June Garden Tours at My Farm

June 23, 2017

June garden tours are well underway at my farm.

Occasionally, I agree to open my gardens for private walking tours. Most of them are conducted in the spring and early summer. Earlier this week, we welcomed a group from the New York based private investment firm, Fir Tree Partners, and winners from their recent auction. And yesterday, a lovely group of students from the New York Botanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture came by for a visit. Through its highly distinguished two-year program, the NYBG combines academics with hands-on training, externships, field trips, and special lectures, to prepare its students for positions in both public and private sectors.

Unfortunately, because of my busy work schedule, I wasn’t able to lead these tours myself, but both groups were in good hands with my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, who guided them through the allees and gardens - enjoy these photos.

: Eric Lieberman, Garden Education Manager for the NYBG, and nearly 15-students, arrived mid-morning for their tour. Ryan explains how my farm has evolved since I purchased the property. This guided walk began in the main greenhouse and my cutting garden.

: The main greenhouse is where I store my tropical plants, many of which I use for decorating my home when entertaining. On these moveable tables, I store all sorts of ferns, begonias, orchids and other tropical specimens. The greenhouse tables slide from side to side to allow easy access to all the plants.

: Another stop was the Party Lawn. It is looking so lush and green. On the left is my long clematis pergola, and on the right, the weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. During summer parties, this lawn is great for playing croquet, badminton, and cornhole.

: The group saw the Pin Oak Allee, Quercus palustris, which looks fuller every week with its distinguishable lower, middle and upper branches – such a lovely stand of trees.

: Ryan also pointed out my newest project at the farm, my pool, and orchard, which I will show all of you in a future blog.

: Ryan pointed out my grove of weeping willows at one end of my pinetum. Weeping willow, Salix babylonica, is a medium to large sized tree, with alternate and spirally arranged, narrow light green leaves.

: There is also a weeping larch, Larix decidua ‘Pendula’ at the end of the Pin Oak Allee. It has bright green needles in spring, which turn gold before dropping in fall.

: I love these dark red barberry bushes and the graceful weeping willows beyond. This is down another carriage road on the way to the run-in.

: Next, Ryan and the group walked to the chicken yard and vegetable gardens.

: The students saw several of my Guinea fowl – they eat insects and seeds, including ants, flies, and ticks. They are quite loud, but very interesting to look at with their featherless heads and polka-dotted feathers. Native to Africa, guinea fowl are known for traveling in large, gregarious flocks.

: And they saw my adolescent chickens. In their fenced enclosure, all the chickens are provided ladders and natural roosts made out of felled trees. As you can see, my chickens are very happy birds.

: The vegetable garden is doing so well – so much growth has occurred over the last week.

: Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family. Members are informally known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, or mustard plants. They are also sometimes called cole crops.

: Look how my tomatoes are doing. If you grow tomatoes, it’s a good idea to grow a range of varieties, including at least one or two disease-resistant types, since, of all veggies, tomatoes tend to be the most susceptible to disease.

: Lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is a cultivated plant of the daisy family, Asteraceae. Lettuce is a fairly hardy, cool-weather vegetable that thrives when the average daily temperature is between 60 and 70-degrees Fahrenheit. I love all the different colored lettuces.

: Ryan, and the group, passed the tropical hoop house and explained how many of the plants have already gone up to Maine or to East Hampton for the summer.

: The group loved seeing the Catalpa trees. Catalpa trees are 40- to 70-foot tall trees with arching canopies. The leaves are arrow-shaped and glossy bright green. Flowers appear in spring and last into early summer.

: The students also loved the upper terrace parterre, especially this big pot – one of two huge cast iron sugar kettles I keep as fire pits at the farm. They add such a nice accent to the landscape and have always been fun conversation pieces during gatherings.

: Here is a group snapshot of the students including Eric on the bottom left, and Ryan, who is at the top left.

: My longtime housekeeper, Laura, set up some refreshments on the lower terrace parterre outside my kitchen. Here she is pouring some cool pomegranate juice made using concentrate from our friends at http://www.pomwonderful.com/

: The cookies are always made fresh in our test kitchen the day before by one of our test chefs. It was a fun walk with this year’s young students from the NYBG.

: Earlier this week, Ryan toured a group of auction winners. He began this tour from the lower gate, which is just off the Linden Tree Allee.

: First, they stopped at my stable to visit my five Friesian horses, Fell pony and three Sicilian donkeys.

: This year, behind the stable, I decided to plant some giant agaves in large pots – I think they look great here.

: My Black Shoulder Pied peacock was out strolling also. My peafowl are all very curious – this male loves to walk around, and watch the activity around the farm, especially by the stable.

: The Boxwood Allee on the way to the stable always grabs everyone’s attention.

: The Boxwood Allee separates the north and south paddocks – I am so proud of this allee and how it has developed and grown over the years. This is why feel it is so important to protect these specimens in winter, so they are lush and green come spring.

: The group saw my Winter House, and carport from the Boxwood Allee. It is a beautiful view on a nice, sunny day.

: Across the paddock is my American beech grove. The American beech, or Fagus grandifolia, is the species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and Canada.

: This is one of the most popular views during tours – the winding road through the woodland under a canopy of green foliage.

: The gooseberry bushes are located at the rear of the greenhouse, where they can get morning sun, afternoon part-shade, and buoyant air circulation. The gooseberries in my garden include ‘Pixwell’, ‘Invicta’, and ‘Hinnonmaki Red’.

: Cotinus, commonly known as smoke tree or smoke bush, is an upright, loose spreading shrub with leaves that are deciduous, and oval-shaped. The smooth, rounded leaves come in shades of yellow, deep purple, green and pinkish bronze.

: As our guests continued their tour, Ryan showed them these gorgeous Bald cypress trees, or Taxodium distichum. These trees are deciduous conifers that shed their needle-like leaves in the fall. In fact, they got their name “bald” cypress because they lose their leaves so early in the winter season.

: A cypress knee is a term used to describe the distinctive structures that form above the roots of cypress trees. The knees are woody projections that grow above the water line. Some botanists say they provide oxygen to the roots, while others claim it serves a more structural support function.