Autumn Colors at My Farm

October 29, 2018

If you live in any area where foliage changes with the seasons, this time of year is always so beautiful - I posted a few autumn photos on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 - be sure to take a look.

I love fall and all the colors of the changing leaves. Over the years, I’ve planted thousands and thousands of trees here at my Bedford, New York farm, making it a spectacular place to take in the season’s transformation. In the Northeast, this year's colors are a bit more muted, but palettes of red, orange, yellow and brown can still be seen across the landscapes.

Here are more photos of the changing colors at Cantitoe Corners - enjoy.

: At my farm I planted many different types of trees in hopes that they would shade, provide climate control, and change color at different times, in different ways. Here is some of the early autumn color seen across one of my paddocks.

: Some trees change early, others late. My pin oaks, Quercus palustris, are still quite green, but they are starting to turn and soon the leaves will be a gorgeous russet brown. These trees have done so well here on my farm.

: From the other side, it’s easier to see the interesting growth habit of these pin oaks. They have pendulous lower branches, horizontal middle branches, and upright upper branches. Pin oaks normally reach 60 to 70 feet tall but can reach heights of 100-feet.

: This is my grove of American beech trees, Fagus grandifolia. These American beech trees offer a beautiful autumn show every year. The one on the right is changing color a little faster than the others. American beech is native to the eastern United States and Canada. It is a deciduous tree with smooth gray bark.

: Not far from the American beech tree grove is the winding road leading to my hayfields and woodlands. This is always a popular viewpoint – in every season.

: And here is a view looking through the woods to one of the lower hayfields in the distance. The golden color of the leaves is so striking.

: 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 love how the smaller Japanese maples look under the canopy of taller maples. I planted so many Japanese maples here – hundreds of cultivars with countless forms, leaf types, and sizes. They all blend so well with any companion plants and trees.

: These handsome linden trees are also just beginning to change color. They have a loose canopy that produces dappled shade on the ground below. Lindens, Tilia, are also known as basswoods, and have sturdy, straight trunks and profuse foliage.

: Even the potted tree seedlings are changing. I have thousands of young trees potted up behind my stable. They are doing very well and will eventually be planted in the ground and added to the ever-evolving landscape at my farm.

: One clear indication that autumn has arrived is the massive amount of leaves – there are leaves everywhere.

: This great ginkgo in the back is in the garden behind my Summer House. Ginkgo biloba, one of the world’s oldest tree species, turns an amazing yellow this time of year and then all at once drops its leaves – it’s another complex phenomenon of nature. I will share more photos of this great tree when its leaves have turned.

: The great ginkgo tree is a female specimen. Female ginkgo trees produce tan-orange oval fruits that fall to the ground in October and November. Here are two ginkgo tree fruits. The most noticeable thing about these is their smell – it is hard to miss, and the stench is quite disagreeable. The outer, nasty smelling pulp is known botanically as sarcotesta.

: More leaves cover this low boxwood hedge that lines both sides of the footpath in the sunken garden.

: The square gardens on my terrace parterre are hedged with contrasting shrubs – teucrium on the outside, followed by boxwood, and golden barberry on the inside, which turns a burnt red in fall. I love the way these three plants look together. In the center is one of two giant cast iron sugar kettles I keep as fire pits at the farm.

: Inside my kitchen are big bowls filled with some of the apples we picked this season. See my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 to find out what I did with them over the weekend.

: This is one of four Sargent crabapples in front of my Tenant House. Bright red fruit can be seen among the leaves. They stay through the season and into winter attracting many birds.

: Fall is quince season, and all my quince trees are laden with fruits. These two are next to my old corn crib at one end of what I call my party lawn.

: Not far is this ancient apple tree – there are still many apples on its branches.

: The perimeter around my paddocks displays such wonderful shades of amber, brown, orange and green. I also get many 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, pony and donkeys.

: The stand of giant white pines 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. And look at the beautiful layering of fall color next to it.

: And here are the autumn colors surrounding the beautiful Cross River Reservoir near my farm. My special projects producer, Judy Morris, took a few photos.