The gardens are constantly changing - anyone who comes to visit always sees something new.
Most of the private garden tours at my farm are conducted in the spring and early summer - I host a select few every year. Yesterday, I welcomed a lovely group of 25 fellow members from the Bedford Garden Club right here in Bedford, New York. I walked them through my gardens and allées, showed them my pool and orchard, introduced them to some of my animals, and served delicious refreshments on my terrace parterre.
Here are a few photos, enjoy.
The day started overcast with thunderous showers, but the weather did clear up enough for our afternoon Cantitoe Corners garden tour. Here is my terrace just outside my Winter House kitchen.
My housekeeper, Enma Sandoval, picked fresh flowers from the gardens earlier in the morning.
I like to vary garden tour routes. This tour began down at my stable courtyard. This view is looking east down my Boxwood Allée. Do you know what the big pot is in the middle? It’s a giant iron sugar kettle. Sugar kettles were used on 19th century Louisiana plantations for the production of sugar. Sugar cane was placed in the large, spherical vessels and cooked down to make syrup. Because they could withstand such high heat, they were also used for cooking. I have several others around the farm and love to use them for fire pits.
I walked the group through the vegetable garden. They admired the growing brassicas. Everything is doing so well.
Right now, the shelling peas, snap peas and edible pea pods are perfect for picking.
And what a difference a few days make – some of the broccoli heads are double the size after last week. We’ve had a lot of rain, sun, and heat – it’s all done well for my gardens.
The cabbages are also looking so beautiful. Here is one of my Savoy cabbages – so perfectly shaped. Savoy cabbage is a versatile cabbage, similar to green cabbage but a bit milder and sweeter, with leaves that are looser and more ruffled.
I walked the group past what I call the “ancient” apple trees. These are original to the farm and continue to produce an abundance of fruit every year.
Next was my sunken Summer House garden. This garden was just a blank dirt space when I created it. The focal point was the one original giant ginkgo tree in the distance. Over time, I planted American and English boxwood, smaller ginkgo trees, smoke bushes, Siberian weeping pea shrubs, peonies, hostas, lilies, alliums, etc.
All my potted tropical plants are now displayed all around the farm. These agaves are lined up on the Summer House terrace.
I always serve refreshments during my tours. It’s a nice break for my guests and a good time to answer any questions they may have about my farm.
For this gathering, I planned a number of small bites – all prepared by Chef Molly Wenk who has helped me with a number of other events and cooking shoots over the years. These are cheese straws. Perhaps you’ve made some – the recipe is in my 100th book, MARTHA: THE COOKBOOK.
I also served another personal favorite – potatoes with a dollop of crème fraîche and topped with caviar.
And, I served deviled eggs – also a recipe from MARTHA: THE COOKBOOK. And of course, eggs from my wonderful and productive hens.
We also ate bits of this Stilton cheese. Stilton is an English blue cheese, which has Penicillium roqueforti added to create the characteristic smell and taste. And believe me, this cheese is utterly fantastic with my Brown-Butter Shortbread Cookies, also in MARTHA: THE COOKBOOK.
It was so nice to meet everyone in the group and talk about our favorite topic, gardening.
After our refreshments, we walked down the carriage road. On the upright granite posts of my long and winding pergola, I planted clematis in a palette of blue-flowering cultivars. Every year they give a vivid floral display.
But here are the first blooms of the next pergola transformation. Soon this pergola garden will be filled with gorgeous orange tiger lilies.
After the pergola – the pool. Here, the group learned about the staddle stones at the far end, which were originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders. They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but mine are square – a more rare and unique version.
And finally a stroll down the Boxwood Allée before leaving. It was a fun tour with a very fun, enthusiastic, and curious group of dedicated gardeners. Happy first weekend of summer.
Summer officially starts today and here at my farm, it's expected to be sunny with temperatures in the 80s.
It amazes me how quickly everything grows from day to day. All the trees are so lush with foliage, some showing off pretty blooms. I've planted thousands of trees over the years - displayed in allées, in groves, planted closely together in my living maze, or in rows several feet apart in my orchard. Some of the trees are large and majestic, some feature beautifully shaped leaves, and some have pendulous branches cascading to the ground. It makes me so happy to see them thrive through the seasons.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Here on my 153-acre farm, I love how all the trees look in the landscape and how they change through the seasons. Most importantly, we need trees for the environment – they help combat climate change, provide habitat and food for birds and other animals, and release oxygen for us to live.
Every chance I get, I tour the property to see how things are growing. It always delights me to see how these trees look from a distance in all the different layers.
Smoke bushes, Cotinus, have superlative color, appealing form, and look excellent in the gardens.
The plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers, give a long-lasting, smoky haze to the branch tips.
This one is a royal purple smoke bush with its stunning dark red-purple foliage that turns scarlet in autumn.
The Japanese Stewartia is native to Japan, Korea, and the southeastern United States. It is a slow-growing, all-season performer that shows off green leaves in spring, white flowers in summer, and colorful foliage in autumn. I love stewartias – after all, my name is “Stewart.”
The flowers of a Stewartia are cup-shaped, camellia-like white blossoms that grow up to two-and-a-half inches in diameter with showy orange-yellow anthers.
One of the most appealing features is the Stewartia’s bark. It is multi-colored and peels away in strips.
Along the carriage road near my back hayfield, I have several Cornus kousa trees – small deciduous trees in the flowering plant family Cornaceae. Common names include kousa, kousa dogwood, Chinese dogwood, Korean dogwood, and Japanese dogwood. It bears these white flowers in spring and summer and edible berries with soft pulp that is sweet with a similar flavor to a ripe persimmon in the fall.
Just outside my kitchen on the terrace parterre is a tall weeping katsura. Cercidiphyllum japonicum f. pendulum has pendulous branches that fan out from the crown and sweep the ground. Tiny red flowers emerge in late March or early April before the leaves.
Nearby is this beautiful weeping copper beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground. I have several of these trees on the property.
Outside my main greenhouse, I have Camperdown Elms, which slowly develop broad, flat heads and wide crowns with weeping branch habits. I also have beautiful Camperdown Elm specimens outside my Winter House.
From a distance, everyone notices the stunning weeping willows. Here is one grove of weeping willows at the edge of my pinetum. The golden hue looks so pretty against the landscape.
Some trees feature interesting leaf shapes. This is the leaf of a ginkgo tree. The leaves are unusually fan-shaped, up to three inches long, with a petiole that is also up to three inches long. This shape and the elongated petiole cause the foliage to flutter in the slightest breeze. 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.
This is the leaf of the tulip tree. Our tulip trees are the tallest at the farm – these trees can grow more than 120-feet. In the late spring bright yellowish-green and orange flowers bloom. They resemble tulips in shape. The silhouette of the tree’s leaves is also tulip-shaped. Together, these features give the tulip tree its name. The tulip tree is also known as tulip poplar, yellow poplar, whitewood, and tulip magnolia. Some of these names can be deceiving, as the tree is not a true poplar. Instead, it belongs to the magnolia family.
Eastern redbud leaves are alternate, simple, broadly heart-shaped and three to five inches high and wide.
The Pin Oak Allée is the first allée guests see when entering my farm. These trees are tall and impressive. Pin oaks, Quercus palustris, are popular landscape trees because they are fast-growing and easy to maintain.
From this side of my long and winding pergola, one can see the towering bald cypress, Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. Though it’s native to swampy areas, the bald cypress is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10. I also planted these when I took over my farm.
This is the newer of two linden allées here at Cantitoe. This one is planted between the paddocks and runs from the pergola to the Boxwood Allée and then all the way down to the chicken coops. It, too, has grown so beautifully over the years, in part because I pay so much attention to the soil and keep it rich and filled with nutrients for all the plantings.
And it won’t be long before we’re enjoying the fruits from my orchard. My orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. I planted more than 200-fruit trees here, many of which started as bare-root cuttings. And now they are growing beautifully. I hope you can enjoy the trees where you live.
It's that time of year again, when the hornbeam hedges around my farm need to be pruned and groomed.
This week my outdoor grounds crew trimmed the tall hornbeam hedges in front of my main greenhouse. The English hornbeam, Carpinus betulus, is a fast-growing deciduous tree. It can grow about four to five feet per year. From a distance, it appears solid, but light streams in through the leaves providing a pleasing and dappled space. I keep a close eye on all the hornbeams - it’s crucial to prune them regularly, so they never look too overgrown and unruly.
Enjoy these photos.
This tall hornbeam hedge grows along one side of the parking lot directly in front of my main greenhouse. It is quite pretty here but serves primarily as a privacy hedge and noise barrier from the road. Carpinus betulus is a hornbeam native to Western Asia and central, eastern and southern Europe, including southern England.
The English hornbeam is related to the beech tree, with a similar leaf shape. On the hornbeam, the leaves are actually smaller and more deeply furrowed than beech tree leaves. They become golden yellow to orange before falling in autumn.
Looking inside the hedge, the hornbeam has pale grey bark with vertical markings. The sturdy branches grow outward and slightly upward.
I always instruct my gardeners and outdoor ground crew to bring all the necessary tools to the work site. Among the tools needed for hedge pruning they need landscape twine, long handled shears, gloves, and a STIHL HLA 85 Lithium-Ion Powered Adjustable Telescopic Hedge Trimmer, which has a durable 20 inch blade that cuts easily and precisely.
The crew does a lot of the hornbeam pruning by hand. These Japanese Okatsune shears are specially made for trimming hedges. These shears are user friendly, and come in a range of sizes.
My resident tree expert, Pasang Sherpa, prunes the front of the hedges first. The shears allow the crew to sculpt and groom as well as prune the foliage. I like to use a traditional English style of pruning, which includes a lot of straight, clean edges. A well-manicured hedge can be stunning in any garden but left unchecked, it could look unruly.
Although slower, this method of trimming by hand ensures careful precise, clean cuts.
Looking at the front, one can see what has been pruned and what Pasang still has to do.
Looking closely from the top, It’s a big difference and shows the growth from the past year. These hornbeams are so healthy and lush.
Pasang uses the long handled shears to cut the edges. When pruning, Pasang keeps the shears close to shoulder level. This allows the best control. He also holds the shears closer to the base of the blades. Here he is working by hand on the upper sections from our trusted Hi-Lo.
Then he uses his STIHL HLA 86 commercial grade extended reach, telescopic hedge trimmer, which is very lightweight and easy to control.
Down below – all the cut leaves. These are raked up as they work, so cleanup is easier at the very end.
My outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring Sherpa, sits in the Hi-Lo ready to move teammates safely from place to place. From ground level, he can also check the work done from a different vantage point.
The next day, a younger hedge is also groomed in the parking lot right in front of my glass greenhouse. We planted this hedge in the spring of 2019 – it has grown quite a bit. An identical one is on the other side of the greenhouse entrance. To keep the hedges straight on top, I instruct everyone to use landscaper’s twine to create a guide. It’s an easy way to make sure everything is cut properly.
Chhiring looks carefully to make sure the twine is straight and in line with all his other markers.
Then he uses the STIHL trimmer to cut the top. These STIHL tools are great for so many jobs around the farm.
Meanwhile, Pasang works from the back of the hedge. This area is also cut with the STIHL trimmer – quickly and efficiently.
Pasang uses his Okatsune bypass pruners to trim small branches. Everyone on my crew has his own pruners.
Here’s is a view looking down the top of this hedge.
And here is another section of the hedge. It looks great.
Here is a side view of the big hedge showing how the front is sculpted with the taller sections protruding just a bit.
Pruning and grooming the hornbeams is a big task – it takes about two weeks to get all of them done around the farm, but once they’re finished they look so terrific – thanks to my hardworking crew!
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