Daylight Saving Time begins this coming Sunday, March 13th - that’s just three days away, when we all advance our clocks one-hour in order to make better use of natural daylight in the warmer months.
This season’s winter weather has been extremely erratic. Last weekend, we had a day of beautiful warm weather with temperatures nearing 70-degrees Fahrenheit. And then yesterday, our area was hit with snow and rain. This particular snow was wet, heavy, and only accumulated a couple of inches, but still really quite beautiful.
Enjoy these photos.
The snow started falling by 10am. It came down fast and strong, but because the temperatures were hovering around 35-degrees Fahrenheit, there wasn’t much accumulation – only a couple of inches by day’s end. Here are three of my five donkeys keeping watch from their run-in shed. Billie, Jude “JJ” Junior, and Truman “TJ” Junior. Clive and Rufus are out grazing underneath the falling snow.
Majestic trees stand tall in the middle field with smaller saplings growing below.
A little further down the carriage road, one can see a bit of color in this grove of golden yellow weeping willows. Look closely and see the visiting geese – geese love to gather here at Cantitoe Corners.
This is a picture of my field of Christmas trees – they have all grown so much! They were all just little saplings when I planted them 13-years ago. I planted a total of 640 Christmas trees in this field – White Pine, Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce.
In the back hayfield is this mighty sycamore – the symbol of my farm.
Here’s a stand of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia, with their straight trunks – impressive trees by any standard, and beautiful in any season. Thankfully, the wind was not very strong, so none of the trees lost any branches.
The streams in the woodland were all full.
Here’s a view looking at my Summer House from the footpath of the sunken garden. The boxwood hedges are still well protected under their burlap covers.
The pachysandra is almost unrecognizable under this thin coating of white.
This is my herbaceous peony bed at rest – I cannot wait to see it overflowing with white and pink peony blooms this year. One can still see the outline of the beds through the snow.
One one side of my long and winding pergola is a lone weeping copper beech with its interesting branches. When leafed out it shows off rich, dark purple foliage.
This corn crib has been here since I purchased the farm. Located near my Winter House and long pergola, it’s become a favorite photo for guests who visit. The allee of lindens runs perpendicular to the Boxwood Allee that leads to my stable. This view is between the paddocks looking north.
Across from the clematis pergola is a stand of bald cypress trees, Taxodium distichum, surrounding my Basket House.
And on one side of this “soccer field” are six weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. These are such graceful and shapely specimen trees, very densely branched and adaptable to various soil conditions.
My blueberry pergola is located between my hay barn and my flower cutting garden. These bushes are so prolific during summer – they produce lots and lots of delicious, juicy blueberries.
Here is a view of my large Equipment Barn. The finials on top are antique. I bought them years back. They are perfect for this structure, don’t you agree?
Here is a view from one of the main intersections of the farm – to the left is my long boxwood allee, and to the right is the path to the woodlands and straight ahead is this grove of American beech trees and the antique fencing surrounding one of the horse paddocks.
When putting up the burlap, we always make holes for the birds who wish to take refuge in inclement weather. I wonder if any are in there now.
The great eastern white pines from a distance. They can be seen from many vantage points at the farm.
Hundreds of young boxwood are growing in this garden. I order them as bare root cuttings and then nurture them for several years before transplanting them to their more permanent locations.
This layer of snow will fall or melt off the boxwood covered frames, but I am glad they are all still protected. The outdoor grounds crew did such a wonderful job constructing these protective tents this year. Today is expected to hit 50-degrees Fahrenheit, and more snow may come this weekend. Winter is not quite over yet, but spring does start in just 10-days.
It’s wonderful to see the gardens transform this time of year.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm the witch hazel shrubs are blooming. With their fragrant, butter yellow to orange and scarlet red flowers, witch hazels add a lovely spark of life to otherwise gray winter landscapes. Although witch hazel has many common names, its generic name means “together with fruit” - it is the only tree in North America to have flowers, ripe fruit, and next year’s leaf buds on its branches at the same time. Their diversity, beauty, and all-season appeal make them one of the most well-loved garden specimens.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Witch hazel grows as small trees or shrubs with numerous clusters of rich yellow to fiery orange-red flowers. Common names include Witch hazel, American Witch hazel, Common Witch hazel, Winterbloom, Snapping Hazelnut, Striped Alder, Spotted Alder, Tobacco-wood, and Water-witch.
The name witch hazel is a derivation from the Old English “wice” or “wiche” meaning pliant or bendable. Early settlers used the pliable branches to make bows for hunting. The same forked branches also became favorite witching sticks of dowsers, who used them to search for underground water. Nowadays, witch hazel is often used ornamentally as splashes of color during winter. They’re very hardy and are not prone to a lot of diseases.
I have a lot of witch hazel growing at the farm These smaller specimens were planted in September of 2019 and are doing very well. They perform best in full sun, or filtered shade. Witch hazels also possess shallow, slow-growing root systems, which do best in large planting areas. Fortunately, I have a lot of room to grow these pretty shrubs. I have several mature shrubs near my Summer House and more near my allee of lindens.
The leaves of witch hazel are oblong with large, wavy teeth, and uneven bases.
In autumn, the soft leaves turn a fine yellow before dropping.
Most species bloom from January to March and display beautiful spidery flowers that let off a slightly spicy fragrance. Some of the varieties I grow here at my farm include hybrids Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Feuerzauber’, ‘Diane’, ‘Jelena’, ‘Old Copper’, and Hamamelis japonica ‘Superba’.
Witch hazel is a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae. There are four types of witch hazel – Hamamelis virginiana, Hamamelis vernalis, Hamamelis japonica, and Hamamelis mollis. All of these produce flowers with strap-like crumpled petals. Hamamelis mollis, or Chinese witch hazel, is the most fragrant of all the species. Chinese witch hazel begins blooming as early as January and has buttery yellow petals and clear yellow fall foliage.
American Indians first discovered that the witch hazel bark, when boiled into a tea or mixed with animal fats into a poultice, had therapeutic qualities.
Witch hazel leaves, bark and twigs are used to make lotions and astringents for treating certain skin inflammations and other irritations. Japanese witch hazel, Hamamelis japonica, has showy yellow or red flowers.
Witch hazel works well as a natural remedy because it contains tannins, which when applied to the skin, can help decrease swelling and fight bacteria.
The flowers are able to curl inward to protect the inner structures from freezing during the winter. They unfurl again on milder days.
On this day, temperatures were in the mid-40s. One of my blue peacocks enjoyed the sun from the roof of my Polaris ATV.
Others rested on the other side of the stable on the burlap-covered bird baths.
Wildlife also appreciate witch hazel – leaves are an important food source for native insects and many native birds and animals eat the seeds that follow the flowers in the winter.
Witch hazels need a winter chill to achieve full flowering. For best results, temperatures should drop to at least 30-degrees Fahrenheit. Most of the species and cultivars are hardy down to negative 10-degrees Fahrenheit. Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’ is a popular cultivar with its coppery orange flowers that appear in early to mid-winter.
Each cluster has about 11 to 12 petals, four per flower. Most varieties reach 10 to 20 feet high and wide at maturity, witch hazels can be kept smaller with pruning once they are finished blooming.
The small, tan to gray, hard capsules go dormant throughout the winter and then develop over the next growing season.
Witch hazel will grow in one of six basic shapes – upright, vase-shaped, oval or rounded, spreading, horizontal or weeping.
Yesterday, we cut some branches and placed them in a vase in my servery. I love seeing the witch hazels in bloom.
And look what else is starting to bloom – the winter aconite, Eranthis hyemalis – a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to calcareous woodland habitats in France, Italy and the Balkans, and widely naturalized elsewhere in Europe. Signs of spring are popping up everywhere, but winter is not over yet – we’re expecting an inch or two of snow today.
We’re expecting a mix of sun and clouds in Bedford, New York today with temperatures in the mid-40s - perfect weather for continuing our outdoor work and pre-spring chores.
The crew is busy with many projects, including raking the garden beds, pruning various trees, and blowing all the dead grass and leftover leaves. In the woodland, they are moving cut trees closer to the carriage road, so they can be hauled to our big compost pile in the back field. And in the outbuildings, spring cleaning has begun - windows are getting cleaned inside and out.
It’s a strong start… to a refreshing season ahead. Enjoy these photos.
Over the last few weeks, the crew has been able to get many of the outdoor chores done around the farm. Here comes Chhiring in our new our Kubota M4-071 tractor. He’s transporting wood chips to various areas of the middle field. This is best done when the ground is still frozen, so the wight of the tractor does not create big ruts in the soil. My tractors get lots of use at the farm for pulling or pushing agricultural machinery or trailers, for plowing, transporting mulch and compost, and so much more.
As Chhiring drops piles of wood chips, Pasang spreads them over the area with a rake. These wood chips will degrade over time adding nutrients to the soil.
Here, Pasang, who is a very experienced tree expert, prunes some of the dead branches from this old hickory tree in the run-in field. As he is working, Domi watches from the ground to make sure Pasang works safely and to help get the tree limb down once it is cut.
Pasang uses a STILH chainsaw specially made for using up in trees – it is lightweight and well-balanced for effectively pruning, trimming, and shaping high above the ground. Pasang is also wearing all the necessary equipment, including a harness, to keep him completely safe during the job.
All the cut branches are gathered and placed on the side of the carriage road. They will all be picked up later chipped for top dressing.
Potholes are formed when precipitation seeps into the pavement causing it to expand and contract, and ultimately crack with freezing and thawing. Traffic causes further damage. During the coldest part of the winter, gravel roads at my farm were covered with compacted snow which turned to ice. When all that ice melted, many potholes formed on the road surface.
To repair those potholes, we keep a supply of pea gravel on hand. Here’s Fernando scooping some gravel into one of those potholes.
Next, Fernando tamps down the gravel. A tamp, also called a tamper, is a tool used to compact granular matter such as crushed stone, dirt, sand, or cinders.
The flat, heavy head of the tamper works well at compacting the gravel into the pothole and leveling the ground.
Down at the stable, Pete uses an aluminum grading rake to level the gravel over the carriage road.
On this day, the outdoor grounds crew is moving the big, heavy logs in the woodland. These ash trees were cut down last year because of a great infestation of Emerald Ash Borer disease that has killed many ash trees in the region.
Domi stops to smile for the camera before he chains up this giant tree.
Here’s Brian in the linden tree allee outside my stable. He’s raking old, dead growth from last season’s plants and weeding around any new growth. He’s using a soft rake so as not to damage any of the perennials or the bulbs in the bed – many are already starting to emerge.
In the stable office, Carlos cleans all the windows and doors. This is an interior glass door connecting one of the offices to the front vestibule.
Carlos cleans every windowpane thoroughly – it is so nice to get a head start on our spring cleaning tasks.
Some individuals are very lucky to never get a reaction from poison ivy. Pete is one of them. Here he is pulling down some of the dormant poison ivy vines from the trees. Use caution when doing this – even in the winter when the plants are dormant, they are still toxic!
Poison ivy is a perennial plant that grows back from the roots and often spreads by underground runners. Pete pulls the vines off the trees and then pulls the roots from the ground.
Near one of the old stone walls, Fernando blows the old leaves leftover from last fall. He is using one of our STIHL backpack blowers. We’ve been using STIHL’s blowers for years here at my farm. These blowers are powerful and fuel-efficient. The gasoline-powered engines provide enough rugged power to tackle heavy debris while delivering much lower emissions.
The area looks so much better after a thorough leaf blowing.
Here are Pasang, Chhiring, and Domi after a long day’s work. There’s always lots to do on a working farm to keep everything in excellent condition.
And look, one of the first crocus flowers of spring. It won’t be long now – soon we’ll have so many flowers blooming around the farm. I can’t wait.
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