No plants give sweeter returns than fruit trees. And this year, I have so many delicious fruits growing here at my Bedford, New York farm.
Fresh fruit is one of nature's most delicious products. This summer, we've already picked boxes and boxes of raspberries, blueberries, and currants, but all the others - the peaches, apples, pears, medlars, etc., are developing so nicely. I have an orchard around my pool filled with more than 200 different fruit trees. Most of the fruits aren't ready to pick just yet, but it won't be long before we start harvesting our first of many bounties.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
This orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. I wanted it filled with a variety of apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear, and quince trees. Many were bare-root cuttings when they arrived and now they’re beautiful mature specimens.
This time every year, everyone around the farm eagerly awaits the first fruits. Look closely – these trees are filled with peaches.
Last week, the peaches were just starting to turn pink. They’re still hard, but they all look so wonderful this season.
Underripe peaches will still have a slight green undertone, but we’ve had a lot of heat in the last week or so, which helps to mature the fruits. Additionally, those peaches higher in the tree, which are exposed to more sunlight, will also ripen sooner.
And this week – look how pink they are! If the peach is firm to the touch, it’s not ready. It’s ripe when there is some “give” as it is gently squeezed. These need a few more days. Color is another great indicator of maturity. Peaches are ripe when the ground color of the fruit changes from green to completely yellow.
And then what a bounty we will have. Some of the peach varieties in this orchard include ‘Garnet Beauty’, ‘Lars Anderson’, ‘Polly’, ‘Red Haven’, and ‘Reliance’.
Peach trees thrive in an area where they can soak up the sunshine throughout the day. Growing peach trees are self-fruiting, which means the pollen from the same flower or variety can pollinate the tree and produce fruit, so you only have to plant one. I have more than 15-peach trees in this orchard.
On this tree, we have nectarines. Both peaches and nectarines are tree ripened. The tastiest nectarines will have “sugar spots,” tiny pale speckles that indicate sweetness.
In another row are the Asian pears – so many, many pears this year. I planted many types of Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, which is native to East Asia. These trees include Hosui, Niitaka, Shinko, and Shinseiko.
Asian pears are usually smaller than regular pears and have a sweeter flavor. Asian pears are also a bit more crisp.
Some of the other pears in the orchard are Bartlett, Columbia, D’Amalis, Ginnybrook, McLaughlin, Nova, Patten, Seckel, Stacyville, and Washington State.
A medium pear is a good source of vitamin C, potassium, vitamin K, copper, magnesium, and B vitamins. And pears are an excellent source of fiber.
It’s hard to resist picking any of the pears, but summer pears won’t be mature until mid-August to late-September. And the season lasts about six weeks.
All the pear trees are filled with fruit. Some of our fruit trees are staked for added support.
And of course, I have a section of delicious apples. I already grow hundreds of apple trees here at the farm – some that were here when I acquired the property and others I planted soon after moving here. These orchard apple trees include Baldwin, Black Oxford, Cortland, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, Fuji, Golden Russet, Grimes Golden, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Redfield, Roxbury Russet, Windham Russet, and more.
As with most fruit, apple trees produce best when grown in full sun, which means six or more hours of direct summer sunlight daily.
We almost always have a good amount of apples during apple season which is late-August to November. My granddaughter, Jude, loves to come up to the farm to make apple cider in the fall.
These are the fruits of the medlar, Mespilus germanica – a small deciduous tree and member of the rose family. These fruits are not ready yet – we’ll pick them in late October or early November.
The fruit is about one to two inches in diameter, and ranges in color from rosy rust to dusty brown. Medlars are native to Southwestern Asia and Southeastern Europe. The fruits have to be eaten when almost rotten in a process called “bletting”. And, because of this, they either have to be eaten right off the tree or picked early and put aside for a few weeks to blet. The medlar is very pulpy and very sweet. Its taste is similar to an overripe date with a flavor similar to toffee apples or apple butter.
Fruit trees need a good amount of room to mature. When planting, be sure to space them at least 15-feet apart. I am very fortunate to have such an expansive paddock space to grow all these trees. In another section, I have quince, apricots as well as sweet and sour cherries. I’ll share more photos when we harvest our first stone fruits – very soon.
For anyone passionate about gardening, it's always so rewarding to plant new specimens and watch them flourish.
Recently, I received a large assortment of beautiful plants grown by Monrovia, a wholesale plant nursery specializing in well-nurtured shrubs, perennials, annuals, ferns, grasses, and conifers with several nursery locations across the country. I decided a selection of hostas, heucheras, and lady's mantles would look perfect in the new expanded beds behind my Tenant House and around my Basket House. Last week, my gardeners Ryan McCallister and Brian O'Kelly, placed them and planted them before the heavy rains.
Enjoy these photos.
As a serious and passionate gardener, I am always looking for ways to add more beauty and texture to all my garden beds. I was so excited when these plants arrived from Monrovia. Ryan and I already had many ideas about where to place them.
Here’s Brian loading some of the potted plants onto the pick up truck to go to their new locations.
This selection includes a variety of hosta plants. Hostas, with a palette of so many different colors, textures, and sizes have tremendous landscape value and offer great interest to the garden. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies, and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi. They are native to northeast Asia and include hundreds of different cultivars.
Here, near my Basket House, we also decided to plant heuchera – this one is dark burgundy. Heuchera is a genus of largely evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae, all native to North America. Common names include alumroot and coral bells.
And here is a collection of Lady’s Mantle. Lady’s mantle, Alchemilla mollis, is an herbaceous perennial. The plant is fairly low-maintenance, blends well with other spring bloomers, and does well as a ground cover. It will be planted close to the footpath.
Whenever we get new specimens, Ryan positions the plants first before any holes are dug. When choosing locations for plants, always take into consideration the height and spread of the plant when it is mature, and give it ample room to grow in the garden bed.
This area in front of my Basket House will look so beautiful with hostas and heucheras.
All the areas to be planted are given a good sprinkling of fertilizer. Here we used an all-purpose formula with a good balance of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.
Brian starts by digging the hole at least twice the size of the plant’s root ball.
Since this day was so warm and humid, Brian decided to dig all the holes first in the morning and then plant. Here is one of many, many holes.
After each hole was dug, Brian placed the potted plant into the hole – it’s a good way to keep track of what goes where when planting a large amount.
This is a ‘Northern Exposure Silver’ Heuchera. The burgundy foliage becomes heavily frosted with silver, forming a dense mound. This plant also features sprays of small pink flowers on red stems that rise above the foliage from spring through summer.
Monrovia’s ‘Sirens Song™ Orange Delight’ Heuchera has lively peach and orange tones on large leaves. The plant grows into a full mound that is exceptionally heat tolerant. Dainty flowers appear on spikes above the foliage in spring.
Lady’s Mantle is a grayish green large circular, scallop-edged leaves. In late spring and early summer, the plant produces small delicate chartreuse blooms.
This garden already has several smoke bushes, so we added a few more. This is Cotinus coggygria ‘Lilla’ – a compact, upright, bushy, deciduous shrub with oval, maroon leaves turning red and orange in autumn, and feathery panicles of pink flowers in summer.
Another heuchera is this ‘Northern Exposure™ Sienna.’ It is long lived, hardy, and rust resistant and adds a pop of bright color to the shade garden. New leaves emerge green, then transform in summer to burnt-orange with yellow edges. Bright pink flowers and stems appear above the compact foliage in spring.
And this is a ‘T-Rex’ hosta. Right now, the leaves are young and small, but they will grow to gigantic green leaves measuring 18-inches long and 14-inches wide with a matte finish and a slightly wavy texture.
Before planting, Brian uses his hands to scarify the roots of every specimen. Scarifying stimulates root growth. Essentially, he teases small portions of the root ball to loosen the roots a bit and create some beneficial injuries. This helps the plant become established more quickly in its new environment.
Next, Brian places it into the hole and backfills, tamping down gently to ensure good contact between the plant and the surrounding soil.
Many of the plants in this area are under the dappled shade of these majestic bald cypress trees, Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. Though it’s native to swampy areas, the bald cypress is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10. These trees do so well here at the farm.
After a few hours, all the plants are in the ground. Here is one area all planted. I know these plants will thrive here. My Tenant House can be seen in the distance. This house is where my daughter and grandchildren stay when they visit. The surrounding beds are already filled with many beautiful shade-loving plants, trees, and shrubs.
All hostas need some sunlight. Choose them wisely. Blue, green, and variegated hostas will do better in slightly deeper shade, while yellow and gold ones need more light to bring out their bold colors.
And here is another area, near the new footpath we created. The combination of burgundy and green will look stunning. I can’t wait to see these plants grow and fill in the spaces. The dark plants are ‘Northern Exposure Red’ Heuchera – bold burgundy-red rounded leaves with fluted edges that form a tidy, dense mound with sprays of small greenish-yellow flowers.
And here is the area in front of my Basket House. I am glad to use more of the space for plantings instead of grass, which will save on mowing. I will be sure to share more photos of these areas as the plants grow.
Clean-up continues today at my Bedford, New York farm after torrential rains pounded through the Northeast over the weekend. I hope you saw the photos on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
It’s heartbreaking to see the many images of areas ravaged by this storm. In many regions of New England and the Northeast, this recent rain caused flash flooding, deluged roadways, and thousands of power outages. Fortunately, my farm escaped major damage. There was extensive runoff on the carriage roads, trees hit by lightning, and trees completely uprooted from the oversaturated soil, but everything here can be fixed, and my outdoor grounds crew is working very hard to get things back into shape. If you were in this recent storm, I hope you and your families are safe.
Here are are some photos.
I have four miles of carriage road at the farm and much of it suffered water runoff generated from all the fast-moving rain that flowed over the roads and into the landscape. A lot of the gravel is everywhere is shouldn’t be. Soon after the rain, we placed larger stones in the crevices left by the rushing water. It will all be recovered by gravel.
The rain came down fast and furious, causing overflowing waters all over.
This tree was struck by lightning. One can see the darkened charred bark.
There was ponding everywhere.
Here’s another part of the carriage road where water rushed through it taking away much of the gravel.
And here’s a tree that had completely toppled over because of the oversaturated soil.
Fortunately, the tree fell on another maple which was strong and stable – it kept the tree from falling onto my guest house.
Here is the base of the fallen tree – look at how it has totally come out of the ground.
The first step was to cut off the smaller branches. Pasang is an excellent tree man. He works efficiently and safely to remove the branches with the chainsaw.
Then from the safety of the Hi-Lo cage, Pasang tackles larger limbs and sections of the trunk.
Each section falls from the tree to the ground below – everyone keeping their distance for safety.
This is what is left of the base of the tree after the rest has been cut apart. Maple, Acer, is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. There are approximately 132 species, most of which are native to Asia, with a number also from Europe, northern Africa, and North America. It is a creamy white hardwood that sometimes has a reddish tinge. It is also a very heavy wood, so breaking it apart first is crucial.
Chhiring is my outdoor grounds crew foreman. He is an excellent driver and operates all the large machinery at the farm. Here he is operating the Hi-Lo to carry parts of the tree to the nearby dump truck.
I am so grateful that this tree cushioned the fall and saved the nearby structure from any damage…
… thank you, thank you, thank you.
All these logs are from the one tree – it was very large.
And look, watching from above is this hawk – it stayed quite awhile. Perhaps it is nesting in one of the nearby trees.
Here comes the Hi-Lo to loosen the base from its location in the soil. Chhiring wraps a chain around the trunk and moves it slightly until it is completely separated from the soil. I always feel bad when I lose trees on the farm. Trees are important to our environment – they are the world’s single largest source of breathable oxygen. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, and they create an ecosystem to provide needed habitat and food for birds and other animals. However, occasionally trees fall or need to be removed.
And this is what was uncovered. The tree was actually unwell – half of it was already dead and deteriorating leaving no roots whatsoever. Underneath was a rush of water nearly 24-hours after the deluge.
Chhiring pulled it out in two pieces – here is the very bottom. Now the tree is completely removed.
Meanwhile, Pasang removes any broken branches from the standing tree.
Phurba brings the branches down the carriage road to the chipper. I am fortunate to have all the necessary equipment here at my farm. It is important to clear the debris as it is being cut to prevent any injuries during the process. The chipper is directed to the woodland, so all the cut pieces are used as top dressing right away.
By the afternoon, the area is clear of the fallen tree, and this one is looking great. Another job well-executed and completed. There is still much to do around the farm, but we made great progress, thanks to my hardworking crew. this task is now “done and dusted.”
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