Autumn Foliage at My Farm

October 28, 2017

If you live in any area where foliage changes with the seasons, you know how exciting and beautiful this time of year can be.

This year’s fall colors are a bit more muted than other years - mostly because of the extremes in weather. We had a very wet and cloudy growing season and then a very dry and sunny September. These conditions produced more shades of brown and early-falling leaves. Nonetheless, my Bedford, New York farm is filled with autumn color - palettes of orange, yellow, brown, red and green are seen across the landscapes. We captured a few of the beautiful sights to share with you.

Enjoy these photos.

: The perimeter around my paddocks displays such wonderful shades of orange, yellow, amber, brown and green.

: The stand of giant white pines on the right is majestic. Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, white pine, northern white pine, Weymouth pine, and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America.

: My pin oaks, Quercus palustris, have done so well here on my farm. They are so easy to grow and maintain – they are popular landscape trees.

: These pin oaks are just starting to turn color. In a few weeks the pin oaks will be a reddish brown. The pin oak has an interesting growth habit, with pendulous lower branches, horizontal middle branches, and upright upper branches. Pin oaks normally reach 60 -70 feet tall but can reach heights of 100 feet.

: The pinetum, which is an arboretum of pine trees or other conifers for scientific or ornamental purposes, is just turning color – the bright yellow larch stands out.

: I love how the Japanese maples look under the canopy of taller maples. I have planted so many Japanese maples here – hundreds of cultivars with countless forms, leaf types, and sizes – but they all blend so well with any companion plants and trees. Many trees have already dropped their leaves.

: This photo was taken in mid September. It shows the winding road leading to my hayfields and woodlands. It is so lush green.

: Here is the same winding road just last week.

: And here is how the winding road looked yesterday.

: I love the changing colors of the season. This is my grove of American beech trees, Fagus grandifolia. These American beech trees offer a beautiful autumn show every year.

: American beech is native to the eastern United States and Canada. It is a deciduous tree with smooth gray bark.

: Here is one of the great sycamores at the farm.

: Here is my row of barberry leading to the run-in shed. Barberry shrubs make great additions to the landscape and are known for their rich color and year-round garden interest.

: I get so compliments on the fencing around the farm – it is antique spruce fencing I bought in Canada, and it surrounds all my paddocks for the horses, ponies and donkeys.

: Here is more autumn color across one of my paddocks – my chicken coops are on the right.

: At the farm I planted hundreds of types of trees in the hopes that they would shade, provide climate control, and change color at different times, in different ways.