Preparing for the Season's First Garden Tour
Here at my Bedford, New York farm this morning, I am welcoming a group of more than 30 guests to view my late spring gardens.
With so much to do, everyone pitched in yesterday to get everything ready for the first tour of the season. Among the many tasks on our list - polish the silver, wash the glasses, weed the garden beds, edge the carriage roads, pick flowers, clean the fountains, and tend to the many outdoor potted plants. Fortunately, Mother Nature cooperated - it was a beautiful day and the farm looks gorgeous.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- After more than two years, I am finally able to open my farm for a select number of private walking tours to view the gardens. Most of them are conducted in late spring and early summer. It takes a lot of work to get the farm ready for these events – there are so many details to cover. Look closely and one can see Phurba weed whacking the newly mowed allée between my horse paddocks.
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- All the garden beds and tree pits are weeded and mulched. This Japanese maple is planted next to what I call my Stewartia Garden outside my Tenant House – aptly named because I have several Stewartia trees in this large bed. And, do you know why I love Stewartia trees? My last name is “Stewart” after all.
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- All the lawns are mowed and raked. This is my party lawn soccer field. My grandson, Truman, loves to play soccer here when he visits. Located between my long pergola and my pool, it is a beautiful, flat, and expansive space for lots of summertime games.
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- Up on my terrace parterre, Phurba cleans out the fountains.
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- This is one of two hand-casted antique fountains I purchased many year ago and finally installed in 2018. They look so nice on this terrace and all the visiting birds love to bathe in them.
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- Here, Pete uses a hoe to carefully hand edge the carriage road and create straight lines.
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- Look how nice the carriage road is after a little edging.
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- After Pete edged, Fernando follows behind to rake the debris.
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- Meanwhile, inside my Winter House, Carlos “dos” is busy at the sink cleaning and polishing the silver.
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- Look how these trays shine once they are done.
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- Linen napkins are pulled, ironed, and placed nicely on silver trays so they are ready to distribute.
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- Glasses are washed, wiped dry, and also placed on a tray – any chores that can be completed ahead of time are done the day before, so there is as little rushing around as possible the day of the event.
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- Potted plants are brought out of the greenhouse and displayed on my plant stand in the kitchen courtyard. Arranging potted plants is a great and inexpensive way to decorate both indoors and out.
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- More plants are placed on this plant stand – everything is also watered ahead, so pots are not dripping when guests arrive.
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- My new lead peacock gifted to me by my friend, antiques expert Vincent Manzo, is positioned and ready to greet visitors.
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- Enma cuts buckets of fresh roses for flower arrangements.
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- I adore roses and have grown them for more than 25-years. Right now, my roses are blooming all over the farm – all with their colorful petal formations and beautiful fragrances.
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- And look at these beautiful rose blooms. It is one of my favorite climbing varieties – Rosa ‘Veilchenblau’ – a mauve hybrid multiflora rose cultivar and the best known violet rambler. Other names are ‘Bleu-Violet’, ‘Blue Rambler’, ‘Blue Rosalie’ and ‘Violet Blue’. The cultivar was bred by Hermann Kiese in Germany in 1909. These Veilchenblau roses are stunning on my long and winding pergola.
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- My orchard surrounding the pool has more than 200 fruit trees. All the square tree pits are also weeded and the lawns mowed. Earlier this season, we expanded these tree pits to keep the mowers at a safe distance, so branches are not disturbed.
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- My new yew table in the pavilion outside my pool is wiped down and the chairs are all dusted clean.
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- And here’s Fernando doing what we call “dragging” the roads. We created this special device to rake the gravel, so it is even and picks up any debris along the way. This is done every couple of weeks to keep the roads looking neat and tidy. The bag on the rakes is used to keep them weighted and touching the surface.
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- It is made from four soft garden rakes attached to a wooden frame. It is crucial to maintain gravel roads, so water can flow properly during storms.
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- Fernando drives the four miles of carriage road around the property several times at the end of the day.
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- Look at the carriage road after it is raked. This section is right in front of my Winter House. When maintaining a road it is important to ensure it has a crowned driving surface and a shoulder area that slopes directly away from the edge for water drainage. Everything is looking ready for the morning tour.
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- There goes Fernando again. I will be sure to share photos from the garden tour in my next blog. Stay tuned.
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