This table is filled with lots of great treats and decorations for autumn. If you’re hosting a fall gathering, decorate your table with my banner, squirrel, acorn, White Ceramic Pumpkin, and Pumpkin Appetizer Plates – your guests will love this harvest theme.
Here is my large Ceramic White Pumpkin in textured stoneware with a gold metallic stem – perfect for the dining table all season long. https://mcys.co/2oXra0V
And aren’t these glasses fun? These are my Glass Skull Mugs – use these to serve drinks on Halloween. https://mcys.co/2BmEZZD
And what about this handsome squirrel? Our Harvest Gold Ceramic Figural Squirrel looks great on a table or on a bookshelf. It stands about nine inches tall and is covered in a metallic gold-tone finish. https://mcys.co/2MWO2pk
Under our cookies – pumpkin appetizer plates from my Martha Stewart Collection, richly designed in gold-tone pressed glass. https://mcys.co/2IZd1Hx
The table was set up with stations to show the recipe details for three cookies from “Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection.” All the cookies in the book are so fun to make and really add a tasty twist to some of your traditional cookie favorites.
Here I am with Andy Cohen just before my segment began.
These are my Maple Cream Sandwich Cookies. These cookies are full of maple flavor – maple sugar for the buttery shortbread dough and maple syrup to sweeten the cream filling.
I love these Halloween Spiderweb Cookies – perfect for all your little trick-or-treaters. I showed everyone my trick for dipping, dripping, drying and decorating – it makes perfect cookies every time.
The cookies look great arranged on a large platter showing the spiderweb design.
Next, I showed everyone how to make my Potato Chip Cookies – watch the segment to find out who inspired this recipe.
These cookies add just the right amount of sweet and salty to every bite.
On the table – my White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Cookies. I provide three different kinds in the book – all using the same base with varying ingredients and important tips for making the most beautiful meringue.
Underneath these meringues is my Harvest Wood Pumpkin Charger. Serve everything from cookies to fruit to cheese and crackers on this handsome autumn piece. https://mcys.co/2J5buj2
Here I am with Al Roker. He loved my Linzer Flower Cookies. These flavorful cookies combine the taste of buttery hazelnuts and fruity jams and then dusted with Confectioner’s sugar.
After the segment, I stopped for this quick photo with three of The Today Show food stylists – Kristen Little, Ashley Holt, and Katie Stilo.
And if you haven’t already, please get a copy of “Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection” – you will absolutely love every cookie in the book. (Photo by Armando Rafael)
My garden continues to produce lots of gorgeous, bright, and colorful dahlias.
Just ahead of this week’s violent storm that battered several states across the Northeast, my head gardener Ryan McCallister and my housekeepers, Enma Sandoval and Sanu Sherpa, rushed to cut and gather dozens of dahlias, so we could enjoy them indoors. Dahlias bloom from midsummer right through the first frost, and since temperatures in the area have not yet dipped into the 30s, we’re still able to pick lots of the season’s last flowers. I hope you caught a glimpse of some on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
Here are more photos - enjoy.
“Dahlias for days” is a common saying this season. My new dahlia bed behind my main greenhouse is still bursting with flowers.
Here’s Sanu carefully placing each flower into a bin before transporting them up to my Winter House. Native to Mexico and Central America, dahlias produce an abundance of wonderful flowers throughout early summer and again in late summer until the first frost.
This is ‘Sandra’ – a lovely and perfectly formed rose pink flower with a hint of ‘frost edged’ petals.
‘Sheer Heaven’ is this glowing beauty – a special mix of soft peach and the palest lemon yellow. Its flowers are upward-facing and borne on long, strong stems.
Dahlias come in a myriad of colors. Here’s one of my favorites – ‘Myrtle’s Brandy’. This dahlia is bright red with white tips whose petals fold back towards the stems. It is an excellent cut flower variety.
‘Park Princess’ is a cactus type. The tightly rolled petals vary in color from pale pink to rich, vibrant pink, depending on the temperature and moisture. It is a prolific re-bloomer and an excellent cut flower.
This is Dahlia ‘Hugs N’ Kisses’. Its three-inch blooms are lavender with a deep purple reverse on the back of each petal. Each petal rolls slightly making it quite unique.
Dahlia ‘Vancouver’ is an eye-catching dinner plate dahlia with huge and magnificent, blue-violet blossoms adorned with white-tipped, long petals. When fully opened, this double variety flowers up to eight to 10 inches in diameter.
Here’s Ryan cutting as many dahlias as possible before the storm – the grey clouds above look very ominous.
When deciding where to plant dahlias, look for an area that is in full sun to part shade. This is ‘Platinum Blonde’ – one of the most unusual varieties. The flowers resemble double flowered echinacea. Each fuzzy buttercream center on a four-inch anemone-shaped bloom is surrounded by a ring of bright white petals. The long-stemmed flowers are great for wedding work and last well in the vase.
‘Center Court’ dahlias are beautiful pristine white six-inch blooms atop five-foot tall plants. The petals fold back to cup each stem. ‘Center Court’ looks great in large arrangements.
This cactus dahlia is called ‘Karma Red Corona’ with brilliant, scarlet red flowers. It was bred as a cut flower, and like other Karma dahlias, the plants are compact with dark green foliage, long stems, and a high bud count. The quilled petals add extra texture and volume.
This is ‘Karma Corona’. The Karma series was developed for the cut flower market. This variety has strong stems and flowers that open with a blend of beautiful salmon, yellow, and bronze.
‘Black Jack’ is one of the last to open – here it is still working its way to full bloom. This variety is extremely dark burgundy with green foliage.
Once they’re inside, they’re made into lovely arrangements and displayed in my servery, kitchen, dining room and foyer – they add cheer to any gray and stormy day.
Experiment with the varieties – dahlias look great arranged in different colors.
Or as a bunch of the same variety. The striking colors and forms look so pretty.
Dahlias come in almost every color except true blue. Here is an arrangement of pink, salmon, and peach-colored dahlias.
Dahlias range from small to dinner-plate size like this one.
Here are two more small arrangements in my dining room – bold pink and shades of light peach to cream and yellow look so pretty together.
I love this arrangement – a mix of dark pink and plum.
The stems don’t have to be very long – we cut these to just several inches to fit these glass vessels.
These arrangements are on the table in my foyer. At the end of the growing season, dig and store dahlia tubers for the winter to replant next year.
And here is a beautiful arrangement on my kitchen counter together with some of the gourds and winter squash picked from my garden. If lucky, these arrangements should last four to six days – they’re so beautiful.
Tree planting continues at my Bedford, New York farm with a group of beautiful Japanese zelkova trees.
My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew are working very hard to plant as many saplings as possible before the ground freezes. The most recent project - a row of zelkovas along one section of my lower hayfield. Zelkova serrata is a medium-sized deciduous tree that typically grows up to 100-feet tall with a spreading, upward-branching, vase-shaped crown. Native to Japan, Taiwan, and eastern China, zelkovas are noted for their attractive bark and dense, clean foliage. These trees will look stunning in the landscape.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
48 zelkovas are lined up along this side of the hayfield. They are hard to see now with their slender trunks, but in time they will be beautiful and visible from the carriage road.
This section of my hayfield is bordered by the weeping willows on one side. I have planted thousands and thousands of trees over the years.
And by the carriage road end, my new allee of London planes that we planted just a couple weeks ago.
Each zelkova tree is about eight feet tall. These saplings have grown so much since they arrived at the farm a couple years ago. Many of the trees I order are bare-root cuttings, which are plants that are removed from the earth while dormant and stored without any soil surrounding their roots. We pot them up and nurture them for some time before they are planted in more permanent locations.
The trees are spaced 20-feet apart to allow them room as they grow. They are also positioned at least 15-feet from the stone wall behind them. Whenever planting trees, always consider the size and spread of the specimen when it is mature.
Each tree is planted to the height it was in the pot. Planting a tree too deep can kill it. “Bare to the flare” is the rule of thumb. Look for the root collar or root flare – the bulge just above the root system where the roots begin to branch away from the trunk. The root flare should be just above the soil surface. As we do with all the trees planted at the farm, a good amount of compost is added to the existing soil in each hole. A scoop of good fertilizer is then sprinkled on the surrounding soil.
Once the tree is planted, it is staked to protect it as it develops. Here, one bamboo stake is placed next to each tree. Zelkova grows easily in a variety of soils, although it prefers rich, moist loam in full sun.
We use bamboo stakes to secure the trees. Bamboo comes in a variety of lengths and is easy to find at garden supply stores.
Carlos digs a hole next to the tree – about a foot deep.
After the stake is secured into the ground, Gavin ties garden twine in three places – this will ensure the tree is well supported and directed as it grows. Zelkovas grow rapidly when young and then they slow to a medium growth speed upon middle age and maturity.
We use natural jute twine for many of our projects around the farm. Jute twine is a vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is 100-percent biodegradable and pollution-free.
The knots used should be very simple. I always teach every member of the crew to twist the twine before knotting, so the tree or vine or cane is not crushed or strangled.
I like to tie the twine in a figure-eight formation. Each piece is tied just tight enough to keep the tree secure, but not break it.
Gavin also trims any dead or poorly growing branches.
The leaves are green to dark green in spring and throughout the summer, changing to yellows, oranges, and reds in autumn. These leaves are just beginning to turn.
These leaves are mostly reddish in color. They are simple and ovate to oblong-ovate with serrated or crenate margins.
The bark is a smooth, reddish-brown when young with prominent cherry-like lenticels that allow gases to pass through between living cells and the exterior. As the tree ages, the outer bark is gray-brown and often exfoliating exposing an orangish inner bark.
Zelkovas are popular as lawn or park trees because of the attractive bark, leaf color, and vase shape. It provides good shade and is easy to clean up in the fall.
Mature zelkova trees tolerate some drought, but these trees grow better with regular irrigation during dry summers.
These trees are a great addition to the ever-evolving landscape at my farm. I am excited to see them develop and flourish. What fall planting are you doing this year? Share your gardening tasks with me in the comments section below.
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