October Colors Around My Farm
If you live in an area where foliage changes with the seasons, you know how exciting and beautiful this time of year can be.
The changing leaves are already providing lots of color - red, orange, yellow, and brown can be seen in areas across the landscape. I've planted thousands of trees and shrubs at my farm, so it's a fantastic place to take in the season's changes and enjoy all it has to offer.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- Here at Cantitoe Corners, one of the prettiest times of year to walk the four miles of carriage road around my home and through the woodland is now, when the foliage on so many trees and shrubs show off their fall colors. This is one of the most popular views – the road leading to my hayfields and the woodland beyond.
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- In the Northeast, some trees change early, others late – usually from October to November.
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- Because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, leaves stop their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to gold and orange colors come out and give the leaves part of their fall splendor.
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- The perimeter around my paddocks displays such wonderful shades of orange, yellow, amber, brown, and green. I love the layers of color created by the changing leaves. Although some autumn coloration occurs wherever deciduous trees are found, the most brightly colored foliage is seen in Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia, northern and western Europe, the Caucasus region near the Black Sea, Russia, eastern Asia, Argentina, Chile, southern Brazil, Korea, Japan, and New Zealand’s South Island. Here is my grove of American beech trees. The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, is native to eastern North America and turns a pretty golden-bronze in fall.
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- Here is my Allée of Pin Oaks, Quercus palustris. These have done so well over the years.
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- The leaves are changing to yellow and reddish bronze. Once its fall color display is done, pin oaks often retain brown leaves, which persist on the trees through winter.
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- Hard to miss these bright yellow autumn ginkgo trees. I have many around my farm with the biggest and oldest specimen in the sunken garden behind my Summer House. Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, and also known as the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta. It is found in fossils dating back 270-million years. Native to China, the ginkgo tree is widely cultivated, and was cultivated early in human history.
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- This is a Stewartia. Native to Japan, this tree is known not only for its brilliant shades of orange that emerge in fall, but also for its interesting exfoliating bark and delicate blooms. I love Stewartia trees – do you know why? Here’s a hint: it’s in the name.
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- My longtime driver, Carlos “Uno” Villamil, took this photo a few days ago. It shows the edge of my Stewartia garden just outside my Tenant House, where my daughter and her children stay when they visit. This garden contains various Stewartias, Cotinus, and Japanese maples.
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- And here is another view Carlos captured.
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- This is the bright yellow American larch, Larix laricina, out in the pinetum. This tree is commonly called tamarack, eastern larch, American larch or hackmatack.
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- This deciduous conifer will drop all these showy needles just as winter approaches.
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- Persian parrotia or Persian ironwood is a small upright tree or large, rounded, multi-stemmed shrub. It is related to witch-hazel. These parrotias are on the east side of my large Equipment Barn. I also planted parrotias in my living maze.
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- The oblong green leaves turn various shades of red, orange, and yellow in the fall, often persisting into the winter months.
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- This is one of several Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’ trees, American sweetgums, planted in my maze. As these trees mature, they will maintain their erect, columnar form, growing up to 50 feet tall and only about four-feet wide.
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- Here is another type of sweetgum. For fall color, the sweetgum is hard to beat. Its glossy green, star-shaped leaves turn fiery shades of red, orange, yellow and purple this time of year.
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- I have beautiful healthy Osage orange trees along three sides of a paddock surrounding the run-in field and shed, not far from my tennis court. Here they are now as the leaves start to change from deep green to bright yellow.
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- These lindens are already turning too. I loved this linden tree allée so much, I decided to extend it all the way down to the chicken coops in 2017 – I am so pleased with how well it is growing.
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- Lindens, Tilia, are medium to large sized shade trees that are easy to maintain and attractive in any landscape. An older allée of linden trees is located just outside my stable.
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- And look what else is starting to bloom here at the farm. This is just one of hundreds of saffron flowers planted by my friend and colleague Hannah Milman. Planting is done in July, August and September either by hand or by machine. Harvesting comes at the end of October to mid-November.
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- 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. It’s so beautiful to see them change through the seasons.
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- And here are the changing leaves of the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. This time of year is always so magical. What does autumn look like where you live? Let me know in the comments section below.
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