A Rainy Day at My Farm
Here in Bedford, New York, we're expecting a mix of sun and clouds with highs in the 80s - and no rain, at least not today. That’s good news after a day of drenching showers.
Yesterday, we had several hours of on-and-off rainfall - sometimes quite hard, but fortunately, we didn’t lose any trees or big branches during the storm. I am also glad the farm's carriage roads did not suffer too much run-off water damage or major flooding. As for the gardens - they remained very lush and green.
Here are some photos.
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- We had a few showers in the morning, but by early afternoon, darker clouds and heavy rains fell over my farm. Here’s my old corn crib just minutes before it started to pour. Corn cribs were made with sloping roofs to keep the rain off the stored grain inside. The unique “keystone” shape flaring from bottom to top was also designed to shed water.
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- Walking down the Boxwood Allee, the skies look eerily gray over the paddocks and the tree line.
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- Even with dark, ominous clouds overhead, the great white pines stand majestically in the landscape. These white pine trees are visible from almost every location on this end of the farm. Pinus Strobus is a large pine native to eastern North America. Some white pines can live more than 400-years.
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- We’ve been doing lots of work in the vegetable garden – weeding the beds, tending the growing crops, and planting more vegetables in succession, so there is always something to harvest through the season.
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- Ryan and Phurba had just started planting our potatoes when the heavy rains came down. Here’s Phurba working quickly to get them all into the ground.
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- Next door in the chicken yard, all but the geese went inside for cover. The geese didn’t seem to mind the rain at all and continued to walk around and graze.
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- We planted this large area with hundreds of hosta plants last April. They are under a grove of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia. Hostas are a perennial favorite. Their lush green foliage varying in leaf shape, size, and texture, and their easy care requirements make them ideal for so many gardens.
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- This is the carriage road leading to my tennis court. Here, we planted two rows of trees – the shorter green trees are ‘Marley’s Pink Parasol’ Japanese Snowbell, Styrax japonicus ‘JLWeeping.’ And the slightly taller purple trees are Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light.’ In time, these trees will create a low and dainty canopy.
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- Here are the bell-shaped flowers of the ‘Marley’s Pink Parasol’ Japanese Snowbells. These lightly-scented nodding pink bell-shaped flowers hang below the branches from mid to late spring.
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- And these are the blooms on the Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’ – purple trees with fragrant, white, bell-shaped flowers.
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- Hard to see in this photo, but it is pouring rain over the Boxwood Allee. The boxwood is very green. I take excellent care of these specimens. A few weeks ago, I sprayed all the hundreds of boxwood on the farm with TopBuxus Health Mix, which prevents the fungal disease called box blight and provides the plants with rich nutrients that restore new green leaves and strong branch growth.
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- Here is my Basket House, where I store my vast collection of baskets. It is located near my grove of bald cypress trees across from my clematis pergola.
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- All the plantings beneath my long clematis pergola are getting a good drink – many of the alliums are still going strong, but soon, this entire garden will be bursting with orange lilies.
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- Stairs from my large Terrace Parterre off my Winter House lead down to a long stone wall which is planted with lots of Sedum – a large genus of flowering plants also known as stonecrops and are members of the succulent family. These do really well growing along stone walkways and between the crevices in stone walls.
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- This is my Winter House and the large floor to ceiling windows in my expansive porch, where my melodious Red Factor canaries and Combassou finches reside.
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- Looking north, down the paddock with my stable on the left – the rains continue to fall.
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- Syneilesis palmata emerges from the soil looking like shaggy mane mushrooms. Over time, it forms a sizeable patch of green umbrella-shaped leaves. Its foliage reaches about 24-inches tall with unusual umbels of upward-facing pink, and white flowers when in bloom. Mature foliage can be more than a foot across with deeply toothed, narrow leaves – it is really an interesting plant.
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- These are two of my many smoke bushes. This plant goes by several names such as smoke bush, smoke tree, Cotinus, cloud tree, and wig tree. It’s an easy-to-grow, wonderful addition to any garden with its beautiful purple-pink smokey plumes.
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- And look how lush and green this shade garden is with all the thriving ferns. These ferns grow alongside the winding path next to my Tenant House.
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- By late afternoon, the skies lightened ever so slightly, and the heavy rains tapered to showers once again. Thankfully, today is expected to be much more pleasant – just in time for a busy television shoot down in my vegetable garden.
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