More Autumn Colors at the Farm
What a difference a week makes - it's the peak of fall foliage here at my Bedford, New York farm.
I love autumn and all the colors of the changing leaves. Over the years, I’ve planted thousands and thousands of trees making it a spectacular place to take in the season’s transformation. We haven’t had a hard frost yet, and these past few days have been quite cloudy, but the fall colors across the landscape are just beautiful - shades of red, orange, yellow, gold and green.
Enjoy these photos.
-
- At my farm I planted many different types of trees in hopes that they would shade, provide climate control, and change color at different times, in different ways. Here is some of the color in the Japanese Maple Woodland. I love how the smaller Japanese maples look under the canopy of taller trees. I planted so many Japanese maples here – hundreds of cultivars with countless forms, leaf types, and sizes. They all blend together so well. I can’t wait until these smaller specimens turn bright red.
-
- Some trees change early, others late. My pin oaks, Quercus palustris, are some of the last to completely change. Soon, all the leaves will be a gorgeous russet brown. These trees have done so well here on my farm.
-
- This young pin oak tree is one of 104 in a newly planted allee along the carriage road just past my Christmas tree field heading toward what I call my Contemporary House. Its leaves have already changed colors.
-
- Here is the winding road leading to my hayfields and woodlands. This is always a popular viewpoint – in every season.
-
- This is a mature Japanese Stewartia, Stewartia pseudocamellia, just outside my Summer House garden. Native to Japan, this tree is known not only for its brilliant shades of orange that emerge in fall, but also for its interesting exfoliating bark and delicate blooms. I love Stewartia trees – do you know why? Here’s a hint: it’s in the name.
-
- This is a beautiful American larch, Larix laricina, standing out in the pinetum with its stunning autumn gold color. It is commonly called tamarack, eastern larch, American larch or hackmatack.
-
- Here’s a closer look at its needles. This deciduous conifer will drop all these showy needles just as winter approaches.
-
- I like to plant climbing hydrangea at the base of some of the large trees. These plants are true climbers, using the suckers on their branches to climb. These large plants sometimes reach 50 feet tall or more at maturity. In early summer, they produce fragrant, lace-cap, flat-topped, white flower heads.
-
- And in fall, the leaves turn a pretty yellow.
-
- Along one side of my carriage road across from the long pergola is a stand of bald cypress trees, Taxodium distichum. This section is always the first to turn in autumn. Bald cypress trees are deciduous conifers that shed their needlelike leaves in the fall. In fact, they get the name “bald” cypress because they drop their leaves so early in the season. Their fall colors are tan, cinnamon, and fiery orange.
-
- This is the pawpaw tree, Acimina triloba. In the fall, pawpaw leaves turn golden yellow. These leaves don’t drop quickly, so they provide lasting color in the fall landscape. Everyone here at the farm is awaiting harvest time for its delicious fruits.
-
- This is my grove of American beech trees, Fagus grandifolia. These American beech trees offer a beautiful autumn show every year. American beech is native to the eastern United States and Canada. It is a deciduous tree with smooth gray bark.
-
- The honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos, also known as the thorny locust or thorny honeylocust, is a deciduous tree in the family Fabaceae, native to central North America where it is mostly found in the moist soil of river valleys. The leaves are yellow in fall before dropping, and among the last to emerge again in spring.
-
- Here’s the changing leaf color of an American filbert, Corylus americana. The filbert, or American hazelnut, is an easy-to-grow native shrub that produces edible nuts in late summer. It is hardy and able to thrive in a wide range of conditions. It is a good choice for planting as a hedgerow or windbreak. Its deep green leaves turn copper and yellow in autumn.
-
- Another popular vantage point is this one looking down between the paddocks with the corn crib on the right and the row of lindens on the left with all the bright yellow leaves.
-
- I loved the linden allee so much, I extended it to the chicken coops. Here is the newer section – planted about three years ago. I am so pleased with how well the trees are growing.
-
- The perimeter around my paddocks displays such wonderful shades of amber, brown, orange and green. I also get many compliments on the fencing around the farm – it is antique spruce fencing I bought in Canada, and it surrounds all my paddocks for the horses, pony and donkeys.
-
- The stand of giant white pines is majestic. Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, white pine, northern white pine, Weymouth pine, and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America.
-
- Here is my row of red Japanese barberry, Barberis thunbergii, leading to the run-in shed. Barberry shrubs make great additions to the landscape and are known for their rich color and year-round garden interest.
-
- One morning, we stepped outside and saw this flock of wild geese. We wanted to capture a video of them in flight, but they seemed too content to leave. Do you know… a group of geese on land is called a gaggle, but in flight it becomes a skein, team or wedge of geese.
-
- And driving out of the woodland on the carriage road to the back hayfield – what a glorious sight of colors. What does autumn look like where you live? Share your autumn descriptions with me in the comments section below.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
