Maintaining old fruit trees sometimes requires more than just pruning, grooming, and feeding. Large, heavy limbs may also need support in order to continue holding all the many fruits they produce.
On my farm, I have some very old apple trees that were here long before I moved to the property. A few in particular are just outside my Winter House. These trees bear an abundance of crisp, juicy fruits every year. Like all my trees these are well cared for, but recently I noticed their limbs were long, heavy and in need of added support before they broke, so I asked my gardeners to prop them up right away using a simple, natural, and very successful technique.
Enjoy these photos.
I am so proud of all the fruit trees I have at my farm. Among them – my many apple trees that bear bounties of fruits every year for all the hand pressed cider my granddaughter makes.
I have a corner of my orchard dedicated to all kinds of apple trees including Baldwin, Black Oxford, Cortland, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, Fuji, Golden Russet, Grimes Golden, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Redfield, Roxbury Russet, Windham Russet, and more.
Some of my apple trees are original to the farm. I’d like to think that Mrs. Ruth Sharp, who owned the farm before I did, enjoyed the sweet, juicy apples that these trees bear as much as I do.
This grove is also original to the farm. It is located just behind my herbaceous peony garden.
This week, I noticed the large limbs looked particularly long and heavy. As a preventative measure before any broke, I asked my head gardener to put upright supports under all the horizontal limbs.
The first step is to measure the space under each limb in need of bracing.
Phurba Sherpa from my outdoor grounds crew went out to the back field, where there were already several dead trees waiting to be put through the tub grinder, and cut some appropriately sized “crutches”
Phurba looked for those with natural “V” notches that could cradle the limbs.
Once all the crutches were brought back to the trees, Phurba dug shallow holes where the supports would be positioned.
He also gathered a couple of small, flat stones to place against and under the tree support to prevent it from sinking into the loamy soil.
The stones placed strategically at the base of the support will also keep it from falling due to strong winds.
Here’s Phurba checking a crutch out for size… and it fits!
Ryan pushes a crutch under another limb.
Upright supports like this made from tree branches blend right in and actually look like trees themselves.
It is crucial that every new crutch be checked to ensure it is tightly in place.
Ryan was able to knock this support out of place, so he made a few adjustments to make sure it was secure.
This one is wedged in perfectly – strong winds nor heavy fruits will bring it down.
The strong “V” notches will hold the limbs well for several years.
In total, Ryan and Phurba secured about seven tree supports. This did not take long at all, but will save the tree and prevent any broken limbs in the future.
These trees may need a little more support to keep them looking their best, but they give me so much more in return – good, delicious apples to eat out of hand or press into cider – they’re a good thing.
Here at my farm, the garden beds are changing every single day - more and more flowers are bursting with color and energy.
Many spring-blooming bulbs are characterized as "good for naturalizing," meaning they will self-seed, multiply, and come up year after year, spreading informally throughout the landscape. Among them - daffodils, croci, Galanthus, Puschkinia, Eranthis, Chionodoxa, Ornithogalum, and others. These naturalizing flowers require minimal care, attract pollinators, and enhance the overall ecosystem. I plant thousands of naturalizing bulbs every autumn and what comes up every spring is breathtaking.
Enjoy these photos.
Every spring, we all brim with excitement when the first flowers pop up through the ground. Croci is always one of the first.
But it’s even more exciting to see how they have multiplied and naturalized. These crocuses spread more and more every year in a back field of my farm.
These dark purple croci are near my Basket House beneath a grove of bald cypress trees. Everyone notices them in bloom.
They also spread informally over time – all by themselves.
The white croci in the tree pits of my allée of pin oaks have been growing and naturalizing here for more than 12 years.
These flowers are among the earliest of bloomers with their creamy white petals and bright orange stamens.
One of the first blooming groups of crocus is outside my gym building. And every spring it looks bigger and bigger. Naturalizing is a long-term plan, though some plants will spread faster than others.
Dwarf irises naturalize. They form clumps as they thrive and multiply. Irises spread through underground rhizomatous stems, filling the garden with color.
And among the most popular naturalizers are the daffodils. We’re still a few weeks from seeing my entire border in bloom, but here are some that are already up. Daffodils thrive in naturalized landscapes. And they spread without any maintenance.
My long daffodil border is broken up into various groupings – different varieties, different shapes and sizes, and different blooming times.
There are up to 40-species of daffodils, and more than 27-thousand registered daffodil hybrids.
The foliage of more daffodils is growing fast – it won’t be long before these are also in bloom.
Puschkinia is a genus of three known species of bulbous perennials in the family Asparagaceae. It is native to the Caucasus and the Middle East.
Puschkinia grows so beautifully in clumps and multiplies consistently every year – I have several areas filled with these delicate small flowers.
I have clumps of Puschkinia now planted outside my stable underneath my crabapple trees.
Eranthis, or winter aconite, is a genus of eight species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae – the Buttercup family.
While some flowers naturalize in clumps, these spread. Winter aconite produces cheerful yellow flowers that appear in late winter or earliest spring.
And Chionodoxa, commonly known as the Glory of the Snow, grows and multiplies in clusters.
Blue and white are the most common, but bulbs also come in shades of pink and white.
This is pink Chionodoxa.
And here is Chionodoxo growing under a bald cypress tree along the carriage road to my home. Naturalizing specific bulbs creates a natural, informal, and beautiful landscape. I hope this inspires you to plant some bulbs that are “good for naturalizing” – you’ll be glad you did.
Planting evergreens is a great way to add color and texture in the garden, attract wildlife, and help clean and purify the air.
Here at my farm, I have an area I call my pinetum. It's an arboretum of pine trees and other conifers I developed soon after I moved to the property. The trees and shrubs have grown extremely well here, and I continue to plant additional specimens every year. Last week, I purchased a beautiful selection of young evergreens from Summer Hill Nursery in Madison, Connecticut. I knew they would be perfect for the recently expanded area of the pinetum garden. Among them - a variety of interesting pines, junipers, and Oriental spruce. I also added some dawn redwood and bald cypress trees. Once they arrived, I positioned them where they would be planted and the crew got to work.
Enjoy these photos.
For me, it’s always so exciting to bring home a new selection of plants for the farm. These evergreens from Summer Hill Nursery are all so beautiful and healthy.
Once I got them home, the plants were unloaded right away.
I was happy to place them in their approximate planting positions. My gardeners will also check each individual plant’s space and light needs and adjust accordingly.
Twisted Needle White Pine is an evergreen with unique, green-blue ‘twisted’ needles. It is fast growing and reaches heights of more than 30-feet with just as wide a spread.
The twisted, spindly tufts of needles give the tree an almost fluffy appearance.
This is Pinus sylvestris ‘Gold Coin’ Scots Pine, a mid-sized pyramidal tree with gold needles year-round. Summer needles are a soft yellowish-green, while winter needles are more brilliant gold.
Pinus strobus ‘Golden Candles’ Eastern White Pine has electric yellow foliage in spring that softens to light green by end of summer.
The needles of the ‘Golden Candles’ White Pine are five-inches long and arranged in bundles of five.
‘Cynthia Waxman’ Japanese Umbrella Pine, Sciadopitys verticillata, is a dense, slow-growing, symmetrical, dwarf cone-shaped tree with dark green foliage.
The ‘Slim Jim’ Umbrella Pine is a compact, columnar variety known for its dense, dark green needles and slow growth.
The needles are long and soft to the touch. ‘Slim Jim’ is also non-cone bearing.
This is Juniperus chinensis ‘Obelisk’. It is a small, evergreen coniferous tree known for its dense, irregularly columnar shape and dark blue-green foliage. It’s a hardy drought and wind resistant specimen making it a great choice for many gardens.
The foliage of the Obelisk Juniper is dark blue-green. Its needles are pointed and can grow up to a half-inch long.
Burke’s Variegated Red Japanese Pine, Pinus densiflora, is a multi-stemmed evergreen with a distinctive and refined pyramidal form.
It features striking wide, horizontal, creamy yellow bands on each needle, which are visible year-round on rough branches.
The Blue Dwarf Japanese Stone Pine is another a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub that only grows to about nine-feet tall. Its ground hugging habit will add a nice balance to the other taller columnar specimens.
The Formosan juniper is a hardy, low maintenance evergreen. It typically grows to about 80-feet tall and has a branching irregular habit.
It has needle-like leaves on pendulous branches, giving it a fuzzy, droopy appearance.
And this is one of my favorites, Picea orientalis ‘Skylands,’ a Golden Oriental Spruce. Can you guess why? The variety ‘Skylands’ – has the same name as my beloved home in Maine. This is a stunning variety of golden spruce with a nice tight upright habit. It reached 12 to 15 feet tall in about 10 years. I have a few of these trees in my pinetum.
Its foliage is attractive yellow that changes to gold in spring. The needles then turn chartreuse in the fall, which persists throughout winter.
These evergreens are young and small now, but they will thrive here and fill out this pinetum garden so nicely.
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