During my summertime stays at Skylands, my home in Maine, beautiful plants flourish outdoors and cut flower arrangements fill nearly every room inside.
I love decorating my homes with lush and vibrant plants and flowers. In Maine, we grow many of the flowers in a large cutting garden that's located in the same area as the vegetable garden. There are also many bold plants and gorgeous blooms in the planters and gardens of my large terrace - so many extraordinary botanical displays that capture the attention of all who visit.
Here are some of this year's photos, enjoy.
The lilies bloomed everywhere at Skylands this summer. The tall, colorful flowers filled my large terrace. This sphynx is out “guarding” the terrace for the season. She is one of two glazed terra-cotta sphinxes designed by Emile Muller. Émile first used plain ceramic products on buildings and industries. Then, in 1884 he developed the glazed terra-cotta, which he continued to use for many architectural decorations and art reproductions. The two are stored indoors and taken out as soon as the warmer weather arrives.
Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs and all with large, prominent flowers. The flowers are often fragrant, and come in a wide range of colors.
Here is a bright yellow lily growing in the terrace garden. When arranging cut lilies, handle them with care – they can bruise easily.
And don’t forget, lilies have heavily pollinated stamens, which stain, so before bringing them indoors, it’s important to gently pull the anthers with a tissue, or pinch them off with your fingers.
These succulents are planted in a long stone trough I bought several years ago from Trade Secrets. Notice the pink gravel used to top the soil surrounding these plants – it is the same pink gravel that covers the carriage roads at Skylands.
I always have agaves up at Skylands. Agaves are exotic, deer-resistant, drought-tolerant, and make wonderful container plants. It’s not easy dealing with giant, prickly agave plants. One must be very careful of one’s eyes, face, and skin whenever planting them. We planted this one in spring, when I come up to Maine for my traditional terrace planting weekend.
Another agave sits in this beautiful faux bois planter underplanted with ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra. This planter is extremely heavy – about four to five hundred pounds.
All the plants and flowers on my large “cracked ice” terrace are thriving despite the dry weather.
This is a ponytail palm, Beaucarnea recurvata – a species in the family Asparagaceae. It has a sleek bulb-like trunk with lush, long leaves.
This is the West Terrace. Every year, we always hang a series of fern-filled planters under the pergola – it adds such a lovely touch of greenery to the space along with the overhanging kiwi vines. These ferns, Nephrolepis exaltata ‘Bostoniensis’, are among the most popular varieties with its frilly leaves and long, hanging fronds.
At Skylands, the vegetable garden and the flower cutting garden are in the same location, all protected by a fence. Everything is very well maintained and weeded – it is so pleasant to cut from this garden when we make arrangements. Here, one can see snapdragons, phlox, lilies zinnias, and in the distance, my gardener Wendy Norling.
Here is a beautiful collection of snapdragons. Snapdragons are great for arrangements as they last quite a long time. A palette of pink and white looks very pretty against the earth tones in this room.
Another bright snapdragon arrangement with yellow, white, orange, and pink flowers.
On this large table in the Living Hall is a basket fern I brought up from my Bedford, New York farm. Basket ferns are epiphytic or epipetric and are native to tropical Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Oceania. It is sitting on a grand faux-bois cement table where I always like to display large plants and flower arrangements for my parties.
The hydrangea is among my favorite of flowering plants. It offers huge bouquets of clustered flowers from mophead to lacecap from summer through fall.
These turk’s cap lily arrangements are in a small alcove outside my dining room – so bright and inviting. They’re placed in Chinese export “Orange Fitzhugh” porcelain vases. Gorgeous arrangements don’t always have to be giant in size – the pair work perfectly here on this faux bois table.
On the dining room table, vases of rudbeckia with their bright, showy flower heads. Rudbeckia flower colors include yellow and gold, and the plants grow two to six feet tall, depending on the variety.
More rudbeckia blooms are used to decorate this brass coffee table in my living room. Rudbeckias are easy-to-grow perennials and include the popular black-eyed Susan.
And here is another large basket fern sitting on this faux bois table. I love faux bois, which means “false wood” in French. Faux bois refers to the artistic imitation of wood or wood grains in various media. The craft has roots in the Renaissance with trompe-l’œil. I have many faux bois urns, chairs, and tables at Skylands.
And a vase of glorious pink lilies – simply stunning. On the wall are prints depicting the birds of Mt. Desert Island here in Maine by artist Carroll Tyson. What a lovely summer. I hope you’re still enjoying some of the wonderful colors of the season.
Another beautiful and interesting display of lush greenery is growing at my Bedford, New York farm - it's my maze, and it's going to be amazing.
You may have seen some of my photos on my Instagram Stories @MarthaStewart48. Earlier this year, I decided to create a maze of hedges, espaliers, and shrubs in the pasture across the carriage road from my Winter House terrace. A living maze is a puzzle of tall plantings - tall enough to prevent those walking through from seeing the paths ahead. The maze includes rows, openings, and various dead ends, but only one true route leading to the center. We began planting the maze last April, and now we have four rows along one end of the space - it's already stumped me on horseback. And yesterday, another delivery of trees arrived. It's truly an exciting transformation.
Here are some photos of the maze in its infancy, enjoy.
This three acre paddock, with the ancient apple trees, is among the most beautiful green spaces here at my farm. The view from my terrace parterre on any given day is stunning.
Here is a view of the area looking south from the allee of boxwood leading to my stable.
Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to create a living maze in the space. Mazes, as well as labyrinths, have been popular in European gardens and estates for centuries. And now, I am creating one at Cantitoe Corners.
First, I drew out a plan on paper, and then last April, my outdoor grounds crew started to prepare the planting beds. Here, we used twine to designate each row for planting and its adjacent footpath.
Phurba removes the sod from one of the rows. We always do this carefully and neatly, so the sod can be used elsewhere around the farm.
Then, we ordered the first set of trees and shrubs. These are espaliered apple trees. Among them, Liberty apples, Gala apples, Braeburn apples, and Yellow Delicious apples.
And, of course boxwood. I love boxwood, Buxus, and have hundreds of shrubs growing on my property. I use boxwood in borders and hedges, as privacy screens, as accent plants in my formal gardens, in the long allée to my stable, and now in the maze.
I also ordered a selection of European hornbeams, green columnar beech trees and purple columnar beech trees. This photo was taken in early spring, so they had not yet leafed out.
Here’s my gardener, Brian O’Kelly, unloading some of the many specimens for our maze.
The next step is to place them evenly along the beds of each row. When planting a maze, use relatively fast-growing trees that will be at least six feet tall and two feet wide at maturity.
Here is a view of the placed espalier trees. Espalier refers to an ancient technique, resulting in trees that grow flat, either against a wall, or along a wire-strung framework. Many kinds of trees respond beautifully to the espalier treatment, but fruit trees, like apple and pear, were some of the earliest examples. Espaliered trees can grow between four and eight feet apart – enough to allow them room as they grow, but still be close enough for a proper espalier.
And here are the boxwood, each one equally spaced from the next.
Then, it was time to plant the trees. The crew worked hard to get them all into the ground as quickly as possible.
Four rows in all to start, but many, many to go, and each path leading to an opening — or a dead end.
By June, all the plantings are leafed out and growing beautifully. The beds are also mulched with nutrient-rich material made right here in my compost yard.
We’ve already seen many apples developing on the trees this summer.
The boxwood is on the left and the purple columnar beech on the right – both of these will make great hedges in a few years. In the distance, one can see the tops of the chicken coops.
And yesterday, more trees for the maze – these are parrotia trees. Parrotia is in the family Hamamelidaceae, closely related to the witch-hazel genus Hamamelis. It is native to northern Iran and southern Azerbaijan and it is endemic in the Alborz mountains. It grows best in USDA Zones 5 to 8.
Parrotias have a long-lasting, elaborate autumn color display of ever-changing leaves that show off yellow, orange, burgundy and red hues. These are now green, but looking closely, one can see slight color changes already.
And more European hornbeams. Botanically known as Carpinus betulus, the hornbeam is a fast-growing deciduous tree. In fact, it can grow about four to five feet per year – perfect for the maze.
My outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring Sherpa, has been with me for 20 years and has planted many of trees here at the farm.
I will continue to share photos of its progress. It will take a few years before it is mature and fully developed, but this maze will be amazing. I can’t wait…
“It is a confusing path, hard to follow without a thread, but, provided [you are] not devoured at the midpoint, it leads surely, despite twists and turns, back to the beginning.” — Plato
My peafowl will now be safe from predators in their enclosure.
Recently, I shared photos of a big project underway in my peafowl yard. I wanted to install fencing above the pen to keep the peacocks and peahens safe. The first step was to move the coop 25-feet toward the center of the space, so it could support the new wire fencing. Once that was complete, our friends from Garon Fence Co. Inc. in nearby Bedford, Hills, came in to do their part - secure strong steel posts around the perimeter of the yard, attach cables to brackets on the coop roof, and then spread strong fence fabric to cover the entire area. It was a big undertaking, but it is comforting to know it will keep my beautiful birds free from harm.
Enjoy these photos.
Earlier this month, I showed you how we moved the peafowl coop a short distance using an old fashion method of rolling the structure over aluminum poles into its desired place. Here is the coop just before it was moved.
Here, it has already moved several feet into place – one can see the designated footprint. Pete uses a jack to move the aluminum poles where needed.
And here is the coop in its new spot – the center of the peafowl pen. My property manager, Doug White, and I devised a plan that would allow this structure to support wire fencing above the space in order to keep wild predators from getting in.
We used the team from Garon Fence Co. to put up the new fence top. I’ve used Garon for other projects. This company put up the fencing around my peafowl yard a couple of years ago. They also replaced the fence around my chicken coops.
The first step is to dig holes for the steel posts. Each post hole is dug four feet deep – all by hand.
These are the galvanized steel posts. They are 14-feet tall and will be buried four feet into the ground. These are made for strength, durability, and corrosion resistance.
After the posts are secured and leveled in the concrete, they’re left to dry thoroughly.
A total of 14-posts are secured around the enclosure.
Next, Garon Fence Co. foreman, Raul, below, installs a steel bracket just under the peak of the coop roof.
Here is one fully installed. There is one on each end of the peafowl coop roof. This will support the cable that will hold up the fence fabric.
The cable is then run from each of the posts to the brackets on the coop.
This is 316 gauge cable. It is corrosion resistant and can hold more than 330-pounds.
Here is a view from the side showing how the cable is attached to the brackets in the center of the yard.
The next step is to install the fence fabric. This is 4×4 inch wire fencing. Each roll is 60-inches wide and 200-feet long.
The fence fabric is carefully spread over the cables from the center out.
It takes several crew members to carefully unroll the fence fabric and attach it to the posts.
At first it looks a bit wavy, but as it is installed, the tension is increased and it is pulled taut.
They secure it with these chain link fence wire ties, also known as chain link hook ties, or chain link fence tie wires. They are constructed from a heavy duty bendable gauge wire.
The wire ties are placed along the edge of the fence fabric, attaching one strip to the next.
Here is a section showing how it overlaps and connects to the next strip. It is a large pen, so the fence fabric must be installed carefully.
The entire project takes a couple of weeks to complete. This photo is taken from my stable hayloft. It shows how the brackets hold up and support the fence fabric above the roof of the coop.
Here is another view from the ground looking up – the fence fabric does not touch the roof at all, but helps to support it, so it won’t sag from heavy snow cover.
And here is one side all done. I think my peafowl will be very happy with their improved enclosure. I am glad it will keep them safe from wild, hungry animals.
![I will continue to share photos of its progress. It will take a few years before it is mature and fully developed, but this maze will be amazing. I can't wait... “It is a confusing path, hard to follow without a thread, but, provided [you are] not devoured at the midpoint, it leads surely, despite twists and turns, back to the beginning.” — Plato](https://static.themarthablog.com/2022/08/PXL_20220817_192525104-scaled.jpeg)
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