Creating new garden spaces takes a lot of time, planning, and patience, but it's always so exciting to see areas evolve and take shape.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, we're working on a new garden near my stable. You may have caught a small glimpse at it on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48. You'll see more in a an upcoming episode of "Martha Gardens" exclusively on the Roku Channel. Enclosing this new garden, I decided to plant a hedge of European Hornbeams, Carpinus betulus - a fast-growing deciduous tree. Not long ago, my outdoor grounds crew planted about 300-bare root hornbeams from JLPN, a three-generation family owned tree company in Salem, Oregon that focuses on growing deciduous seedlings and softwood rooted cuttings. I am so pleased with how they look - and they're already showing lots of healthy new growth.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Carpinus betulus is native to Western Asia and central, eastern, and southern Europe, including southern England. Because of its dense foliage and tolerance to being cut back, this hornbeam is popularly used for hedges and topiaries. Hornbeams are often confused with the common beech because of their similar leaves; however, the hornbeam leaves are actually smaller and more deeply furrowed than beech leaves. The leaves are deciduous and alternate, with serrated margins.
I have a giant European hornbeam hedge outside my main greenhouse. It is quite pretty here, but serves primarily as a privacy and noise barrier from the road.
The same hornbeams border my formal white lily gardens across the gravel driveway.
Here is another hornbeam hedge that runs in front of my Summer House and along the road behind my Winter House.
I wanted to enclose this entire space with the same bold green European Hornbeams – it’s a half acre large.
I decided the hedge would be close to the fence. Here are Brian and Ryan measuring enough space for the hornbeams as well as for the Polaris vehicles we use to tour the tight spaces around the farm.
These are European hornbeam bare-root cuttings. Bare-root trees are so named because the plants are dug from the ground while they are dormant, and stored without any soil surrounding their roots. Once they arrived from JLPN, they were placed in tubs of water right away.
The sod was removed from the entire perimeter of the space.
And then the soil was rototilled.
Chhiring and Pasang dug a trench just deep enough for the bare-root cuttings – about eight to 10-inches deep. Chhiring also sprinkles a good a fertilizer into the trench, a fertilizer made with mycorrhizal fungi, which helps transplant survival and increases water and nutrient absorption.
The cuttings are removed from the water in groups, so they don’t dry out.
Hornbeams have taproots rather than a lot of roots close to the surface. This means the root systems grown down rather than out.
I wanted the trees planted two-feet apart, so Pasang uses a pipe exactly that length as a guide. He also puts up bright landscape twine to ensure all the trees are planted straight.
The tree is placed where the roots start and the top shoots begin.
Here is a closer look at the tree in the designated hole.
The soil is then gently filled in around the roots and then lightly tamped down.
The twine creates a good guide for all the trees being planted. It also saves lots of time – one does not have to check the line of planted specimens after each one is in the ground.
And then Pasang measures the distance again for the next tree.
Pasang planted nearly 300 bare-root trees in less than three days – everything is coming along so nicely.
Looking closely, one can see how perfectly straight these trees are. If they are in good condition, the trees should sprout leaves in the same year they are planted.
And look – every single tree is already sprouting growth. This hedge will look so wonderful – wait and see it grow and evolve with me.
Our spring gardening season is always extremely busy. My outdoor grounds crew, gardeners, and I work very hard to make sure all the gardens look their best.
Among our annual tasks this time of year - planting and potting up thousands of bare-root trees and other small seedlings. Over the last week, the crew planted about 600 young boxwoods. These boxwoods are still too small to plant in the garden beds, so they are placed in an enclosure designated for young specimens, where they can be carefully maintained until they are large enough to transplant.
Enjoy these photos.
Because the boxwood grows so well here, I plant a few hundred bare-root cuttings every year. I ordered another 600 hundred from Musser Forests, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in conifer and hardwood seedlings and transplants. Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. Boxwood is native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
These are bare-root seedlings, meaning they arrived free of soil on the roots. This helps reduce the price of the seedling and makes them more adaptable to the soil in which they are planted. Once they arrive, they are placed in water right away.
This area behind one of several hoop houses and near my chicken coops is where I grow many young boxwood shrubs – the boxwood “nursery.” The back section of this enclosure is where our youngest bare-root cuttings will be planted.
Chhiring begins digging holes for each of the seedlings. Because there are so many, the crew works in a production line process.
Each hole is about eight-inches deep.
The soil in this yard is rich with nutrients, so the boxwood will grow very well here. The space has several sections of growing boxwood – all at different stages of growth.
Chhiring sprinkles a generous amount of fertilizer into the holes. Slow-release, balanced fertilizers are best for boxwood.
Next, one boxwood seedling is dropped near each hole. Phurba does this in small batches, so the boxwood doesn’t dry out. If planting a lot, keep the new seedlings in shade until they are planted in the ground. And make sure to only use healthy stems with no insect damage or discoloration. These are in excellent condition.
Phurba plants each specimen in a hole – keeping them all in a straight line.
Then, each hole is back filled, and lightly tapped to ensure good contact with the soil.
These two to three year old seedlings are only a few inches tall, but they will grow quickly.
This variety is called Buxus ‘Green Mountain’. It is a vigorous evergreen shrub with bright green foliage that retains good color throughout winter. The upright, naturally cone-shaped habit makes it an excellent candidate for planting free-form or for a sculpted hedge. The leaves on boxwood branches are arranged opposite from each other, making pairs.
These plants are placed about a foot apart – enough room for them to grow before moving to more permanent locations.
These boxwoods were planted just last year – slightly taller and more dense. These young boxwoods will remain here for a couple years before they are transplanted into the garden beds.
And these specimens are about three and a half years old. These are growing very well in this “nursery.” These have also already been pruned to give them their round shapes.
Some of the exisiting boxwood in this area is Buxus ‘Green Velvet’. This variety is a full-bodied boxwood well-suited for dense, low hedges. Its foliage also retains its rich green color throughout winter and develops a vigorous form.
In 2017, I decided to line both sides of my clematis pergola with boxwood. These started off as small cuttings and developed in the “nursery” before being transplanted here. There are more than 300-shrubs planted under the pergola, and they continue to thrive.
I have scores of mature boxwood growing around the farm. These boxwood shrubs surround my herbaceous peony garden bed.
This is my sunken Summer House Garden – a more formal garden with both English and American boxwood. Boxwood, a popular evergreen shrub in garden landscape, is a very ancient plant. Its ornamental use can be traced back to 4000 BC Egypt. The early Romans favored it in their courtyards. The wood itself is harder than oak and its foliage is dense and compact. Because of its growing habit, boxwood can be sculpted into formal hedges, topiaries, and other fanciful shapes.
I also have boxwood hedges on the terraces outside my Winter House.
This is a section of my long 450-foot Boxwood Allée. It runs from my stable all the way to the carriage road that leads to my hayfields and woodlands. It is so lush and green and healthy – so healthy, we had to move an entire side of fence to accommodate its growth a couple of years ago. I am so proud of the boxwood here at my farm. Growing boxwood for the garden… it’s a good thing.
Brightly colored daffodils are blooming at my farm. It's quite a sight to see - all the swaths of white, yellow, and orange Narcissi gently blowing in the spring breeze.
I started developing my long daffodil border in 2003, in the early years of my farm ownership. After lots of planning and adding to the collection, the border now extends the length of one side of my farm from my Summer House, past the stable and down to the Japanese maple grove. Over time, some have faded away and are being replaced with other varieties, while others continue to flourish. I’ve also planted daffodils in the garden beds outside my Tenant House, across from my chicken coops, near my main greenhouse, in patches through the woodland, and in various tree pits around my home, including those underneath the majestic allée of pin oaks - there, I planted a variety of Narcissi named after me, Narcissus ‘Martha Stewart.'
Enjoy these photos.
My long daffodil border is broken up into various groupings – different varieties, different shapes and sizes, and different blooming times. This provides a longer splash of color through the season.
Narcissus is a genus of spring perennials in the Amaryllidaceae family. They’re known by the common name daffodil.
The species are native to meadows and woods in southwest Europe and North Africa. Narcissi tend to be long lived bulbs and are popular ornamental plants in public and private gardens.
The flowers are generally white or yellow with either uniform or contrasting colored tepals and coronas.
During this time, everyone here at the farm loves photographing all the many blooms. Here is a white daffodil with a bold orange center.
There are up to 40-species of daffodils, and more than 27-thousand registered daffodil hybrids.
When choosing where to plant daffodils, select an area that gets at least half a day of sun. Hillsides, and raised beds do nicely.
Narcissus naturalize very easily. Lift and divide overcrowded clumps in late June or July. I take stock of my daffodils every year to see what is growing well and what is not, so I can learn what to remove, where to add more, and what to plant next.
In my daffodil border, I planted early, mid, and late season blooming varieties so that when one section is done blooming, another is just opening up.
Normal rainfall will typically take care of any watering requirements during the spring flowering season. The most important care tip is to provide daffodils with rich, well-drained soil.
Daffodil plants prefer a neutral to slightly acidic soil. Be sure they are planted where there is room for them to spread, but not where the soil is water-logged.
This cheerful daffodil, with its color contrast, makes a bold statement in the border. Cultivars with bold colored cups generally retain better color when planted in a little shade to protect them from the hot afternoon sun.
And remember what I always say about all plants and flowers – if you eat, so should your plants. Fertilize daffodils with extra phosphorous to encourage good root development, especially when they’re young.
Few pests bother daffodils. The bulbs are actually quite unappetizing to most insects and animals, including deer and voles.
After daffodils bloom in the spring, allow the plants to continue growing until they die off on their own. They need the time after blooming to store energy in their bulbs for next year.
When cutting daffodils, they should be kept alone in the vase as their stems secrete a fluid that promotes wilting in other flowers. If you need to combine flowers, soak them alone first and then add them to the arrangements last.
In general, daffodils are easy to care for and are hardy plants. Diseases common to daffodils include basal rot, various viruses, and fungi.
Daffodils can also grow in containers as long as there is room to multiply and room for the roots to fill out. They can bloom well for two to three years – after that, it’s best to move them to a spot in the ground where they will come up once a year.
Bulbs should be planted in groups or drifts of like kinds and like colors to give the best presentation.
This view is from the one end of my allée of lindens looking south. We planted this section in 2019 and the flowers continue to blooms profusely every year.
And underneath the majestic pin oaks in the allée and in the pits of the weeping willows is a variety of Narcissi named after me by Van Engelen Inc., a wholesale flower bulb company in Bantam, Connecticut.
These flowers are all reliable bloomers and can continue to produce each spring for decades.
Here’s a closer look at Narcissus ‘Martha Stewart’ – a Karel van der Veek hybrid with a three-inch white perianth surrounding a pale yellow cup. In full bloom, these flowers grow up to about 16 to 18 inches tall and look stunning against my luscious green lawns. Daffodil season is a great time of year, but it’s only the beginning. There are so many more beautiful blooms to come…
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