An Early Morning Tour of My Farm
So many of you comment on how much you love seeing photos of my gardens. Thank you for all your wonderful responses to my blog - I love reading them every day.
When I am home at the farm, I always enjoy waking early to explore the gardens as the sun rises. It is a perfect time to tour the property, take note of what needs to be done, and visit with all my dear, sweet animals. And, I always carry my camera to capture all the beautiful images of nature, so I can share them with you.
Here are some photos I took this past weekend - enjoy.
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- We had a very wet end of the week here at the farm. This photo was taken Saturday morning at 7am ET. The sky still looks quite ominous and gray.
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- The day called for just a little more rain, with temperatures reaching 60-degrees Fahrenheit. These old apple trees in the south paddock have lost most of their blooms since last week.
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- And so have my six Gravenstein apple espalier trees, Malus ‘Gravenstein’ – but, they still look so lush and green. Last year brought so few apples – we are all very excited for an abundant apple season this year.
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- Here is an early morning view looking down between my paddocks. If you look very closely, you can see the old corn crib on the right.
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- My undulating clematis pergola is looking so beautiful this year – I am so very pleased with how all the gardens are growing.
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- This is an area near my front gate, where I’ve planted several young trees and bushes, including smoke bush, Cotinus. The colorful foliage of these unusual ornamentals is attractive throughout the season, but really showy in fall, when brilliant shades of purple, red, or orange-yellow, appear depending on the variety.
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- In this garden outside my main greenhouse, are the trunks of tall white pine covered in climbing hydrangea and tall Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroots’s Spire’. The Arborvitae was planted in 2013 to help warm the look of the pines ruined by Super Storm Sandy – this garden has done so well over the years.
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- The perennial border outside my flower cutting garden is also doing so beautifully.
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- Earlier this week, I purchased five staddles from the annual NYBG Antique Garden Furniture Sale. Staddle stones were originally used as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders. They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but these are square – a more rare and unique version. I can’t wait to show you how I use them.
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- Most of the bare-root tree cuttings have now been potted and stored in various areas of the farm. I feel nurturing young seedlings in pots before transplanting into the ground gives them the best chance of survival.
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- The magnificent allee of pin oaks – I just love the bright green of their leaves this time of year.
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- With all the rain we’ve had this past week, the brooks and streams are full. Here, I captured a couple of ducks enjoying an early morning spring swim.
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- This is a stretch of lawn down past the chicken coops. On the left, the young allee of Styrax japonicus Marley’s Pink Parasol Japanese Snowbell tree.
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- Here are my gorgeous tall lilac hedges – still bursting with color and verve.
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- Outside my Summer House, the azalea garden is nearly ready to explode with an amazing palette of pinks.
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- The azaleas are already showing so much color – they will be even more gorgeous in just a few days.
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- And nearby is the tree peony bed – also beginning to show its stunning colors.
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- My boxwood hedges continue to grow luxuriantly – in part because of the great care I give them during the winter, when we cover all the boxwood with protective layers of burlap.
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- Here is a lovely view looking down the length of the southeast paddock, with my darling Friesians and the chicken coops in the distance.
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- Within a half-hour, the skies have brightened just a little. This is the carriage road near my small apple orchards and the clematis pergola – so peaceful and still.
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