Pinetum Maintenance

September 6, 2019

There is always so much to do to maintain the beauty of all the gardens at my Bedford, New York farm.

As many of you know, I am a serious and very passionate gardener, and over the years have designed many gardens around my home. One area that is constantly evolving is my pinetum - an arboretum of pine trees and other conifers I developed about 12-years ago in a field behind my Equipment Barn. This collection has grown extremely well, and I continue to plant additional specimens every year. This week, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew have been busy cleaning, fertilizing and mulching the entire space.

Here are some photos - enjoy.

: Behind one side of my Pin Oak Allee is my pinetum. This collection includes pine trees, but I have also included many spruces and firs, as well as other evergreens.

: Here’s Pete carefully weed whacking all the unwanted growth around the trees. If you follow this blog regularly, you may recall last winter I decided to get rid of the grass and fill the area with mulch to cut down on mowing.

: Once Pete weed whacks one area, Ryan follows behind feeding every specimen. Remember, if you eat, so should your plants and trees.

: We like to use Roots M-roots fertilizer with mycorrhizal fungi. The mycorrhizal fungi can help increase transplant survival and increase water and nutrient absorption.

: Meanwhile, Chhiring scoops mulch one load at a time into a wheelbarrow. This mulch is made right here at my farm from downed trees that have been put through the tub grinder.

: Mulch varies in composition but this mulch is made from all organic material – wood chips, bark chips, and horse manure. I love the rich brown color. Using these materials is a wonderful way to beautify the gardens and to give back to the earth.

: Each load of mulch is spread out into piles all around the pinetum.

: With this organic mulch, heavy soils are better equipped to hold water and resist compaction – reducing erosion and runoff.

: Here is Carlos wheeling a load into the pinetum. The crew works as a team – transporting the mulch from our back field, dropping the mulch in various areas, and spreading it evenly under and around the trees.

: And here is Phurba spreading a three to four-inch layer of mulch. This mulch will also suppress weed germination and insulate the soil.

: The area looks so beautiful once mulched.

: I love the bright foliage colors against the deep brown ground. This short shrub is Pinus strobus ‘Blue Shag’, commonly known as an eastern white pine cultivar. It is a dense, globose form that typically only grows to about four feet tall. Its short, blue-green needles in bundles of five are quite soft to the touch.

: I have several Callitropsis nootkatensis ‘pendula’ or weeping Alaska cedar trees – slender, strongly weeping forms that grow to as much as 35-feet tall. It has widely spaced ascending to horizontal branches with flattened sprays of blue-green leaves. This species goes by many common names including Nootka cypress, yellow cypress, Alaska cypress, Nootka cedar, yellow cedar, Alaska cedar, and Alaska yellow cedar.

: The long, pendulous branches are clothed with dark bluish-green or grayish-green, scalelike “needles,” and tiny round cones.

: Because the pinetum covers a good portion of this area, it takes a couple of days to complete this task, but the results are so worth the effort.

: Look how lush the space is after a fresh layer of mulch. The tree on the right is a larch. I have planted many larch trees here at the farm. These trees are conifers in the genus Larix, of the family Pinaceae. Growing up to 100-feet tall and more, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains further south.

: Picea orientalis ‘Nigra Compacta’ or oriental spruce is a medium to large, densely branched evergreen. Its needles are flattened and glossy dark green and are shorter than the needles of other spruce species.

: The pinetum is filled with many different shapes and sizes of evergreens. I am always looking for rare and unusual specimens to add to this collection.

: On the right is Abies concolor, commonly known as the white fir. This specimen adds great contrast next to all the other evergreens. It is a narrow conical conifer with a straight trunk, spire-like crown and branching all the way to the base. And in the very back, the grand weeping willows.

: Some grow slower than others, but I love the variety of plantings I’ve amassed. On the right is Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’. Oriental spruce is a slow-growing, upright form that typically grows about eight to 10-feet tall over the first 10-years. The name ‘Skylands’ has no relation to my home in Maine – this tree was introduced by Skylands Botanical Garden in New Jersey, in 1979.