Enjoy this encore blog post which originally ran on May 3rd of last year - the planting of six new and interesting trees around my pool.
Adding just one type of tree, bush, or plant can totally transform a space.
I enjoy planting interesting and beautiful specimens that add texture and beauty at different times throughout the year. I also like arranging groups of certain plantings to create borders, allées and appealing displays. Last week, I purchased six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees from Select Horticulture Inc. in nearby Pound Ridge, New York. I knew these narrow upright tower trees would look excellent on both sides of my pool. They were delivered, positioned, and planted right away - and they look just perfect.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
There is always so much happening at my Bedford, New York farm. On this day, six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees arrived. Select Horticulture Inc. secures their trees excellently for transport – they came in perfect condition.
Ginkgo Goldspire™ is a highly ornamental, non-fruiting male tree originating in Italy. It has a very upright, tight fastigiate habit, and the foliage tends to be smaller than other species.
Once the trees are delivered, each one is positioned inside the pool area. Each grows about one to two feet per year and prefers mostly sun and well-drained soil.
New foliage on the Ginkgo Goldspire™ emerges a rich shade of green, fan-shaped, and slightly curled. It keeps its color through summer, then turns buttery shades of yellow and gold in autumn before dropping.
I placed wooden stakes where I wanted the trees to go.
My outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring Sherpa, measures the locations and then uses white landscape paint to mark a circle where each tree will be planted. These specimens should have at least 10-feet of space between them.
Chhiring goes over the circle line with our Classen Pro HSC18 sod cutter. The sod cutter goes over the lines smoothly and deeply.
There are different types of sod cutters, but they all essentially cut grass at the roots so entire sections of sod can be removed to expose the bare ground underneath.
Here is the new cleared out area. This will become the tree pit.
All six circles are done in the same way. It’s important to get these trees into the ground before the grass underneath the waiting trees gets burned – it’s been unseasonably warm this week.
The team begins digging. The holes must be pretty wide – each one should be at least two to five times as wide as the root ball, but no deeper than the root ball. Once in the hole, the top of the root ball should just be slightly higher than the soil surface. The hole sides should also be slanted. Digging a proper hole helps to provide the best opportunity for roots to expand into its new growing environment.
A good fertilizer made especially for new transplanted specimens should always be used. This is Miracle-Gro Shake ‘N Feed Flowering Trees and Shrubs Plant Food. A generous amount of the fertilizer is mixed in with the nutrient-rich soil.
Then each tree is placed into its designated hole. When moving heavy specimens, only hold it by the root ball, the base and trunk of the planting – never by its branches, which could easily break. Once the Ginkgo is in its hole it is turned so it is straight and its best side is facing the pool.
This part of the process is very important. Chhiring stands at a distance to make sure the tree is positioned properly. Always look at the specimen from all sides, especially from where it will be seen most often. And because these trees are specially shaped with straight sides, they must all be turned just right, so the sides match.
All the trees are positioned first before any backfilling is done, so adjustments can be made. These trees are now all in the ground and positioned correctly.
The burlap and metal cage wrappings help to support the root ball during loading, shipping, and transplanting. Some leave them in the ground, but I prefer to remove everything completely, so there is nothing blocking the growing roots.
Finally, the crew backfills the holes until they are properly filled. And remember, don’t plant it too deeply – always leave it “bare to the flare.”
Phurba tidies up the tree pit and makes sure there is good contact between the tree and the surrounding soil.
Here are three of the Ginkgo Goldspire™ Obelisk trees on one side. The term “obelisk” refers to the tall, four-sided, narrow tapering which ends in a pyramid shape at the top.
And here is a view looking south. The trees look so beautiful with the staddle stones at one end. I am looking forward to seeing these Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees develop and flourish.
While my blog team is away for a long weekend, enjoy this encore blog originally posted on April 30, 2024.
Ever wonder how asparagus is grown?
Every spring, we harvest bunches of delicious asparagus. Asparagus, Asparagus officinalis, are the edible shoots, commonly called spears, that rise early in the season from underground stems called crowns. These perennial plants require patience and at least a few years to become well-established. I made sure an asparagus crop was planted when I first bought my farm. I also now have a large asparagus bed in my new vegetable garden. And while we're careful not to harvest too much too soon, this patch is already proving to be very productive.
Enjoy these photos.
I’ve been enjoying homegrown asparagus for many years. The asparagus crop in my flower garden is already more than 10-years old and well-established.
When I created my new half-acre vegetable garden last year, I made sure one of the biggest beds was earmarked for asparagus.
These are asparagus crowns from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Each of these is about a year old. Asparagus crowns usually come in bundles of 10 to 25 bare-root plants.
Asparagus has modified adventitious roots that swell to store food and to support the plants.
Asparagus grows in trenches like these. Depth of planting is critical. If too shallow, the plants will produce a large number of small spears. If planted too deep, the spears will be large, but few in number. These furrows are at least eight-inches deep and a foot wide.
Asparagus roots grow very deep because they can survive very long in the soil.
Here they are lined up in the trench. Last spring, we planted two varieties – ‘Purple Passion’, which produces attractive purple spears with a mild, nutty flavor and are reputedly sweeter than most other asparagus varieties. And ‘Millennium’ – a productive plant that produces high-quality spears that are tender, green, and delicious.
Asparagus needs lots of room to grow. The crown and root system can develop to an enormous size – about five to six feet in diameter and 10 to 15 feet deep. When planting, the roots should be splayed to direct the root growth outward and not downward.
Once all the crowns are positioned, the trenches are covered with several inches of soil. As the weeks progress and growth appears, the rows are backfilled a bit more making sure the tips of the shoots are all but completely covered.
Asparagus beds require consistent soil moisture during the first growing season. Once established, the plants are relatively low-maintenance.
By June, the bed is full of growing young ferns. This fern production is crucial to the success of a developing asparagus patch. The number of spears produced each year and the overall health of the plants, is affected by how many ferns are left to mature.
The bigger the ferns, the more food is created to fuel the following year’s spear production.
First spears can appear within a couple of months after establishing an asparagus patch, depending on soil temperatures and moisture, but they should be left alone, so the plants could start to develop and become more established.
And here is the bed last August. The asparagus ferns are more than four-feet tall. The food produced travels back down to the crown and the roots of the plant in fall as the fern dies back. The carbohydrates are held in the dormant crowns through the winter.
And then earlier this month, the heads of stronger, more robust spears poked out of the soil.
‘Purple Passion’ asparagus is nuttier, sweeter, and more tender than other green varieties because it has about 20-percent more sugar in its stalks. While the stalks are purple on the outside, the inside is the same as a green spear.
‘Millennium’ asparagus is high yielding, long lived, cold hardy, and adaptable. The best time to harvest is when the asparagus spears are about six to eight inches tall. Harvesting can be done by breaking the spears off by hand near the soil level.
This is an earthenware cloche specifically for growing white asparagus. The plants are the same, but the spears of white asparagus are blanched, or kept from light while growing. Crossing fingers they’re white under there.
It’s widely thought that thin asparagus are tastier, based on the notion that slender spears are younger. However, thick spears are already thick when they poke up from the soil. The two are just different varieties. I love both kinds of asparagus, but I do find that fat stalks tend to be a little more succulent.
An asparagus bed should receive a minimum of eight-hours of full sun per day and be well-drained.
With room to grow, and a little patience to start, one can enjoy homegrown, delicious and nutritious asparagus for at least 15-years.
It's that time of year again, when all my beautiful potted plants are brought outdoors for display.
I have a rather sizable collection of tropical specimens at my Bedford, New York farm. During the winter, they are all stored in special greenhouses. Once the warm weather arrives, they are all brought outdoors - some go to my home in Maine, and the remainder of the plants are placed in various locations here at Cantitoe Corners. It is a big undertaking to move all these plants when the weather changes. Thankfully, I have the help of a strong outdoor grounds crew and some heavy-duty farm equipment to get the job done.
Enjoy these photos.
This is the inside of one of several plastic hoop houses where most of my tropical plants are stored during the cold weather. They actually spend about seven months of the year in these temperature-controlled shelters. All these structures are built using heavy gauge American made, triple-galvanized steel frames and polyethylene panels. Inside, these houses have high ceilings to accommodate the growing plants.
Every year around this time, the tropical plants are taken out of storage, cleaned up, and repotted if needed, and then moved to their warm-weather locations.
This is one of my favorites – the sago palm, Cycas revoluta. It is a popular houseplant known for its feathery foliage and ease of care. Sago palms prefer to be situated in well-drained soil, and like other cycad plants, do not respond well to overwatering.
This is Oxalis triangularis, commonly called false shamrock. It is a species of perennial plant in the family Oxalidaceae. The trifoliate leaves resemble a shamrock and can be green to variegated to deep maroon in color. The leaves close up at night or when disturbed.
Another plant in my tropical greenhouse is Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia nicolai – a species of evergreen tropical herbaceous plant with gray-green leaves that grow up to 18-inches long out of a main crown in a clump. The leaves are paddle shaped, similar to banana plant leaves, and attached to a long, upright stalk.
These are Australian Brush Cherry trees, Eugenia myrtifolia, also now known as Syzygium paniculatum. The Brush Cherry is an evergreen tree or shrub with shiny dark green leaves native to Australia and New Zealand. I usually display these topiaries in the courtyard behind my Winter House kitchen during summer.
The foliage of philodendrons is usually green but may be coppery, red, or purplish with parallel leaf veins that are green or sometimes red or white. Shape, size, and texture of the leaves vary considerably, depending on species and maturity of the plant. I have many philodendrons that are growing so well here at Bedford.
Among the first to be pulled out of storage are the staghorn ferns. The staghorn fern is an unusual and attractive epiphyte that thrives in the tropics. I adore staghorns and over the years have collected quite a few of these magnificent specimens. Staghorn ferns are called Platyceriums. They are Old World tropicals native to Africa, northern Australia, and Southeast Asia.
These figs are taken to a sunny spot – outside my head house is perfect. The most critical factor in moving plants is temperature. Avoid prolonged exposure to heat or cold, with temperatures below 35 degrees Fahrenheit or higher than 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit.
As the plants are removed from the hoop house, they’re grouped by type outside.
The plants stay outside the hoop houses until I have time to go through them and decide where they will be displayed.
The bird’s nest fern is known for its tropical fronds that grow out of a rosette in the middle of the plant which closely resembles a bird’s nest. It is also occasionally called a crow’s nest fern.
This day was rainy, so the plants got a good drink outdoors.
Moving these tropical specimens is a tedious task, but by the afternoon, most of the potted specimens from my tropical hoop house are outdoors.
I also have a large variety of special planters – antiques and reproductions, planters made of stone, lead, fiberglass and resin, and in a wide array of shapes and sizes.
Heavier plants such as this Eugenia are pulled out by tractor and then carefully transported to my Winter House courtyard.
Once inside the yard, the potted specimen is positioned manually.
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees or shrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes. Topiary Eugenia prefers sunny locations where all parts of the plant can receive direct sunlight. It is relatively slow growing, so occasional trimming and grooming are needed to keep it nicely sculpted.
The crew is always very careful when moving these container plants. Every pot is positioned thoughtfully and accurately.
And now this hoop house is empty. It’s amazing how many plants can fit inside the durable hoop houses. I am so fortunate to be able to store all these plants during the cold season, and then enjoy them all around my farm from now until the fall.
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