Touring the Gardens at My Farm
The gardens at my Bedford, New York farm are so very lush and green - it’s the perfect time for a garden tour.
As many of you know, every now and then I agree to small, guided walks around my property. This week, I welcomed members from our neighboring Katonah Elementary School, and a group from the Elizabeth Park Conservancy in West Hartford, Connecticut. I greeted both groups and gave them a brief history of my farm before leaving for a full day of meetings and events in New York City. When I am not able to lead these tours myself, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, guides guests through the various gardens, groves, and allees - showing them all that is blooming at the time.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here I am with both groups before the tour began. Also joining this tour is Stephen Scanniello, rosarian for the Elizabeth Park Conservancy, president of the Heritage Rose Foundation, and curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. He is also best known for transforming the Cranford Rose Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden into one of today’s most acclaimed rose gardens. We’ve known each other for many years. I was so happy he could come by and look at all the gorgeous roses in bloom.
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- Ryan started the tour at the main greenhouse and two of my newest garden beds – filled with hostas and gorgeous white lilies, and bordered at the front with lush, green boxwood.
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- They walked through my flower cutting garden, which is finally starting to come together – it is looking more and more like my flower garden at my Turkey Hill home in Westport, Connecticut, except much, much larger – there are so many beautiful flowers blooming.
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- There are numerous types of dianthus – most have pink, red, or white flowers with notched petals.
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- Also in my flower cutting garden are beautiful irises in a variety of colors.
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- I have many roses in my flower garden. Some of them were transferred here from my home in East Hampton. I am so happy with how well they’re doing. In the last couple years, I’ve added to this collection of roses – David Austin roses and various varieties from Northland Rosarium. This arbor is filled with the rambling rose, ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’.
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- They are beautiful, little, rosette-shaped flowers held in large, open sprays of pale pink with a wonderfully strong musky fragrance. I have a few of these prolific roses around this space.
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- Under the arbor, we also have sweet-smelling wisteria – a high-climbing vine that blooms vigorously in spring with large, drooping clusters of fragrant lilac or bluish-purple flowers.
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- More roses grow around the perimeter of the fence – they’re all bursting with blooms.
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- The peonies are still up – I hope they are still flowering where you are. These peonies are in shades of peach and pink.
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- Outside the flower cutting garden, beautiful Aruncus dioicus, commonly called goat’s beard. It is a tall, erect, bushy, clump-forming plant typically growing four to six feet high which features pinnately compound, dark green foliage and showy, plume-like spikes of tiny, cream colored flowers.
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- In front of the flower cutting garden is one end of the long and winding clematis pergola. The gardens here transform several times a year. Now, some of the lily stems are already about four-feet tall. During this time, it is the bold green of all the foliage that stands out. In mid to late July, the bright orange tiger lilies come to life.
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- This Schubertii Allium blooms in late spring to early summer. It features up to 100 purple florets on 16 to 18-inch stems that radiate from ball-shaped umbels – so eye-catching.
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- The group also passed what I used to call the “party lawn”, where I set-up outdoor games, such as croquet and cornhole, during summer. Now I call it the soccer field. My grandson, Truman, is obsessed with soccer, and if you look closely, I put up a regulation soccer goal net at the other end of the field, where he and his friends love to play.
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- The tour then walked under the growing canopy of these majestic pin oaks, Quercus palustris – large full, ovate shaped trees with a growth rate of 24-inches or more per year. The pin oak is one of the faster-growing oak trees, and these specimens are thriving.
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- Adjacent to the pin oak allee is my large Equipment Barn topped with three of these old finials I purchased years ago – they are so perfect for this structure. My Equipment Barn is used for storing all our work vehicles and machinery, such as the tractor and Hi-Lo.
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- We’ve had a lot of rain in the Northeast this spring, which has done wonders for all the greenery – everything is so bold in color and full of life, including these weeping willows, which are located at one end of my evolving pinetum. These trees have sweeping, low branches and shady rounded canopies.
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- Here is my grove of American beech trees – always so beautiful in every season.
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- Next on the tour was the great Boxwood Allee. Ryan walked the group down the allee, stopping at various points to show plantings and structures, and to answer any questions.
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- The boxwood is looking so green. I just started using TopBuxus Health Mix, which prevents the fungal disease called box blight, and is available on Amazon. The pine needles under the boxwood also helps keep disease at a minimum.
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- The group also stopped at the vegetable garden. Here are Jude’s growing crops – everything is doing so well. She will love harvesting all these delicious vegetables.
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- On the opposite side of the garden, we planted our tomatoes. We always cover the beds with thick, black plastic to make them neat, tidy, and free from weeds.
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- Next door, in “coop #1”, our brooder of baby chicks and a peachick. Soon, I will show you our newest additions to the flock.
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- This collection of rose bushes is planted in the lilac allee just past my chicken coops and near my tennis court. It is filled with various shades of pink, fragrant rose blooms.
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- Close to the end of each tour, I always plan a small break for guests to enjoy refreshments and the sweeping views of the farm from my terrace parterre. Here are some members from the Elizabeth Park Conservancy. The weather on this day was just perfect – 70s and sunny.
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- And here is Ryan with members of the Katonah Elementary School PTO. On the far left is Samantha Holcman, its co-president.
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- The group got to see some of the beautiful clematis blooming around each granite upright along the pergola. There are several different varieties planted, but each pair of posts supports the same kind, and all in sparkling shades of lavender, blue and purple.
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- This time of year, I also love to display various tropicals around the farm – this one in a Martha Stewart Square Planter with False Bottom from my collection at QVC. Made out of fiber resin, these planters are so durable, light and easy to use inside or out. https://www.qvc.com/Martha-Stewart-17%22-Square-Planter-with-False-Bottom.product.M57677.html?sc=NAVLIST
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- And here is the old corn crib – original to the farm. Everyone loves to take photos of it nestled between the trees near the antique fencing along the paddock. What a lovely morning for a tour, and such gorgeous views of the farm this season. See more of photos of my vibrant plants and flowers on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
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