Every year, I try to spend a few weeks - give or take - at my beautiful refuge in Seal Harbor, Maine. I always have a spectacular time with family and all my dear friends who visit. This summer, Chef Pierre Schaedelin from PS Tailored Events, and I, planned so many delicious menus. We all ate very well, feasting on foods from the local fisheries, the farmers’ markets, and my own gardens.
Here are more photos from Skylands.
We arrived at Skylands on a warm, but beautiful summer afternoon after flying from Las Vegas to see my new restaurant, The Bedford by Martha Stewart in its last stages of preparation before opening. Skylands is so serene. This is the front of my home and the circular driveway with the tall hemlock and maples shading the entrance.
We always enjoy the freshest fruits up in Maine. Here, I brought up peaches grown in my Bedford farm orchard, blueberries from our bushes, and raspberries from Maine – all for this for a most delicious fruit cobbler by Chef Pierre.
On our first weekend, my niece Sophie Herbert and her family came to visit and we all enjoyed a great meal of traditional spaghetti and meatballs – it was perfect.
Here is one of our plates topped with parmesan cheese and of course a couple of sprigs of parsley from my garden.
On this day – avocado toast.
Baked sweet potatoes…
…and a cucumber salad. We had bounties of cucumbers this summer up at Skylands. They were so crisp and juicy.
On one side of my kitchen at Skylands on this large table, we keep all the utensils close at hand along with fresh tomatoes and fruits for easy snacking. My French Bulldogs Bête Noire and Crème Brûlée love to rest under this table – front seats to anything that falls their way.
Here I am with my dear friend and longtime publicist, Susan Magrino, who came up the week of my birthday. Here we are aboard Skylands II, my Hinkley picnic boat. We’re on our way to the Downeast Art & Antiques Show in Blue Hill.
This was the morning of August 3rd, my birthday. I enjoyed the best fried eggs with tomatoes and parsley from the garden – and the eggs are from my chickens, of course.
My housekeeper, Elvira, was also at Skylands this summer. She set the most gorgeous birthday table – such a lovely palette of tans and pinks with my flameless pillar candles available on QVC and white hydrangeas picked earlier in the day from my cutting garden. This table seats 20 guests – we planned a wonderful celebratory gathering with friends.
Here I am with Chef Pierre shortly before dinner. We’ve been planning delicious menus together for years – many of them right here at my beloved home in Maine.
My birthday feast included potato whipped with crème fraîche, topped with Osetra caviar and dressed with scallions from the garden. Osetra caviar is is from the Ossetra sturgeon which weighs up to 400 pounds and can live up to 50-years.
And then we had lobster tails and fresh homegrown beans and puréed carrots.
On another day, we enjoyed this peach lattice pie and peach sorbet – all homemade.
Another lunch at Skylands included this leek quiche, prepared by Chef Pierre. This was a huge favorite – not one crumb left over.
We also had tomato tart – such a great savory dish to make in summer when tomatoes are in season.
There was a fresh corn salad with green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes – all from Skylands.
And a platter of oysters casino.
Another favorite breakfast included these blueberry pancakes – fluffy and made to perfection using blueberries grown right here at Skylands.
I also served some meals outdoors – salads are always so refreshing. We served three different and flavorful salads. This is a tomato salad with onions and basil.
Here is a cucumber and tomato salad.
And here is a classic potato salad – every one devoured and enjoyed.
This is a kilo tin of osetra caviar – converted, that’s more than two pounds. My daughter, granchildren, and I shared this delicious Osetra caviar from Black Diamond.
And the next day, we went out for the best lobster rolls at Beal’s Lobster Pier in Southwest Harbor – Jude and Truman approved.
Summers at Skylands are always among my favorite vacations spent with family and friends. I hope you are enjoying many gatherings with your nearest and dearest this season.
During my summertime stays at Skylands, my home in Maine, beautiful plants flourish outdoors and cut flower arrangements fill nearly every room inside.
I love decorating my homes with lush and vibrant plants and flowers. In Maine, we grow many of the flowers in a large cutting garden that's located in the same area as the vegetable garden. There are also many bold plants and gorgeous blooms in the planters and gardens of my large terrace - so many extraordinary botanical displays that capture the attention of all who visit.
Here are some of this year's photos, enjoy.
The lilies bloomed everywhere at Skylands this summer. The tall, colorful flowers filled my large terrace. This sphynx is out “guarding” the terrace for the season. She is one of two glazed terra-cotta sphinxes designed by Emile Muller. Émile first used plain ceramic products on buildings and industries. Then, in 1884 he developed the glazed terra-cotta, which he continued to use for many architectural decorations and art reproductions. The two are stored indoors and taken out as soon as the warmer weather arrives.
Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs and all with large, prominent flowers. The flowers are often fragrant, and come in a wide range of colors.
Here is a bright yellow lily growing in the terrace garden. When arranging cut lilies, handle them with care – they can bruise easily.
And don’t forget, lilies have heavily pollinated stamens, which stain, so before bringing them indoors, it’s important to gently pull the anthers with a tissue, or pinch them off with your fingers.
These succulents are planted in a long stone trough I bought several years ago from Trade Secrets. Notice the pink gravel used to top the soil surrounding these plants – it is the same pink gravel that covers the carriage roads at Skylands.
I always have agaves up at Skylands. Agaves are exotic, deer-resistant, drought-tolerant, and make wonderful container plants. It’s not easy dealing with giant, prickly agave plants. One must be very careful of one’s eyes, face, and skin whenever planting them. We planted this one in spring, when I come up to Maine for my traditional terrace planting weekend.
Another agave sits in this beautiful faux bois planter underplanted with ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra. This planter is extremely heavy – about four to five hundred pounds.
All the plants and flowers on my large “cracked ice” terrace are thriving despite the dry weather.
This is a ponytail palm, Beaucarnea recurvata – a species in the family Asparagaceae. It has a sleek bulb-like trunk with lush, long leaves.
This is the West Terrace. Every year, we always hang a series of fern-filled planters under the pergola – it adds such a lovely touch of greenery to the space along with the overhanging kiwi vines. These ferns, Nephrolepis exaltata ‘Bostoniensis’, are among the most popular varieties with its frilly leaves and long, hanging fronds.
At Skylands, the vegetable garden and the flower cutting garden are in the same location, all protected by a fence. Everything is very well maintained and weeded – it is so pleasant to cut from this garden when we make arrangements. Here, one can see snapdragons, phlox, lilies zinnias, and in the distance, my gardener Wendy Norling.
Here is a beautiful collection of snapdragons. Snapdragons are great for arrangements as they last quite a long time. A palette of pink and white looks very pretty against the earth tones in this room.
Another bright snapdragon arrangement with yellow, white, orange, and pink flowers.
On this large table in the Living Hall is a basket fern I brought up from my Bedford, New York farm. Basket ferns are epiphytic or epipetric and are native to tropical Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Oceania. It is sitting on a grand faux-bois cement table where I always like to display large plants and flower arrangements for my parties.
The hydrangea is among my favorite of flowering plants. It offers huge bouquets of clustered flowers from mophead to lacecap from summer through fall.
These turk’s cap lily arrangements are in a small alcove outside my dining room – so bright and inviting. They’re placed in Chinese export “Orange Fitzhugh” porcelain vases. Gorgeous arrangements don’t always have to be giant in size – the pair work perfectly here on this faux bois table.
On the dining room table, vases of rudbeckia with their bright, showy flower heads. Rudbeckia flower colors include yellow and gold, and the plants grow two to six feet tall, depending on the variety.
More rudbeckia blooms are used to decorate this brass coffee table in my living room. Rudbeckias are easy-to-grow perennials and include the popular black-eyed Susan.
And here is another large basket fern sitting on this faux bois table. I love faux bois, which means “false wood” in French. Faux bois refers to the artistic imitation of wood or wood grains in various media. The craft has roots in the Renaissance with trompe-l’œil. I have many faux bois urns, chairs, and tables at Skylands.
And a vase of glorious pink lilies – simply stunning. On the wall are prints depicting the birds of Mt. Desert Island here in Maine by artist Carroll Tyson. What a lovely summer. I hope you’re still enjoying some of the wonderful colors of the season.
Another beautiful and interesting display of lush greenery is growing at my Bedford, New York farm - it's my maze, and it's going to be amazing.
You may have seen some of my photos on my Instagram Stories @MarthaStewart48. Earlier this year, I decided to create a maze of hedges, espaliers, and shrubs in the pasture across the carriage road from my Winter House terrace. A living maze is a puzzle of tall plantings - tall enough to prevent those walking through from seeing the paths ahead. The maze includes rows, openings, and various dead ends, but only one true route leading to the center. We began planting the maze last April, and now we have four rows along one end of the space - it's already stumped me on horseback. And yesterday, another delivery of trees arrived. It's truly an exciting transformation.
Here are some photos of the maze in its infancy, enjoy.
This three acre paddock, with the ancient apple trees, is among the most beautiful green spaces here at my farm. The view from my terrace parterre on any given day is stunning.
Here is a view of the area looking south from the allee of boxwood leading to my stable.
Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to create a living maze in the space. Mazes, as well as labyrinths, have been popular in European gardens and estates for centuries. And now, I am creating one at Cantitoe Corners.
First, I drew out a plan on paper, and then last April, my outdoor grounds crew started to prepare the planting beds. Here, we used twine to designate each row for planting and its adjacent footpath.
Phurba removes the sod from one of the rows. We always do this carefully and neatly, so the sod can be used elsewhere around the farm.
Then, we ordered the first set of trees and shrubs. These are espaliered apple trees. Among them, Liberty apples, Gala apples, Braeburn apples, and Yellow Delicious apples.
And, of course boxwood. I love boxwood, Buxus, and have hundreds of shrubs growing on my property. I use boxwood in borders and hedges, as privacy screens, as accent plants in my formal gardens, in the long allée to my stable, and now in the maze.
I also ordered a selection of European hornbeams, green columnar beech trees and purple columnar beech trees. This photo was taken in early spring, so they had not yet leafed out.
Here’s my gardener, Brian O’Kelly, unloading some of the many specimens for our maze.
The next step is to place them evenly along the beds of each row. When planting a maze, use relatively fast-growing trees that will be at least six feet tall and two feet wide at maturity.
Here is a view of the placed espalier trees. Espalier refers to an ancient technique, resulting in trees that grow flat, either against a wall, or along a wire-strung framework. Many kinds of trees respond beautifully to the espalier treatment, but fruit trees, like apple and pear, were some of the earliest examples. Espaliered trees can grow between four and eight feet apart – enough to allow them room as they grow, but still be close enough for a proper espalier.
And here are the boxwood, each one equally spaced from the next.
Then, it was time to plant the trees. The crew worked hard to get them all into the ground as quickly as possible.
Four rows in all to start, but many, many to go, and each path leading to an opening — or a dead end.
By June, all the plantings are leafed out and growing beautifully. The beds are also mulched with nutrient-rich material made right here in my compost yard.
We’ve already seen many apples developing on the trees this summer.
The boxwood is on the left and the purple columnar beech on the right – both of these will make great hedges in a few years. In the distance, one can see the tops of the chicken coops.
And yesterday, more trees for the maze – these are parrotia trees. Parrotia 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. It grows best in USDA Zones 5 to 8.
Parrotias have a long-lasting, elaborate autumn color display of ever-changing leaves that show off yellow, orange, burgundy and red hues. These are now green, but looking closely, one can see slight color changes already.
And more European hornbeams. Botanically known as Carpinus betulus, the hornbeam is a fast-growing deciduous tree. In fact, it can grow about four to five feet per year – perfect for the maze.
My outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring Sherpa, has been with me for 20 years and has planted many of trees here at the farm.
I will continue to share photos of its progress. It will take a few years before it is mature and fully developed, but this maze will be amazing. I can’t wait…
“It is a confusing path, hard to follow without a thread, but, provided [you are] not devoured at the midpoint, it leads surely, despite twists and turns, back to the beginning.” — Plato
![I will continue to share photos of its progress. It will take a few years before it is mature and fully developed, but this maze will be amazing. I can't wait... “It is a confusing path, hard to follow without a thread, but, provided [you are] not devoured at the midpoint, it leads surely, despite twists and turns, back to the beginning.” — Plato](https://static.themarthablog.com/2022/08/PXL_20220817_192525104-scaled.jpeg)
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
