France.
Across the carriage road are my Malus ‘Gravenstein’ espalier apple trees. I love this crisp and juicy apple, an antique variety, which is wonderful to eat and great for cooking and baking.
The trees in front of the dwarf apples are Korean Lilacs – these have beautiful striking spikes of fragrant lilac-pink flowers that bloom in late spring with small rounded foliage.
Here is a look between two of the paddocks, with the old corn crib on the right.
Ryan showed the group this apple tree located outside my blog studio. It is a very old apple tree and original to the farm.
Here is my new boxwood border along my winding pergola. I’ve been reading all your lovely comments about the border and am very happy to know you like how it looks.
As the group continued, they spotted one of the finials atop my Equipment Barn – antique finials I bought years back.
Across the carriage road – two of my most curious peafowl. They are strolling through the new fruit tree orchard we planted in this field over the summer.
The tour passed my pinetum. I started planting the pinetum about 10-years ago. The pinetum is tucked between my equipment shed and my weeping willow grove. When I first bought my farm, I knew I wanted to plant many, many trees – young trees, to replace the older ones when their lives ended.
Throughout the walking tour, Ryan answered questions and explained the care and maintenance of all the gardens.
Here is the carriage road leading toward the hayfields and the vast woodland that makes up the rest of my 153-acre farm.
At one end of the Boxwood Allee is this beautiful weeping copper beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground.
Here are two of my beautiful equines – Sasa, a handsome Friesian, and Banchunch, a Fell Pony. All my horses love visiting with guests, and often come to the edge of the fence when visitors are near – perhaps hoping for a fun treat?
And here is a group photo of the the Bedford Farmers Club. James Wood, on the far right, is the president of the club.
There's always something new to see during tours of my Bedford, New York farm.
Yesterday, I opened my gardens to the Pacific Horticulture Society, a non-profit resource for west coast gardeners, designers, horticulturists, and other plant enthusiasts. PHS works to inform and inspire members through its quarterly publication "Pacific Horticulture", its web site, and its local and international study programs. One of the events was a five-day tour of several botanical institutions and private gardens in New York City and the Hudson River Valley, including a visit to Cantitoe Corners, my farm in Bedford. The group of 25 was led by Bob Hyland, accomplished plantsman, designer, and owner of Contained Exuberance, Contemporary Pots & Plantings for the Garden in Portland, Oregon.
Before leaving for a busy day at the office, I stopped to greet the group and to welcome them to my home. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, then guided everyone through my many gardens, groves and allees. Here are some photos - enjoy.
Here I am with Bob Hyland. Bob’s husband, Andrew Beckman, is my former head gardener and the former gardening editor of my magazine, “Living”. He is now working in Portland, Oregon as Publisher and Editorial Director at Timber Press.
I wanted to stay and conduct the tour myself, but unfortunately, I had many meetings to attend at our New York City headquarters, so Ryan and Heather guided the group through the hour-long tour.
The walking tour started in my main greenhouse to see my expansive and ever-growing collection of tropical plants.
On both sides of the greenhouse, I designed long sliding tables that hold hundreds and hundreds of rare and unusual specimens.
The group then walked through my flower cutting garden – just outside the main greenhouse and head house.
Every group experiences a different tour when they visit the farm depending on what is blooming at the time. Although summer officially ends this week, there is still lots of color in this garden.
These are two wisteria standards planted at one end of my curvaceous clematis pergoIa. I designed this pergola with granite uprights and wooden tops. Most recently, we added a beautiful boxwood border that lines both sides of the structure.
The group saw the Pin Oak Allee, Quercus palustris, with its distinguishable lower, middle and upper branches forming a most interesting growth habit. And yes, they also saw two peacocks crossing the carriage road – these young peafowl are very curious and love walking around the farm.
Throughout the walking tour, Ryan answered questions and explained the care and maintenance of all the gardens.
One of the tour’s highlights is a walk down my long Boxwood Allee to my stable. Ryan explained how we cover all these shrubs with burlap shrouds during the colder months to protect them from winter’s elements.
The group passed the great white pine trees – visible from almost every location on this end of the farm. Pinus Strobus is a large pine native to eastern North America. Some white pines can live more than 400-years.
Here is a view of some of the many trees that I’ve planted on the property. Some of them are already beginning to drop their leaves.
Here is a newer allee of lindens in between two of my paddocks – it is growing very nicely.
The group stopped to see this view through the large paddock – the ancient apple trees and my Winter House home and carport in the distance. My large porch can be seen on the right.
During the warmer months, I love to decorate the stable courtyard with large tropical plants – these potted palms add such a pretty touch to the natural stone color.
My dear Friesians were quite a treat for this group.
Everyone on the tour received a copy of my October issue of “Living”. Have you gotten the issue yet? It’s available on newsstands now!
My linden tree allee is always so inviting. And on this warm day, it provided a wonderful canopy of shade.
This group loved all the fencing that surrounds my paddocks. This is old Canadian white spruce fencing I imported when I bought this farm.
The tour continued onto the vegetable gardens. We’ve picked many of the summer vegetables, but it continues to thrive.
The vegetable garden is still full of fresh, leafy greens.
Here are more shapely boxwood shrubs – these surround my massive herbaceous peony bed.
For a couple weeks each summer, this bed is overflowing with color – whites and pinks. My herbaceous peony collection includes 11-double rows of peonies, and 22 different varieties of peony plants – two varieties in each row.
This is my terrace parterre outside my Winter House, where the group stopped for refreshments.
For every walking tour, I always provide a fun treat – these are homemade cookies made by the chefs in our test kitchen. It was accompanied by refreshing cups of cider made from apples grown right here that I pressed myself last weekend.
Bob and my longtime housekeeper, Laura Acuna, posed for this quick photo – a keepsake for Andrew.
This is the view from my terrace parterre looking at the ancient apple trees – a popular view for visitors.
Here, you can see more white spruce fencing and the old corn crib, which is original to the farm.
This is the other end of the long and winding pergola. On the right, a stand of bald cypress, or Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. It is a large tree with gray-brown to red-brown bark. It is popular as an ornamental tree because of its light, feathery foliage. These trees have grown so much over the years.
And here is the group, with Bob seated front and center. Thank you, Pacific Horticulture Society, for visiting my gardens – I hope you enjoyed your tour.
The big pergola transformation project is now complete and it looks absolutely terrific.
As you know, I decided to make some changes to the garden beds below my long and winding pergola. I wanted to plant two long rows of boxwood, Buxus, along the entire length of the space. I love boxwoods and have hundreds growing all over my Bedford, New York farm. Over the last couple of weeks, the outdoor grounds crew has been very busy expanding and preparing the beds, so we could transplant about 300-boxwood shrubs - shrubs that I have been growing right here at the farm for the last three-years. It was an arduous task, but we are all so proud of the outcome - the new boxwood border is stunning.
Here are photos of the last phase of this transformation process - enjoy.
Across from my Tenant House, where my daughter and grandchildren stay during visits to the farm, I have a long and winding pergola.
This summer, I decided this area would be great if planted with a row of boxwood on both sides. Here is one side all ready for planting.
In a small patch adjacent to my vegetable garden, I planted these boxwood shrubs three-years ago. They’ve developed and grown into nicely sized specimens – perfect for the pergola. Buxus is a genus of at least 70-species in the family Buxaceae.
Here, Dawa trims and shapes the boxwood. This is easier to do before they are moved because the new beds have already been cleared and mulched.
Then, Wilmer carefully removes each boxwood shrub – choosing the largest and most similar in size. Using a shovel, Wilmer digs a trench about six-inches wide and eight-inches deep all around the boxwood and then beneath the root ball, until it is finally severed from the soil.
Carefully, Wilmer removes the boxwood from the ground. It’s important not to break the root ball.
Each shrub is placed into a plastic pot and then groups of potted boxwoods are transported to the pergola, where they are placed one by one along the garden bed.
Every boxwood must be positioned perfectly, so the outdoor grounds crew cut a piece of bamboo to help space the plants as they are planted.
The boxwood will be planted exactly two-feet apart. Here, Chhiring places a shrub in its proper position before the hole is dug.
Chhewang digs a hole twice as wide as the root ball, but no deeper. Once in the hole, the top of the root ball should be a half-inch higher than the soil surface.
Chhiring places the boxwood into the hole, and tamps down around the plant, backfilling with soil wherever necessary.
Here are the first several planted – it looks so beautiful already. Boxwood can grow in full sun and partial shade.
The crew works in a well-paced production line process. As the boxwood is planted, more are delivered. Boxwood shrubs are slow-growing plants with dark green glossy leaves. Leaf shape depends on the variety; some are round while others are elliptical.
Here is Phurba, carrying each plant to the pergola. so they’re ready for planting.
There are nearly 80-boxwoods in each section. The best time to plant boxwood is during the fall. Plants need well-drained, alkaline soil that contains organic matter. As you know, my soil is filled with lots of nutrient-rich compost made right here at the farm.
As the shrubs are planted, Ryan gives them a good drink. Water needs to penetrate the earth to a depth of around eight-inches.
The entire process takes a few days. Here is Dawa planting one of the last boxwoods.
I am so pleased with how well these boxwoods have grown.
Dawa waters each specimen by hand, so it gets a good, deep drink.
And look how beautiful. This row is on the back side of the pergola, in front of a row of Rose of Sharon.
Here is the front of the pergola – all finished. The small flat stones spaced along the bed helps with the water runoff when it rains.
My property director, Fred Jacobsen, took out the drone to get this bird’s eye view of the pergola with its new boxwood border.
It looks completely transformed – I love it.
I am even more excited to see how it develops over the next couple of years – it is so, so beautiful. What do you think about the new border? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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