November Colors Around the Farm
This year's autumnal hue-fest continues at my Bedford, New York farm.
We've had an unusually warm fall, causing much of the delay in the changing leaves. It's the shorter days and cooler air temperatures that cue trees to change their leaf color from green to red, yellow, brown, and gold. The vibrant fall colors are also an important indicator of a forest's health - that the trees are getting the rainfall and temperature they need to thrive. We captured some of the late season colors after a recent rain, and they did not disappoint.
Enjoy these photos.
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- This time of year, my outdoor grounds crew is busy blowing all the autumn leaves that have fallen from the trees. It’s a tedious chore, but the process of dropping leaves is actually very important – it gives the plant a fresh start in spring. Autumn leaves are not simply blown off their stems, but separated from the plants as day length shortens and temperatures cool. The hormones within the plant are activated to begin the abscission process. Chlorophyll production stops and the pigment starts to degrade, often revealing reds and yellows that were once bold green. These are the leaves of a maple, which turn a golden yellow in fall.
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- Here are the mighty bald cypress trees across from my winding pergola. This photo was taken the morning before a heavy rain. The fallen foliage is covering the carriage road below, but we raked all the soft needle-like leaves and used them as mulch in my cold frame and beneath the berry bushes.
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- 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.
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- My original linden tree allee is always eye-catching. It is located near my peafowl and pigeon pens, close to my stable. Lindens, Tilia, are medium to large shade trees that are easy to maintain and beautiful in any landscape. They turn pale green to pale yellow in autumn.
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- This ginkgo lost all its leaves ahead of the giant female ginkgo in my sunken Summer House Garden. Ginkgos lose all their leaves at the same time because of the way their petioles, known as stems, work. As the weather gets colder, the petioles get what’s called scars to protect the tree from disease after the leaves fall. For most trees, that happens on a leaf-by-leaf basis. But in the case of the ginkgo, all the scars form at the same time.
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- Here’s an autumn leaf from the sweetgum tree, Liquidambar styraciflua. The sweetgum’s glossy green, star-shaped leaves turn bold shades of gold, red, and orange in fall.
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- Some of the familiar scenes around my farm look beautiful any time of year. Here are the majestic eastern white pines in front of a beautiful autumn landscape. 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.
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- And remember my Japanese maple trees? They’ve been putting on a lovely show of color, but these trees are deciduous, meaning they lose their leaves in the fall. These trees will soon be bare.
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- This newly planted Japanese maple from my friend, Steven Gambrel, has already dropped its leaves – such a beautiful palette of reds.
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- Along the carriage road in my upper hayfield is this stand of red maples, Acer rubrum. Red Maple is one of the most colorful in autumn.
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- Here’s a closer look at the red maple. It is one of the earliest trees to show color changes – shades of yellow, orange, and red, sometimes on the same tree, that last for several weeks.
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- Across from the red maples are these larch trees. Larches are one of the few coniferous trees to change colors and lose their needles in the fall.
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- When the leaves of larch turn color, the greenish-yellow transform to golden yellow – a beautiful contrast with all the surrounding evergreens in the woodland.
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- Along another side of the carriage road are the changing leaves of the dogwood. Kousa dogwood shows blood-red fall leaves.
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- Here are more of the changing colors of the dogwood leaves – it’s nature’s ombre.
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- Look closely beneath the towering maples at the new allee of pin oaks we planted two years ago – 104 pin oaks are lined up along both sides of the carriage road leading to my “Contemporary House.” In time, these trees will grow to 60 or 70 feet.
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- Burning bush is a striking shrub, with bright pink to scarlet foliage in fall. They show off a beautiful sweep of bright color throughout the shaded woods.
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- At the back of the upper hayfield, I have a grove of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia. These trees have feathery, fine-textured needles that are opposite each other and approximately a half-inch long. Don’t confuse them with the bald cypress needles, which grow alternately. In autumn, these dawn redwood needles are different shades of golden-brown. And look at the bark – the dawn redwood becomes deeply fissured as the tree matures.
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- One of the babbling brooks in the woodland is full of water after the rainstorm.
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- And of course, don’t forget to look up for more autumn color. Some maples can grow up to 150-feet.
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- And here is my old sycamore tree, the symbol of my farm. It has already lost its leaves for the season. I hope you have been able to enjoy some of the autumn colors where you live. Most areas are now past their peak with winter officially only 29 days away.
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