Here are some photos! And remember, if you didn't get to see the show, you can still stream the Great American Tag Sale on Hulu.
You can still find a great piece of furniture or rug that I’ve personally kept in one of my homes and have it for yourself. Here I am with Pam Stone, owner of The Benefit Shop Foundation, Inc. the organization hosting my auction next week. The auction is a great way for anyone from across the country, and around the world, to bid and purchase something left over from my Great American Tag Sale.
Some of the items on the auction block include this vintage painted wicker chair with decorative cushions. An auction is a sales event wherein potential buyers place competitive bids on the items they wish to purchase. The item is then sold to the highest bidder.
Remember these Martha by Mail lanterns? They’re also up for auction!
And so are these wicker side chairs – they come in sets of eight or sets of four.
This is an antique bamboo table with a woven rattan top… it’s up for auction. Online auctions allow participants to bid on items remotely. These auctions also include multiple photos, so pieces can be seen closely and in various views.
This is a Martha Stewart Bernhardt three-drawer sideboard. It’s also up for auction. I wonder how much it will fetch!
Here is a fun set of four mid-century modern gazelle chairs from Shelby Williams. Shelby Williams has been a leader in the commercial furniture industry for more that 70-years.
All the pieces headed for auction are gathered under the large tag sale tent ready to be loaded onto the trucks.
I also had lots of books up for auction…
… including encyclopedias! These books are still so useful and interesting!
Here is Pam sitting in my old makeup chair from my television studio. It’s a Takara Belmont leather chair – now up for auction.
Each piece is carefully loaded onto the truck. In all, there was enough for seven truckloads.
One truckload was just for chairs.
This is Irving Sanchez from The Benefit Shop Foundation helping to unload some of the bins of holiday decorations at the nearby Mt. Kisco gallery.
All the furniture was then safely grouped indoors.
Here is a stack of colorful vintage rag rugs… all up for auction.
Irving and Miranda Crifo start “lotting” the pieces from my collection. A “lot” is any item or group of items presented for bids.
This antique French tapestry fireplace screen is tagged for auction as one lot.
And so is this antique yellow two-piece cabinet hutch.
It took quite a bit of time to also work through all the books, but every single one was logged and photographed.
Here is the entire Benefit Shop Foundation Team – posing with their auction sign. For my auction, we have a total of 618 lots!
Be sure to go to the LIVEauctioneers web site to see what’s available and to start your bidding. All absentee and online bidding is also available through LIVEAuctioneers. Enjoy bidding!
This time of year, there is always so much to see around my Bedford, New York farm - everything is looking so lush and green.
As many of you know, I am a serious and very passionate gardener, and over the years have designed many gardens around my home. One area that is constantly evolving is my pinetum - an arboretum of pine trees and other conifers. I first planted it almost 15-years ago in a field behind my large Equipment Barn and near my weeping willow grove. This collection has grown extremely well, and I continue to add additional specimens every year.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
When I first bought my farm, I knew I wanted to plant many, many trees – young trees, to replace the older ones when their lives ended. I love all the different sizes and varieties. This collection includes pine trees, but I have also included many spruces, firs, and other evergreens.
Once trees are mature, they need little maintenance except for regular mulching and removal of dead or diseased branches. We also keep the ground well-mulched using material made right here at the farm.
Among the trees growing is this dwarf white pine tree. If you’re not sure how to tell some of these popular trees apart, here are some key tips: pines have needles that are arranged and attached to the branches in clusters of two, three or five. Spruce and fir trees have needles attached individually to the branches. Spruce needles are sharply pointed, square and easy to roll between the fingers. They’re attached to small, stalk-like woody projections, and when the needles fall, the branches feel rough. Fir needles are softer, flatter and cannot be easily rolled between the fingers. Fir needles are usually attached only on the upper side of the branch. Its branches lack projections, so the bark is smooth. And, a fir tree’s cones stand straight up on many species, or protrude outward on others.
The needles on this dwarf white pine are soft and blue-green in color.
I add more specimens to this collection every year – some are very rare and slow growing, but I love the variety of plantings I’ve amassed.
This Pinus resinosa is a dwarf red pine native to eastern North America. It is a compact bush with long, green needles.
Red-brown buds develop at the tips of branches. The decorative reddish cones of the dwarf red pine remain on the tree for several years.
This is Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’ – with beautiful short, tight, yellow foliage, and a graceful form. Oriental spruce is a slow-growing, upright tree that typically grows about eight to 10-feet tall over the first 10-years. The name ‘Skylands’ has no relation to my home in Maine, but I was attracted to it because it was called ‘Skylands.’ This tree was introduced by Skylands Botanical Garden in New Jersey, in 1979.
Picea glauca, the white spruce, is a species of spruce native to the northern temperate and boreal forests in North America. Picea glauca was originally native from central Alaska all through the east, across southern-central Canada to the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. It typically grows up to 80 feet tall with a cone-shaped crown.
Pinus densiflora ‘Jane Kluis’ is a dwarf, globular form with a flat top. It typically grows to four feet tall and six feet wide over the first 10 years.
It has rigid green needles that radiate from around the stems. This cultivar was discovered in the mid-1970s by Rudolph Kluis of Marlboro, New Jersey.
Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera’ is commonly known as Sawara cypress, a large, pyramidal, evergreen conifer that grows in the wild up to 70 feet tall with a trunk diameter to five feet. It is native to the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu.
It is noted for its gracefully weeping golden-green foliage.
This is a Cedrus deodara ‘Wells Golden’ – an upright true cedar with rich, golden color, which is beautiful in winter. It can grow up to 30-feet tall.
Cedrus evergreen needles are borne primarily in dense clusters that arise from stout, woody pegs.
This tree is often seen at nurseries as Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’. At botanical gardens, it is also called Cupressus nootkatensis ‘Pendula’ or Callitropsis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’. It is commonly known as a weeping Alaskan cedar, a slender, strongly weeping form that grows to as much as 35 feet tall. It has widely spaced ascending to horizontal branches with flattened sprays of blue-green leaves.
Picea orientalis ‘Nigra Compacta’ or oriental spruce is a medium to large, densely branched evergreen.
On one side of this pinetum are the gorgeous weeping willows. Weeping willows are wide and tall with beautiful curtains of drooping branches that sweep the ground. I have several groves of weeping willow trees growing at my farm.
The leaves are long and narrow with a light green color and a finely toothed margin.
Over time, this area will fill out more and more. I am so pleased with how it looks, and so happy these trees are thriving here at the farm.
I love allées and have planted several over the years - they look so beautiful and dramatic around my Bedford, New York farm.
In landscaping, an allée, or an avenue, is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side. In most cases, the trees planted are the same species or cultivar, so as to give a uniform appearance along the full length of the allée. In 2019, I decided to plant an allée of trees along the carriage road through the lower hayfields. We planted a selection of London plane trees and about 100 royal purple smoke bushes, Cotinus coggygria. It is now three years later and the allée is looking excellent.
Enjoy these photos.
At first, this area through the hayfields was just an open and plain space, where I grew hay for my horses. I thought it was a perfect stretch of landscape for a long allée. Designing any garden takes plenty of planning, time, and patience. Here, the area chosen was mowed and measured. The twine shows one edge of the bed.
I wanted the allée to extend the entire portion of the road that cuts through the lower hayfields. This would require a large number of stately trees. My outdoor grounds crew removed the sod from the area. All my carriage roads are 12-feet wide. I wanted to be sure the new allee lined the edge of the road, but also had enough room for the trees to grow.
I chose to plant two rows of London plane trees – 46-trees in all. When selecting a location, always consider the tree’s growth pattern, space needs, and appearance. London planes are easy to transplant. They can also develop massive trunks with spreading crowns, so they need lots of space.
In between the trees, I chose to plant Cotinus, also known as smoke bush or smoke tree – a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. They are a great choice for massing or for hedges. There are two potted smoke bushes between each London plane. These specimens were all purchased as small whips – slender, unbranched shoots or plants. I like to nurture them for a year or two in pots before placing them in the ground – this way they are planted as bigger, stronger specimens.
This is what the allée looked like shortly after it was planted in 2019.
And as the saying goes in gardening, “first sleep, then creep, then leap.” This photo was taken last year. The trees are looking healthy and strong.
And this is the allée now. So lush and the bold colors of the specimens look amazing together.
These smoke bushes have stunning dark red-purple foliage that turns scarlet in autumn and has plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers and give a long-lasting, smoky haze to the branch tips.
The leaves of smoke bushes are waxy purple and are one and a half to three inches long, and ovate in shape.
Smoke bushes are among my favorite small trees. These can grow to a moderate size – up to 15-feet tall and 10-feet wide. I also love its upright, multi-stemmed habit. I grow many smoke bushes at the farm.
Some of them are showing off their stunning plumes.
Looking closely, the flower plumes are purple-pink, tipped with creamy yellow at their peak.
Under optimal conditions, smoke bushes can add about 13 to 24 inches to its height each year.
The London plane tree, Platanus × acerifolia, is a deciduous tree. It is a cross between two sycamore species: Platanus occidentalis, the American sycamore, and Platanus orientalis, the Oriental plane. London planes grow best in full sun, but they also thrive in partial shade.
The leaf of a London plane is similar to that of a maple leaf – simple with alternate arrangements that have three to five lobes. These leathery leaves are about six to seven inches wide with roughly toothed edges.
Now, while the trees are young, the bark is medium gray and smooth. When mature, they will show a distinctive camouflage pattern created as patches of green or brown outer bark flake off to expose a more creamy inner bark.
All these London planes are staked to ensure they grow vertically and to keep them sturdy as they develop.
Yesterday, the entire allée was mulched with material made right here at the farm. When mulching, use a two to four inch layer and no more – too much could damage the trees and the root systems.
The large field is bordered on one side by a grove of weeping willow trees, Salix – graceful, refined, and easily recognized by its open crown of ground-sweeping branches. Willows grow especially well near water, and reach 30 to 40 feet tall. And look, the fields are growing lots of good, nutritious hay for my horses. This will be ready to bale at the end of the month.
I am so pleased with how well this allée is growing. – it will look more beautiful year after year. This allée will be a lovely addition to future garden tours.
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