An August Tour of My Gardens

August 10, 2017

Another pleasant garden tour at Cantitoe Corners!

Alfredo Avila used to work for me at my Bedford, New York farm as a member of my outdoor grounds crew. Yesterday, he came by with some of his current colleagues for a short visit and tour of my gardens. Because I am still away at Skylands, my home in Maine, I wasn’t able to lead this walk myself, but the group was in good hands with my head gardener, Ryan McCallister. They toured the greenhouses, walked through the allees, and spent time in the flower and vegetable beds - it was a great time for all.

Here are some photos - enjoy.

: Alfredo Avila, on the far right, came with some of his current colleagues from nearby AP Farm. They were all very eager to walk through the gardens and learn how we grow and maintain all our plants, trees, and vegetable crops.

: The first stop was my flower cutting garden. Ryan walked them through and explained the variety of flowers that grow here during the summer months.

: These are the showy flower heads of rudbeckia. Rudbeckia’s bright, summer-blooming flowers give the best effect when planted in masses. Rudbeckias are relatively drought-tolerant and disease-resistant. Flower colors include yellow and gold, and the plants grow two to six feet tall, depending on the variety.

: I have long loved snapdragons, Antirrhinum majus, and have many in the garden. Snapdragons are available in most colors except true blue and coordinate well with other garden bloomers.

: Many snapdragons come in more vibrant bold tones, such as this red, while others are soft pastels or subtly shaded bi-colors.

: Angelica gigas, also called Korean angelica, giant Angelica, purple parsnip, and dangquai, is a monocarpic biennial or short lived perennial plant from China, Japan and Korea. This showstopper produces conspicuous, red-purple leaf sheaths with dense, purple domed flowerheads, and is highly attractive to bees.

: Euphorbia marginata is a small annual in the spurge family. It is commonly called snow-on-the-mountain, and is a warm-weather annual native to prairies from Minnesota and the Dakotas to Colorado and Texas.

: Shasta daisy flowers provide perky summer blooms, offering the look of the traditional daisy along with evergreen foliage. They are low maintenance and great for filling in bare spots in the landscape.

: All these flowers are thriving in my cutting garden – there is always something new to see. The group loved the beautiful blooms.

: They were also happy to see all the pawpaws on the trees, Asimina triloba. The pawpaw is the largest edible fruit native to America. Individual fruits weigh five to 16 ounces and are three to six inches in length. The larger sizes appear plump, similar to the mango. Pawpaw fruits often occur as clusters of up to nine individual fruits. These are not quite ready to pick yet. Pawpaw fruit ripens during a four-week period between mid-August and into October.

: Ryan walked the group over to see the newly cleaned vegetable greenhouse, and explained how we use this space during the colder seasons. Here is a view of the greenhouse behind my grapevines.

: Every garden tour includes a walk through the great Boxwood Allee. Ryan explained how we care for all the boxwood on the farm including the annual “burlapping” project.

: During this time of year, I always display many of my beautiful tropical plants around the farm. This is the courtyard in front of my stable, which we decorated with a cluster of palms.

: This year, we placed potted agaves on the back side of my stable. Agaves are exotic, deer-resistant, drought-tolerant plants that can live happily in containers.

: Alfredo was amazed with the agaves and their massive size. He remembered them as tiny plants and told the group how he has tried to grow more himself, but unfortunately hasn’t had quite as much success.

: The vegetable garden was next. We’ve had such a wonderful growing season this year – I am glad Alfredo was able to see our prolific crops.

: We’ve had some wonderful harvests. I’ve been enjoying many of these vegetables up at Skylands. And soon, we will also have many, many juicy tomatoes.

: Most tomato plant varieties need between 50 and 90 days to mature. Planting can also be staggered to produce early, mid and late season tomato harvests.

: It’s a 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.