The landscape looks so mysterious shrouded in thick fog.
Do you get a lot of fog where you live? My Bedford, New York farm is in close proximity to a reservoir, where early patches of fog are quite common. Fog is essentially made up of condensed water droplets - a result of the air being cooled to the point where it can no longer hold all the water vapor it contains. It can be thin or thick - sometimes so thick it obscures the road and other objects ahead making it difficult for driving or even walking. There was a very very dense fog over my home and property yesterday morning. It was a great opportunity to capture some photos of this atmospheric phenomenon and perfect to post for Halloween.
Enjoy.
This is my allée of pin oaks – one of several allées here at the farm. These tall majestic trees look bewildering in the fog. At the end is a carriage road intersection, but the thick fog makes it nearly impossible to see.
Do you know how fog forms? Fog can form in two ways: either by cooling the air to its dew point or by evaporation and mixing. This happens often when the earth radiates heat at night or in the early morning. This view is of the carriage road just outside my Winter House. The red tree on the left is Nyssa sylvatica, commonly known as tupelo, black tupelo, black gum or sour gum. It is a medium-sized deciduous tree that shows off beautiful, scarlet red leaves in fall and shiny, dark green leaves in summer.
Fog happens when it is very humid. There has to be a lot of water vapor in the air for fog to form. Hard to see through the fog, but this photo shows London planetrees in my maze. And look carefully, my handsome Friesian Rinze is grazing on the left.
Here are three of my five donkeys in another pasture. Don’t confuse fog and mist. Fog is denser than mist. This means fog contains more water molecules in the same amount of space. Fog cuts visibility down to six-tenths of a mile while mist can reduce visibility to about one to 1.2 miles.
Some of the ginkgo trees have already lost their leaves but many tend to lose all their leaves at the same time. As the weather gets colder, the petioles get what’s called scars to protect the tree from disease after the leaves fall. After the hard frost sweeps down the east coast, this ginkgo, and others at the farm, will drop the rest of its leaves leaving an even larger carpet of color below.
This is a view looking down a section of my Linden Tree Allée – one of two at the farm. At the end is the carriage road to my home – hard to see, but it’s there.
Here is what we call the “pine” paddock, with the great pine trees on the left. Hard to see their bold green color, or the gold, yellow, red and brown of the changing trees nearby.
The thicker the fog, the longer it takes to dissipate. This fog lasted several hours along with rain showers. This view shows my pool, now covered for the season. Antique staddle stones, originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders, are on the far side.
This photo shows the thick fog just past the weeping branches of the willow.
Do you know what’s ahead in this photo? This image was taken from my Boxwood Allée looking toward my stable at the end.
These are also linden trees – half of my long allée that starts at the carriage road to my Winter House and extends north between the fenced pastures all the way to my chicken coops. But, the foggiest place in the world is Grand Banks, off the island of Newfoundland, Canada. The cold Labrador current from the north and the warm Gulf Stream current from the east create just the right conditions for thick fog to form almost every day of the year.
This fog is seen in the middle hayfield. Beyond the trees is an expansive field where I grow lots of hay for my horses.
Here is another photo of the middle hayfield. Not long ago, we baled the second cut of hay from this area.
This photo shows the longest allée here at the farm – the one planted through the carriage road in the middle field where we have great London planetrees and Cotimus flanking the road. There are actually many different types of fog – radiation fog, sea fog, ground fog, advection fog, steam fog or evsporation fog, precipitation fog, upslope fog, valley fog, ice fog, freezing fog, and artificial fog.
On the left, the gold leafed trees are Japanese zelkova trees, Zelkova serrata – a medium-sized deciduous tree that typically grows up to 100-feet tall with a spreading, upward-branching, vase-shaped crown. I planted this stand in 2019 and they’re all doing so well in this part of the field.
This view is from the opposite side of the hayfield. Ever wonder why it is called “fog?” One definition of fog from the 14th century refers to tall grasses. Many grasses use fog as part of their name such as Yorkshire fog grass. Fog was also the Danish word for mist or spray in the 16th century. It is thought that the two definitions may have merged when mist was noted over a field of grass.
This young Pin Oak Allée is down a long road leading to my Contemporary House, which is primarily used for storage. These young trees are thriving here beneath their taller neighbors – I am looking forward to seeing them at maturity.
Edging the back hayfield on one side is a stand of red maples. Look at the photo long enough and you may just see them.
Here, one could see the leaves of a maple up close, with thick fog behind it. Another interesting story involving fog includes President George Washington. During the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, George Washington and his troops were fighting a losing battle against the British. When a thick fog descended on the area, Washington took the opportunity to withdraw thousands of his troops into Manhattan. After the fog lifted, the British descended on the American positions, only to find they had left. The Americans’ miraculous retreat saved their lives.
At the far end of the back hayfield is my giant sycamore tree, the symbol of my farm. This tree is among the largest of the trees on the property.
This is the view through this grove of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia. These are so pretty in fall. They have feathery, fine-textured needles that are approximately a half-inch long. And look at its bark. The bark of the dawn redwood becomes deeply fissured as the tree matures.
In the fog, the climbing hydrangea vines creeping up the trunks of these bare sugar maples look almost frightening.
I hope you all have a very safe and frightfully fun Halloween. This is a photo taken by Mike Hester, a member of my security team, the night before the fog rolled in. It shows the eerie skies above my allée of boxwood. It almost appears as if there is a face in the clouds backlit by the moon.
It’s always busy at my Bedford, New York farm. My outdoor grounds crew is working hard to complete our long list of autumn tasks - including planting our next crop of garlic.
Although garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked, fall planting is recommended for most gardeners. This allows extra time for the bulbs to grow and become more flavorful for the summer harvest. Every year, we plant a big crop of garlic from Keene Garlic, a family owned farm in Wisconsin that sells certified organic and naturally grown gourmet bulbs for both eating and planting. Garlic is great for cooking and very good for your health. It is well known to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and carries many antioxidant properties. Knowing that I also grow the garlic myself makes it even more special.
Enjoy these photos.
It’s always very exciting to get a delivery from Keene Garlic filled with a variety of garlic bulbs for my garden. I have been planting Keene Organics garlic for several years and am always so pleased with their growth and taste. Here are all the different varieties we are planting this year plus some new ones Keene wanted us to try.
Ryan prepares the garlic for planting – each bulb is carefully broken to separate all the cloves. For the best results, plant the largest cloves from each bulb and save the smaller ones for eating.
When planting garlic, look for the largest most robust bulbs. There are always about three or four bulbs in each netted pack, and each bulb contains at least four to six cloves – some even more.
For the preparation process, Ryan gathers fish emulsion, isopropyl alcohol, a strainer and some plastic containers. Fish emulsion is an organic garden fertilizer that’s made from whole fish or parts of fish. It’s easy to find at garden centers or wherever gardening supplies and fertilizers are sold.
Ryan soaks the garlic in isopropyl or rubbing alcohol, for about 20-minutes. This helps to sterilize the cloves. If you don’t have alcohol, you can also use hydrogen peroxide or vodka.
After the garlic is soaked thoroughly in alcohol, Ryan uses the strainer to remove the liquid.
Next, he creates a solution of fish emulsion…
… and a bit of baking soda and water for each container.
Ryan fills the containers with the baking soda water to ensure all the garlic is covered. This will give the garlic a fertilizer boost and rid them of possible diseases, which could have been carried by the garlic. It increases bulb size. It also increases the size of the bulb by giving the plant food before putting it to bed for the winter.
The cloves are all left to soak in the baking soda and fish emulsion mixture for at least 30-minutes or up to overnight. And then they are drained.
This happens to all the garlic and then they are left to dry thoroughly.
All the garlic is returned to their mesh bags for easy transport to the garden bed – this year located in the far southwest corner of the new vegetable garden.
This bed was previously used for our potato crop, but it was completely cleaned, fed and cultivated before our garlic arrived. Cultivating accomplishes two things: removing any weeds from the garden bed and loosening the soil to optimize the retention and penetration of air, water and nutrients for the plants. Now, Phurba is measuring where the garlic will be planted. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, already determined how many rows would fit in this bed and how many garlic cloves would be planted in each row.
As the rows are made, Brian positions each clove. When planting multiple rows of garlic, be sure the rows are at least one-foot apart.
it is also important to give each clove enough room to grow and develop. They should be planted at least several inches from each other.
The majority of garlic in the US is planted from mid-October through November before the ground freezes. We have not yet had our first freeze, but maybe it will come this week.
To make the holes for planting garlic, Phurba uses a dibble or a dibber.
Cloves should be at least three inches deep. Be sure to plant the tip of the clove faced up, and the root side faced down.
If the soil is well cultivated, this should be a fast and easy process. Phurba is a very fast planter.
Here, one can see the garlic in the hole – just deep enough. Once the garlic clove is in the hole, simply back fill the hole.
The garlic crop will tolerate some shade but prefers full sun. This garlic will be ready to harvest mid-July to August. I can’t wait.
The same is done for the Elephant’s garlic. Elephant Garlic is actually a leek that resembles garlic in growing and in appearance. It has a very mild flavor.
Ryan positions all the Elephant’s garlic in a narrow bed next to all the other garlic.
And finally, the beds are raked and well-labeled, so we know what garlic is what. The bed is given and good drink of water and that’s it – we wait until next year to harvest. If you’ve never grown your own garlic, give it a try – it’s so easy and so rewarding. Go to the Keene Garlic web site to learn more!
Another hoop house here at my Bedford, New York farm is almost ready to fill with plants, and just in time - cooler weather and possible frost are expected next week.
Over the last few days, my outdoor grounds crew has been busy moving a small hoop house from an area next to my main greenhouse to a location adjacent to another hoop house near my boxwood nursery. I have four hoop houses in all. They are constructed from steel frames and polyethylene panels. It was a big project to move it - there were many steps involved to get it done, but I know it will be put to very good and much needed use.
Enjoy these photos.
Moving a hoop house is a very time consuming task, but it just seemed right to have most of the structures in one place. Here is the new location for the smallest of my hoop houses – just outside my former vegetable garden. My property manager, Doug White, measured the area and put down a good, level bed of gravel for the structure.
Next, the propane tank that will fuel the heater is installed. These hoop houses are temperature and humidity controlled. They work by heating and circulating air to create an artificial tropical environment.
All my hoop houses are Gothic style – notice the pointed arch in the roofline. This design minimizes snow accumulation in winter.
Here is the front panel with a single door for access. On each side of the door is an aluminum shutter which allows air to enter and cool the house on very warm days. Fernando cleans the paneling before the rest of the structure is installed.
The framing is in place. Its high peak will accommodate taller plants in the center if needed.
The frame is made from heavy gauge American made, triple-galvanized steel tubing – all secured with these tension purlin brackets.
It is easier to walk around the interior space when the gravel is small, so Jimmy transports smaller pea gravel to place on top of the larger gravel bed inside.
Jimmy also fills any gaps beneath the horizontal wood boards that support the side framing. A level is used at all times to ensure everything is completely square and plum.
At the back of each greenhouse is a high efficiency Modine boiler and heater. I wanted the greenhouses to have both cold and tempered water for the plants.
Here, Cesar digs the trench for the water pipes.
This is a side view of the hoop house as Doug and Cesar prepare to drape the “skin” over the top from our trusted Hi-Lo.
The fabric comes in two rolls – one is a heavy-duty, woven polyethylene that features an anti-condensate additive to reduce moisture buildup and dripping. The other side contains UV additives that allow the fabric to maintain its strength through the seasons.
The team hoists one roll on top of the frame and then the second on top of the first. The two sheets are well labeled, so there is no confusion as to what side faces up and what side faces down. The fabric is pulled taut at the ends of the framework and secured.
One can see the two layers of “skin.” These pieces are large and will be cut to fit perfectly once they are in position.
This polyethylene fabric is designed to stand up to just about any climate. It also resists rips and tears, so it could last up to 10-years depending on the weather.
The space between the two layers of plastic will be filled with air to keep the hoop house taut, smooth, and insulated. The air layer prevents heat loss at half the rate of single-paned glass.
Cesar secures spring wires, or wiggle wires, in the metal channels that support the plastic.
Here is one channel where the wiggle wire was installed. These three and four foot long spring wires compress and elongate when installed within the metal channels. They are installed all around the structure.
Pete secures the wire at the top of the hoop house and along all the edges.
Here is a view from above – the hoop house is nearly complete. The crew will finish connecting the electric and water systems, and finish any trimming and building. I am so glad we’ll be ready before the cold autumn weather. We may even get the season’s first frost next week.
And just beyond the hoop houses – my gardens and pastures. Look closely and see my handsome Friesians grazing. My farm is so beautiful this time of year.
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