'Tis the planting season, and the beds in my vegetable garden are filling up quickly. We already planted a variety of crops including a selection of brassicas, artichokes, rhubarb, lettuce, and herbs.
We also planted two large beds of potatoes. Potatoes are grown from “seed potatoes”, which are certified disease-free and specially grown in nurseries for planting purposes. This season’s “seed potatoes” came from High Mowing Organic Seeds, an independently-owned, farm-based seed company in Wolcott, Vermont.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
Every year, we order a selection of potatoes to plant in my vegetable garden. This year, some of the varieties we are planting include Burbank russet potatoes, dark red Norland potatoes, Elba potatoes, German butterball potatoes, red Chieftain potatoes, Satina potatoes, Yukon gem potatoes, and Yukon Gold potatoes.
When preparing the seed potatoes for planting, some of the bigger varieties – bigger than the average-sized chicken egg – are cut into pieces. Each piece should have at least two eyes – those growing points on potato tubers.
Each cut side of potato is then coated with Douglas fir bark dust.
This dust helps to heal the sliced area, so it doesn’t shrink or curl. The slightly acidic bark is also a natural fungicide and moisture buildup barrier.
Ryan carefully dips each piece into the dust until it is completely coated. Potatoes contain 18-percent starch, two-percent protein, and small amounts of vitamin-B6, iron, niacin, magnesium, thiamin, folic acid, and potassium. They are also a good source of vitamin-C, low in sodium and easy to digest.
And here’s Blackie, everyone’s favorite black greenhouse cat. He loves watching Ryan work in the head house.
All these potatoes are Yukon gold, known for its outstanding flavor and texture. It’s a popular variety and is good for baking, boiling, and frying.
This potato, with its coppery reddish skin, is called red Chieftain. It is a mid-season variety that produces round to oval-shaped tubers.
Red Chieftain has white inner firm, moist flesh. These spuds are great for boiling, baking, and for making French fries.
Some potato varieties are small enough and don’t have to be cut. These are Satina potatoes – oval round tubers with smooth texture, yellow flesh, and yellow toned thin, smooth skin. The eyes on Satina potatoes are also shallow.
Each variety is kept in a separate tray with its identifying tag. Ryan goes through each bag and assesses which potatoes need cutting and coating.
The next day, all the potatoes are brought out to the garden. If you follow me on Instagram @MarthaStewart48, you may have seen some photos of my giant new vegetable garden. Wait until you see the entire building process on an upcoming episode of “Martha Gardens” exclusively on the Roku Channel.
Here, Ryan lines up the trays next to where each potato variety will be planted. The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum.
The first step is to create the trenches. Ryan decides how many trenches he needs in each bed and lines up bright colored garden twine where the trench will be dug. Here, he starts to dig shallow trenches under the twine using a garden hoe.
There are four long trenches that run the entire length of each bed and are about five to six inches deep. Potatoes can be planted in cooler soils at least 40-degrees Fahrenheit.
Ryan starts at one end and places the potatoes into the trenches – one variety to each trench.
Ryan makes sure there is equal spacing between each one. Potatoes perform best in soil with pH levels 4.8 to 5.5. Potatoes are easy to grow as long as they have access to full sun and moderate temperatures.
Then he pushes each one into the soil with eyes faced up and cut sides down. When selecting seed potatoes, avoid planting those from supermarkets in case they were treated by sprout inhibitors.
Ryan stopped for a quick photo. Trenches should also be at least one to two feet apart to give the potato plants ample room to develop.
A marker is placed at the end of each trench to identify the variety planted.
Once all the potatoes are in the ground, Ryan backfills the trenches with the nutrient-rich soil, fully covering the potatoes at least four-inches. Potatoes do best in well-drained, loose soil, and consistent moisture.
Finally, the bed is watered. Potatoes need at least one-inch of water per week. Potatoes require less water to grow compared to other staple foods such as wheat, rice and corn. I cannot wait until harvest time from this new garden. A first modest harvest of potatoes should be ready about 65-days after planting.
Our annual tree potting and planting project continues at my Bedford, New York farm.
Every year, I try to plant as many trees as I can. I feel strongly about reforestation and giving back to the earth, so the more trees planted, the better. Many of them come to me as bare-root cuttings that are then potted in individual containers where they can develop strong root systems for two to three years before being transplanted to more permanent locations - in allées, in groves, and in large groups in the woodland. It's a big undertaking every spring, but it's so satisfying to see these trees grow and flourish.
Enjoy these photos.
I have tens of thousands of trees here at my farm. In fact, I made this old and beautiful sycamore the symbol of Cantitoe Corners. It stands tall and majestic in the back hayfield where I can see it every time I tour the property.
The bigger and older trees are original to the farm, but I have thoughtfully chosen, planted, and maintained thousands since I moved here.
These trees line one of the carriage roads – the layering of colors from afar is so beautiful. These trees were just feet tall when we planted them.
This allée of lindens is one I designed and planted. It runs from the carriage road next to my pergola all the way down to the chicken coops.
Because we plant trees every year, they are all in different stages of growth.
Here is the area we once used to grow our pumpkins. I decided it was better suited to store our young potted trees. We lined it with industrial strength weed cloth and carefully placed our potted specimens in organized, rows by tree type.
We recently received our order of trees from JLPN, a three-generation family owned tree company in Salem, Oregon that focuses on growing deciduous seedlings and softwood rooted cuttings. These bare-root cuttings are all American Sweetgum.
The sweetgum’s roots are shallow, particularly in its native, moist habitat, but these trees can also develop deep vertical roots directly beneath the trunk in well-drained soils.
Each bare-root cutting is placed into an appropriately sized pot. The root section should fit into the pot without bing crowded at the bottom. Healthy bare-root trees get off to a more vigorous start because their abundant, roots have already had a chance to develop unrestricted.
Pasang plants each specimen carefully, so it is straight and centered in the container. Then Pasang tamps down lightly after the pot is backfilled so there is good contact between the tree roots and the surrounding soil.
Each tree is placed into the soil where the roots start and the top shoots begin.
Here is a mature American Sweetgum in autumn. The American sweetgum, with its star-shaped leaves, neatly compact crown, interesting fruit and twigs with unique corky growths called wings, is an attractive shade tree. It has become a prized specimen in parks, campuses and large yards across the country.
Here, Phurba places a group of sweetgums into the wagon. It is important to keep the trees organized in their groups for identification. They are difficult to identify without the leaves.
The trees are then lined up in the enclosure with narrow aisles in between labeled sections.
These are bald cypress trees. Still bare of any foliage, these cuttings are just twigs in pots…
… That grow up to look like these mature specimens I planted when I moved here. This stand of bald cypress line one side of the carriage road across from my winding pergola. Nestled beneath the bald cypress on one side is my Basket House, where I store all my rare, antique, vintage, and contemporary baskets.
The leaves are compound and feathery, made up of many small leaflets that are thin and lance-shaped. Each leaflet is less than two inches long, alternating along either side of a central stem. They are a medium green in summer and turn russet brown in fall. Like trees with leaves, bald cypress trees drop their needles in autumn leaving the tree – well, bald.
Here’s Chhiring giving all the trees in the “nursery” a good drink. Also in this collection – dawn redwoods, Metasequoia.
The Metasequoia is a deciduous, coniferous tree that grows in a conical shape to 100-feet tall. This tree is just starting to leaf out. As the tree matures, the trunk broadens at the base and develops attractive and elaborate fluting with deeply fissured bark.
These are parrotia trees in late summer – also first nurtured in individual pots before being transplanted to this area outside my Equipment Barn in 2019. Parrotia persica ‘Persian Spire’ is in the family Hamamelidaceae, closely related to the witch-hazel genus Hamamelis. It is native to northern Iran and southern Azerbaijan and it is endemic in the Alborz mountains.
And of course, the beautiful smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria, seen here during summer. These small trees and shrubs are thriving here in this middle field allée backed by London Planes.
I am a firm believer that caring for bare-root cuttings in pots before they go to more permanent locations gives these trees a stronger start. Tomorrow, April 22, we celebrate Earth Day – an annual event supporting environmental protection. I hope this inspires you to plant a tree this weekend – or two, or three…
Creating new garden spaces takes a lot of time, planning, and patience, but it's always so exciting to see areas evolve and take shape.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, we're working on a new garden near my stable. You may have caught a small glimpse at it on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48. You'll see more in a an upcoming episode of "Martha Gardens" exclusively on the Roku Channel. Enclosing this new garden, I decided to plant a hedge of European Hornbeams, Carpinus betulus - a fast-growing deciduous tree. Not long ago, my outdoor grounds crew planted about 300-bare root hornbeams from JLPN, a three-generation family owned tree company in Salem, Oregon that focuses on growing deciduous seedlings and softwood rooted cuttings. I am so pleased with how they look - and they're already showing lots of healthy new growth.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Carpinus betulus is native to Western Asia and central, eastern, and southern Europe, including southern England. Because of its dense foliage and tolerance to being cut back, this hornbeam is popularly used for hedges and topiaries. Hornbeams are often confused with the common beech because of their similar leaves; however, the hornbeam leaves are actually smaller and more deeply furrowed than beech leaves. The leaves are deciduous and alternate, with serrated margins.
I have a giant European hornbeam hedge outside my main greenhouse. It is quite pretty here, but serves primarily as a privacy and noise barrier from the road.
The same hornbeams border my formal white lily gardens across the gravel driveway.
Here is another hornbeam hedge that runs in front of my Summer House and along the road behind my Winter House.
I wanted to enclose this entire space with the same bold green European Hornbeams – it’s a half acre large.
I decided the hedge would be close to the fence. Here are Brian and Ryan measuring enough space for the hornbeams as well as for the Polaris vehicles we use to tour the tight spaces around the farm.
These are European hornbeam bare-root cuttings. Bare-root trees are so named because the plants are dug from the ground while they are dormant, and stored without any soil surrounding their roots. Once they arrived from JLPN, they were placed in tubs of water right away.
The sod was removed from the entire perimeter of the space.
And then the soil was rototilled.
Chhiring and Pasang dug a trench just deep enough for the bare-root cuttings – about eight to 10-inches deep. Chhiring also sprinkles a good a fertilizer into the trench, a fertilizer made with mycorrhizal fungi, which helps transplant survival and increases water and nutrient absorption.
The cuttings are removed from the water in groups, so they don’t dry out.
Hornbeams have taproots rather than a lot of roots close to the surface. This means the root systems grown down rather than out.
I wanted the trees planted two-feet apart, so Pasang uses a pipe exactly that length as a guide. He also puts up bright landscape twine to ensure all the trees are planted straight.
The tree is placed where the roots start and the top shoots begin.
Here is a closer look at the tree in the designated hole.
The soil is then gently filled in around the roots and then lightly tamped down.
The twine creates a good guide for all the trees being planted. It also saves lots of time – one does not have to check the line of planted specimens after each one is in the ground.
And then Pasang measures the distance again for the next tree.
Pasang planted nearly 300 bare-root trees in less than three days – everything is coming along so nicely.
Looking closely, one can see how perfectly straight these trees are. If they are in good condition, the trees should sprout leaves in the same year they are planted.
And look – every single tree is already sprouting growth. This hedge will look so wonderful – wait and see it grow and evolve with me.
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