As summer wears on, late season flowers continue to add vivid colors to the garden.
Down by my chicken coops in my former vegetable garden, I now have a space dedicated to annuals, where varieties could be organized in beds by size, color, and bloom time. All the flowers are started from seed in my greenhouse. Earlier this season, I had delphiniums, cornflowers, foxgloves, hollyhocks, snapdragons, and scabiosas. This week, the big showers are my sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, amaranth, and celosia - all so pretty and perfect for indoor arrangements.
Enjoy these photos.
When I redesigned this garden, I wanted a space for raised beds where I could plant flowers by type specifically for cutting. This garden has such excellent, nutritious soil, I knew whatever was planted here would thrive.
I planted flowers that do best in full sunlight, meaning they get at least six to eight hours of sun per day.
These are the simplest of flowers. A favorite of my dad – zinnias. They come in extraordinary colors and sizes and shapes and are easily grown in one short season.
Zinnias are native to Mexico and Central America. The Aztecs originally called them “plants that are hard on the eyes” because of their colorful flowers. Zinnia is named after Johann Gottfried Zinn, a German botany professor who discovered the plants and brought them to Europe in the 1700s.
Zinnia plants range from six-inches tall to about four-feet tall. There are varieties with single or double petaled flowers in almost all the colors of the rainbow.
Zinnias flower mid to late in the season and are great for attracting hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. The large-flowered varieties provide pollen and nectar in late summer when native sources run low.
Cosmos are annuals with colorful daisy-like flowers that sit atop long slender stems. They attract birds, bees, and butterflies and come in a variety of colors including white and various shades of pink, crimson, rose, lavender and purple, all with yellow centers.
The lacy foliage and silky flowers bloom from midsummer to the first frost.
Garden cosmos measure three to four inches across, and may be single, semi-double, or double.
Sunflowers, Helianthus, are the popular and cheerful annuals whose round flower heads look like the sun. Sunflowers come in vibrant yellow, but they’re also seen in orange, red, bronze, and even white. I have large sunflowers growing around the perimeter of this garden. Young sunflowers turn to face the sun as it moves across the sky. They face east at dawn and then slowly turn west as the sun moves. During the night, they slowly turn back east to begin the cycle again. This is known as heliotropism and is due to the presence of auxin, a growth hormone in the stem. This process continues until the sunflower is mature.
Sunflower is the only flower with flower in its name. “Helia” for sun and “anthus” for flower. Sunflowers are also the symbol of faith, loyalty and adoration.
Enma cuts some of the long stemmed amaranth. Their velvety flowers are dense – some with drooping tassels. Blooms come in richly saturated harvest hues, and they hold their colors and shapes even when dry.
There are 2 main types of Amaranth grown for cutting – one with an upright growing habit where the plants produce spikes or plumes that add height and drama to arrangements. The other is a trailing type of Amaranth with a draping growth habit.
Celosia is a small genus of edible and ornamental plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Its species are commonly known as woolflowers, or, if the flower heads are crested, cockscombs. The plants are well known in East Africa’s highlands and are used under their Swahili name, mfungu. Celosias thrive in full sun and require well-drained soil.
Enma cut lots flowers to bring indoors for arrangements.
After bringing the flowers inside, it is important to get them in water right away. Enma removes any leaves that would otherwise end up below the water line. Leaves and flowers that sit below the water line can rot.
She also holds each stem up to the vase to see where it should be cut to fit. The height of the flowers should be in proportion to the vase’s height. A common rule of thumb is that flowers should be one and a half to two times the height of the vase. Enma also cuts them at a 45-degree angle to allow water to flow up into the stem.
These dark pink amaranth flowers drape nicely over the vase. And look at the stems – they are thick cylindrical, fibrous, succulent, and bright colored.
Next, Enma works on an an arrangement of dark pink to burgundy colored blooms. One can stick to like colors when arranging to find complementary colors. This arrangement includes the zinnias, cosmos, and celosias.
All finished, this sunflower arrangement is displayed on a side table in my sitting room just off my servery.
This colorful arrangement is on the table in my foyer.
And this vase of gorgeous amaranth flowers is on the center table in my servery – in the colors of autumn, just a little more than two weeks away.
Berry picking season is over now, so it's time to get the bushes ready for next year.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, I grow patches of raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, blueberries, and currants. For the best yields from these plants, it's crucial to keep them well-maintained - they need to be fed and pruned regularly. My raspberries and blackberries, which have long canes, are also well-supported with upright granite posts and heavy gauge copper wire. Earlier this year I added a couple more rows of berries to my garden. And this week, the vertical granite posts and wiring were installed.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I have several rows of raspberries on one side of my main greenhouse. They all produce so many fruits every summer because they are well-maintained through the year.
The upright posts are antique granite with heavy gauge copper wire laced through them to support the long canes. The posts came from China and were originally used as grape supports. A friend of mine acquired a lot of stone from this valley and I purchased a couple hundred pieces. They are also the same posts I use under my long pergola.
Last spring, I planted several blackberry bushes from Monrovia including ‘Columbia Giant,’ ‘Marion,’ ‘Columbia Star,’ and ‘Black Satin.’
By mid-summer, I was already tasting big, delicious, sweet blackberries.
The plants are growing fast, so now that the picking season is over, I asked Pete Sherpa from my outdoor grounds crew to install granite supports and wire to hold up the thriving canes.
Pete uses small scraps of wood to make these end blocks. And of course, they’re painted my signature “Bedford Gray.” Heavy gauge copper wire is available at hardware stores. It is malleable, corrosion resistant, and easily recyclable.
Pete drills a hole through each of the wooden blocks.
Wire supports the canes in three places, so each row needs a total of six blocks.
Pete then makes a second hole in each block.
The wooden blocks are about three-and-a-half inches long – just enough to support the wire efficiently.
Pete installed the posts the day before and drilled holes where the wire would be inserted. Here he is pushing through the copper wire from one end to the other.
Jute twine was used temporarily. The hole is big enough to fit several lengths of wire or twine.
Once it is all the way through to the end of the row and through the other post, Pete cuts the wire leaving about a foot of extra length on both sides.
Next, he threads the wire through the second hole in the block.
He does this for a second length of copper wire.
And trims it the same way – with about a foot extra. The entire process takes minutes to complete.
Now the two wires are threaded through the block so it is tight against the post.
The wire runs across the the row. The blackberry canes will be supported between the two wires as they grow.
Here is the row now – the canes are held up by the lower wires and kept off the ground.
To tighten the wires, they can be pulled and wrapped around the block.
And look at the rows from afar – it’s so easy to move through to access every plant. And the posts are perfect to use because they don’t rot over time like wood does. Granite posts and copper wire to support one’s berry canes… they’re very good things.
The landscape at my farm is constantly evolving, and keeping it healthy sometimes means cutting down trees.
Trees are crucial to our environment - they provide breathable oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, help create an ecosystem of food for birds and other animals, and they're beautiful when full of foliage or flowers. However, occasionally trees need to be removed. Yesterday, I instructed my resident tree arborist, Pasang Sherpa, to take down two almond trees behind my main greenhouse. I felt they were declining and preventing much needed light from reaching the berries below. Fortunately, the trees can be recycled into wood chips and used as top dressing for other trees in the woodland.
Here are some photos.
Almond trees thrive in mild, wet winters, and hot, dry summers. The almond belongs to the rose family Rosaceae, making it a relative of several well-known fruit trees. There are different types, ranging from small ornamental shrubs, Prunus glandulosa, grown only for their pretty flowers to medium-sized trees, Prunus dulcis, that produce edible nuts, such as these. In spring, these trees show off beautiful pink and white flowers. Here they are last April.
Here is a view from the side in between rows of growing raspberries. Guests always admire these trees, but I felt they were beginning to fail and had to come down.
Almond trees produce drupes. These drupes grow from fertilized flowers and mature in autumn. These are the trees in October. In previous years, we’ve harvested hundreds and hundreds of almonds. The hairy, green fruits are oblong in shape and the leaves of the almond tree are long – about three to five inches.
These drupes often fall to the ground. Some of them open on their own, exposing the shells, but most are opened manually. At maturity, the flesh of the fruit becomes leathery and splits. And inside the shell is the kernel, which we eat.
Early yesterday morning, Pasang went to work carefully cutting down one branch at a time.
Pasang is our resident arborist. He is very strong and very skilled at taking down many of the smaller trees around the farm.
Pasang starts by removing the smaller branches first. It is quite a process – an arborist must work methodically to ensure the safety of himself and everyone involved.
Down below, my foreman, Chhiring Sherpa, helps by removing the cut limbs.
He takes them to the nearby tractor and transfers them to the dump truck, so they can be dropped off in the designated compost pile awaiting chipping.
Pasang moves onto slightly bigger limbs, taking them down one by one – and always securing himself to the tree with the proper safety equipment.
In between, Pasang takes quick breaks and assesses which branches he needs to cut next.
Within minutes, he is down to the main branches of the tree. Mature, fruit bearing almond trees grow six to 12-inches per year.
Almond tree wood is considered a hardwood, so it is quite dense and heavy. For this job, Pasang uses his trusted STIHL chainsaw. I have used STIHL’s equipment for years – always dependable and durable.
The tree’s bark is grayish, which can be scaly in older specimens. The bark also exhibits “lenticels” or dark gray spots. In addition, these trees had lichens growing on them. Lichens are often found on tree trunks, branches and twigs as the bark provides a stable place to grow and get needed sunlight, rainwater and air. Lichens are simple slow-growing plants that form low crusty, leaflike, or branching growths on rocks, walls, and trees.
Thankfully, thus day was mild and not windy. Any sawdust just fell to the ground.
Here, Pasang is just several feet high working on the biggest limbs of the tree.
Almond trees can live for 40 to 50 years or more in the best conditions. Orchard trees usually last about 25-years. These trees were about 20-years old.
Peak production from almond trees is usually between 10 and 15 years. After that, the number of almonds produced declines, but the tree still produces fruit until the end of its life.
It is sad to see these trees go, but I will grow new almond trees elsewhere on the farm.
Now the area is clear and bright – the best light for my growing raspberries. Shall I plant boxwood here, or leave it bare?
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