An Early June Tour of My Gardens
There is so much growing and blooming here at my Bedford, New York farm - it's a perfect time for a garden tour.
As many of you know, every now and then I agree to small, guided walks around my property. Earlier this week, I opened my gardens for a private showing to the Garden Club of Yorktown, an organization of passionate gardeners of all levels here in Westchester. Unfortunately, because of my busy work schedule I wasn’t able to join this group, but they had a very thorough and enjoyable visit with my head gardener, Ryan McCallister. The tour took them through my flower cutting garden, under the shade of the great pin oaks, down the length of my long Boxwood Allée, through the stable to see my horses and donkeys, past the herbaceous peony bed and winding clematis pergola, and finally to my terrace parterre for a few photos and refreshments.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- Most of the tours start at the front gate of my home. All the guests receive a map of the property and a short introduction and history about the farm and how it has evolved over the years. Here is Ryan welcoming the group to Cantitoe Corners.
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- Right now, the smoke bushes are looking spectacular. They’re among the first plantings one sees when visiting my farm. Smoke bushes, Cotinus, are among my favorite of small trees – they have superlative color, appealing form, and look excellent in the gardens.
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- The tour then walked through my glass greenhouse and attached head house and then out to the flower cutting garden – it’s so full of colorful blooms this time of year.
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- Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine, is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus includes more than 200 species. It’s always great to see the tall spikes of lupines blooming. Lupines come in lovely shades of purple, pink, white, yellow, and even red. Lupines also make great companion plants, increasing the soil nitrogen for vegetables and other plants nearby.
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- The roses are looking spectacular this year. I have a vast collection – many of which are heirlooms that we moved from Lily Pond, my former home in East Hampton, to Bedford.
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- We have dianthus flowering as well with its beautiful pink fringed margins. Most varieties of dianthus are perennials, meaning they come back every year,
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- I grow so many alliums here at the farm and they continue to bloom so beautifully interspersed with other flowers. These easy-to-grow bulbs come in a broad palette of colors, heights, bloom times, and flower forms. They make excellent cut flowers for fresh or dried bouquets. What’s more, alliums are relatively resistant to deer, voles, chipmunks, and rabbits.
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- Also blooming this week – the poppies. Poppies produce open flowers that come in many colors from crimson red to purple, lavender, and pale pink. Poppies require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil.
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- Here’s another rose – my roses are at their peak. Rose bushes need six to eight hours of sunlight daily. In hot climates, roses do best when they are protected from the hot afternoon sun. In cold climates, planting a rose bush next to a south or west-facing fence or wall can help minimize winter freeze damage.
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- Wisteria also loves lots of light. And wisterias of all types are scented. Some have a musky fragrance, while others release a sweet, intoxicating smell.
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- I have many iris cultivars. Iris flowers bloom in shades of purple, blue, white, and yellow and include many hybridized versions that are multi-colored. Iris × hollandica, commonly known as the Dutch iris, is a hybrid iris developed from species native to Spain and North Africa. The bulbous iris has narrow linear green leaves and bears largish blue to yellow to white flowers.
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- The group walked out of the garden to my stand of bald cypress trees on the left and my long clematis pergola on the right.
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- Many enjoyed taking photographs of the gardens and flowers – everything is looking very lush and green.
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- Next, Ryan guided the group through the Pin Oak Allée, Quercus palustris, which looks fuller every week with its distinguishable lower, middle and upper branches – such a lovely collection of trees.
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- Ryan often stops along the carriage road to answer any questions. Here he points out the pool area behind the growing hedges of purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple’ inside the pool fence and Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ shrubs outside the pool fence. He also shows everyone my orchard, filled with more than 200 fruiting trees.
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- The Boxwood Allée and stable always grab everyone’s attention. Ryan goes over how we care for the boxwood in winter, covering it with protective burlap. Looking up, the skies are hazy from all the smoke drifting down from the wildfires in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It has been particularly bad on the east coast with air quality reaching dangerous levels. This day, however, was safe for our walking tour around the farm.
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- No tour is complete without a brief visit in the stable. Here’s Bond saying hello to the group.
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- After leaving the stable, the tour continued up the carriage road, past the grove of azaleas, and around the corner to the peonies. Luckily, some of the herbaceous peonies were still blooming.
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- My herbaceous peony collection includes 11-double rows of peonies, and 22 different varieties of peony plants – two varieties in each row. I chose the varieties for their colors, their forms, and their long blooming periods.
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- After seeing the peonies, the group was led through the upper terrace parterre to the lower terrace just outside my Winter House. The golden barberry glistens above the bold green of the boxwood hedges.
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- Carlos and Enma set up some refreshments. I always like to offer guests some tasty treats at the end of our tours. We offer cookies and cool pomegranate juice made using concentrate from our friends at POM Wonderful.
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- A coyote was also on the terrace wall watching all the activity, but don’t worry, it’s not real.
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- At the end, the group stopped for a final photo. It was a nice ending to a pleasant early summer walk. Thanks for visiting my gardens, Garden Club of Yorktown.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
