My Farm's Spring Gardens

May 2, 2017

All my gardens look so wonderful this season.

It always amazes me how quickly plants grow from day to day. Now that we are well into spring, I am constantly noticing something new blooming at the farm. This weekend, I took photos of various plantings in the early morning and in the evening - the fresh new colors of nature can’t be beat.

Enjoy these photos.

: Wooden deck furniture, stained my signature Bedford Gray, adorns the stone terrace. Behind the chairs and side table is one of two Camperdown elms just outside my Winter House kitchen. The early morning sky overhead is so beautiful.

: Camperdown Elm, Ulmus ‘Camperdownii’, is a weeping elm tree with gorgeous twisted branches and dense foliage. Camperdown elm only grows to about 25-feet tall, but can spread even wider than its height.

: The stone terrace off the house is divided into two levels – the upper and lower Terrace Parterre. The lower area is where I have plenty of culinary herbs planted.

: The Terrace Parterre also includes four square beds with contrasting hedges of teucrium, boxwood, and golden barberry – they are all filling in with color as new leaves grow.

: Nearby, the dwarf apple orchard is bursting with colorful white and pink blooms.

: I planted this espalier of apple trees when I first moved to Bedford – I knew right away it was the perfect location. Espalier refers to an ancient technique, that trains trees to grow flat, either against a wall, or along a wire-strung framework.

: These beautiful flowers attract honeybees seeking nectar.

: In 2010, I planted six Gravenstein apple espalier trees, Malus ‘Gravenstein’. This antique variety is well known for cooking, sauce, cider and eating out of hand. These trees feature showy clusters of fragrant white flowers with shell pink overtones along the branches in mid spring.

: Apple trees are deciduous and have a period of dormancy followed by a busy spring when its leaves and blossoms appear. All the apple trees on the property are blooming, including these very old specimens located in the south paddock.

: Here are the newly installed stone uprights for a new pergola. This one extends from the center of the clematis pergola into the southeast paddock.

: A few months ago, I acquired six of these beautiful giant faux bois planters. I can’t wait to plant in them this summer.

: My outdoor grounds crew has been busy potting up thousands of bare-root tree cuttings. They are currently being stored in several areas of the farm. This section, from our friends at Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden, Connecticut, sits in front of my hay barn. It’s a collection of European beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Gold’.

: Here is the allee of pin oaks with slowly emerging leaves. A recognizable trait of the pin oak is that its lower branches hang down. It also has horizontal middle branches and upright upper branches forming a most interesting growth habit. Yet, it is one of the most popular trees for landscaping because it’s so easy to transplant and is very hardy. These trees continue to thrive here at the farm.

: Here is another view of the the great pin oaks with the winding clematis pergola in the distance.

: Behind the long clematis pergola and beneath the Rose of Sharon is a blanket of fragrant muscari, or grape hyacinths.

: Outside the side door of my Winter House is the White Garden – aptly named because all the flowers planted here are white. It is growing so well this year. Behind it are two weeping katsura trees. Several weeping katsuras were planted near the Winter House when I started landscaping the area. They have grown large and are very graceful.

: The herbaceous peony bed is also growing beautifully. Jute twine is laced through stakes to form a support for all the heavy and aromatic peony blooms to come.

: I’m also very happy with the way the tree peonies are filling out. I recently planted several more specimens in this garden bed. The original tree peonies were transplanted from my home on Turkey Hill Road in Connecticut. This garden will soon be bursting with color.

: Over the weekend, these crabapple trees erupted with beautiful white flowers.

: Crabapples have diverse growth habits or tree shapes – these are upright, or columnar crabapples.

: This photo was taken from the hay loft of my stable – so pretty. The crabapple has more than 35-species and 700-cultivars.

: Here is a view looking down through the donkey paddock and donkey run-in shed. Behind it are the same gorgeous crabapples.

: And here is a view across the paddocks toward the woodlands beyond.

: Here is an interesting shot of the corncrib – a structure that is original to the property.

: Further down the carriage road from the corncrib is this grove of flowering pear trees. The taller trees behind are bald cypress, or Taxodium distichum, a deciduous conifer.

: The pear trees are loaded with fragrant, white flowers.

: More tree seedlings sit in the parking lot in front of my main greenhouse. The carpinus, or upright European hornbeam hedges are beginning to leaf out.

: After months of winter protection, it is nice to see the burlap is gone from the undulating Boxwood Allee.

: This row of trees behind the fence was here on the property when I bought it. They are rather ancient apple trees underplanted with more muscari. Muscari grows in shades of light and medium blue, which look lovely below the apple tree blossoms.