Outdoor projects at my Bedford, New York farm continue with the pruning of my young European beech trees.
In the spring of 2019, I decided to plant about 300 specimen trees along the sides of two large horse paddocks to create hedges. For these areas, I chose a collection of beautiful European beech trees, Fagus sylvatica, or the common beech - a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae and native to the woodlands of central and southern Europe. They've grown quite nicely over the years, and yesterday my gardeners, Ryan McCallister and Brian O'Kelly, took on the task of pruning them - an important chore that keeps the trees healthy and encourages new growth.
Enjoy these photos.
Two and a half years ago, I decided I wanted to plant hedges on both the east and west sides of the South Paddock as well as the west side of what I call the Southeast Paddock. These paddocks are quite long, so we needed quite a few trees. Here is one side before the planting began.
Here, you can see many of the trees lined up. The leaves of beech trees do not typically fall in autumn and instead remain on the tree until the spring when new, green leaves appear. The sod was also removed from the planting area and reused elsewhere.
European beech trees prefer calcified or lightly acidic soil. They tolerate rigorous winter cold but are sensitive to spring frost. They also like full sun – at least six hours of full sun per day.
European beech trees are known for the smooth silvery gray bark.
Here they are after they were all planted – still very small, ranging between two and three feet tall.
In two years time, they’ve grown quite a bit – some are now more than five feet tall. And they definitely need some pruning.
The leaf structure of the European beech is alternate, simple, two to five inches long with shallow teeth along the edges.
To ensure the pruning is perfectly straight, we always use a landscaping twine, so it is visible and can be pulled taut. The twine is pulled between bamboo poles and placed along the sections of the hedge. A hanging level, available at hardware stores, can be placed on the twine as a guide.
Here’s Brian looking at the twine stretched alongside the hedge. The plan is to cut all the hedges down several inches. Brian checks the line several times during the process to be sure everything is trimmed properly.
Ryan starts trimming the tops of the trees – the smaller branches are trimmed with our STIHL battery-powered hedge trimmers to lop off the tops more precisely. This trimmer is lightweight, starts instantly and delivers quiet, powerful performance.
The STIHL backpack battery eliminates the cost of fuel and engine oil and can be used for several hours before needing another charge. It’s very handy and very popular here at the farm.
The lopper can cut branches that are one to one-3/4 inches thick.
The central leader or main leader structure is the tallest branch. Brian trims it for maintenance while also encouraging new growth, so the tree becomes fuller and wider.
Other branches are also trimmed with pruners. Ryan trims those branches that are rubbing or crisscrossing each other or preventing any healthy new growth. Basically, the goal is to create a tree with well spaced lateral branches. Any branches which interfere with the tree’s shape or create a dense framework should be removed.
There is new growth all over these trees – the light brown buds are long, narrow, pointed and protruding.
Nearby is another variety of European beech – this one with fruit. These spiky fruit capsules contain two beechnuts inside.
Here is one of the two beechnuts. The nuts are edible, with a bitter taste and a high tannin content. Raw beechnuts are also slightly toxic and should be cooked before eating.
Here’s a look at the pruning done so far – very straight thanks to the use of the bright orange twine. It’s looking more like a hedge from this angle.
From the side, the trees look very natural and very full. I am pleased with how well they’ve grown, in part because of the nutrient-rich soil here at the farm.
And here is the next section of European beech trees still left to trim.
It doesn’t take too long to trim this one side of young European beech, and look how much better they appear after they’re pruned. My stable is seen in the distance.
Here’s a view across – that row is next. The smaller European beech trees are in front of one side of an allee of lindens. The lighter colored trees on the far left are sycamores. The sycamore is the symbol of my farm. There’s a long way to go before the European beech trees are all trimmed, but they look great. Thanks Ryan and Brian.
Recycling felled trees is always a big priority here at my Bedford, New York farm.
Over the years, I've planted thousands and thousands of trees. Unfortunately, I've also lost many trees - they've fallen during storms or had to be cut down because of damage or disease. However, I always save the logs so they can be made into usable lumber, cut down to create dozens of tree stakes and carriage road markers, or thrown into a big tub grinder to make mulch. I am very proud of our up-cycling practices.
Enjoy these photos.
I plant so many different varieties of trees every year and I am so pleased with how well they have grown at the farm – in groves, in allees, and in the woodland. I feel strongly about reforestation and giving back to the earth, so the more trees planted, the better.
Some of the trees are just so majestic. The Eastern White Pine is a stand-out beauty. These trees, which were actually already here when I purchased the property, are located in one of the paddocks and can be seen from across the farm.
Here is a grove of American beech trees – they are already beginning to show a little fall color.
I hate taking down trees, but we sometimes need to cut down trees that are dead, damaged or diseased in order to make room for new ones. Whenever a tree falls or is cut down, I save it in a pile designated for either the sawmill or the tub grinder depending on its appearance and condition. Those earmarked for milling are then limbed, or stripped of branches.
These smaller logs and wood scraps are neatly piled in another area and saved for the giant tub grinder, which I I like to call in once a year or once every two years depending on how much there is to recycle.
I’ve used the team from Material Processors for years. It is a 30-year old company that focuses on recycling green waste, clearing, and preparing land spaces for development. When processing the wood, the bucket releases the debris into the hammermill at the bottom of the tub. As the tub revolves, the hammermill shatters the wood into smaller fragments.
Here is the inside of the grinder when it is off – it is quite massive.
A continuous discharge conveyor carries the material away from the machine and piles it up in a mound. As the tub spins, friction actually causes some of the wood to smoke. The wood chips are put through the grinder a second time to make it even finer.
A year ago, during a taping of an episode for my show, “Martha Knows Best,” I helped Mauricio Guevara, a skilled lumberer, master woodworker, and restorer mill some of the wood on my farm. Mauricio is the owner of New England Antique Lumber Inc., in nearby Mount Kisco, New York and in Westport, Connecticut, and shares my passion for recycling and repurposing.
Here, the log is placed on one side of the sawmill and secured within the machine’s loading clamps. Most mills are designed to hold logs at least eight feet long, so shorter logs can be a bit more challenging.
The logs milled must be very straight – not curved, and must not show any signs of rotting. Rotting logs will fall apart when milled.
The machine is very accurate. Each of these cuts is measured exactly to the desired thickness.
Some of the wood is made into stakes. I have a small table saw in our shop where we can cut custom stakes to support all my young, developing trees. The same table saw can cut stakes to mark the carriage roads.
These one-by-one inch stakes are the perfect size for using around seedlings. It supports them as they develop. They also help to protect them from any snow plowing equipment or weed whacker – the stakes make the trees more visible once the leaves fall.
Last June, I had many ash trees cut down and removed because of damage done by the ash borer beetle. The Emerald Ash Borer is responsible for the destruction of tens of millions of ash trees in at least 30-states. The larvae kill ash trees by tunneling under the bark and feeding on the part of the tree that moves water and sugars up and down the trunk. These ash trees can be saved and also used for lumber.
Any logs too big to be cut at the farm went to another facility. And last week, Mauricio delivered large truck loads of cut wood.
Ken and Mauricio drove the lumber from Pennsylvania where Mauricio’s larger saw mill is located.
They brought back ash, yew, and pine lumber – all from felled trees here at the farm. The wood was cut into boards and then dried in an oven. Ash is used for furniture, flooring, doors, cabinetry, architectural moulding and millwork, tool handles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, oars, turnings, and is also sliced for veneer.
The Yew tree is a hard, relatively heavy softwood. Yew wood, seen here at the top of the pile, can be used for veneers, cabinetry, furniture, carvings, and even archery bows.
Whenever storing lumber, be sure to keep the wood elevated, level, and well stacked. It should also be kept as dry as possible and free of damaging insects.
This wood will be saved for future building projects here at the farm. I am so glad I am able to reuse, recycle and repurpose these valuable natural resources.
Many of the flowering plants around my Bedford, New York farm are gone, but there's still a lot of beautiful and interesting foliage to enjoy.
The area behind my Tenant House, where my daughter and grandchildren stay when they visit, is filled with shade-loving plants. A couple of years ago, I had several trees taken down from this garden - six 125-foot trees were leaning dangerously close to the structure and had to be removed for safety reasons. I then planted two 10 to 12-foot Japanese maples in the space that will someday provide a little shade to the specimens below. Several smaller Japanese maples were planted last year. Some of the plants in this garden include hellebores, brunnera, hostas, European wild ginger, Astiboides, ferns, lady's mantle, thalictrum, and syneilesis.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I always look for the most interesting plants to add to my gardens. This is Syneilesis – a tough, drought-tolerant, easy-to-grow woodland garden perennial that prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acid soils. If in the proper environment, syneilesis will slowly spread to form an attractive colony.
Syneilesis is commonly called the shredded umbrella plant and describes the narrow, dissected leaves that cascade downward like an umbrella.
The hostas are so lush with their varying leaf shape, size, and textures. Hostas have easy care requirements which make them ideal for many areas. I have them all around the farm. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi. They are native to northeast Asia and include hundreds of different cultivars.
A few anemones are still blooming. Anemone is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Most anemone flowers have a simple, daisy-like shape and lobed foliage that sway in the lightest breezes.
Brunnera is one of the prettiest plants to include in any shady garden. Brunnera is an herbaceous perennial with leaves that are glossy green or in variegated hues of gray, silver, or white.
These are the dainty leaves of thalictrum. Plants in this genus are native to stream banks, shaded mountains, and moist meadows. It grows best in moist, humus-rich soil in partial shade. Thalictrum has some of the most beautifully textured foliage. The name Thalictrum means “to flourish,” and it does, with elegant, finely cut and rounded compound leaves.
When blooming, it produces foam-like sprays that resemble Baby’s Breath in shades of lilac and purple.
Astilboides is an interesting plant with huge, bright green leaves that are round and flat and measure up to 24-inches across. The effect is dramatic, and beautiful among other hardy perennials.
Asarum europaeum, or European Wild Ginger, is a slowly spreading ground cover that is primarily grown for its glossy, leathery, heart-shaped, dark green leaves.
Lungwort plants, Pulmonaria, are most often grown for their interesting leaves, which are green with random white spots. The leaves also have a rough, hairy fuzz covering them.
These leaves are from the hellebore. I have many hellebores in my gardens. Hellebores are widely grown for decorative purposes because of their love for shady locations and resistance to frost. They have dark green glossy leaves. The flowering plants bloom early in the spring or even late winter.
And this is the ostrich fern – a light green clump-forming, upright to arching, rhizomatous, deciduous fern which typically grows up to six feet tall.
Some of the ostrich ferns are already changing.
Japanese forest grass is an elegant member of the Hakonechloa family. Japanese forest grass is an attractive, graceful plant that grows slowly and is not invasive. The grass grows 18 to 24 inches tall and has an arching habit with long flat, foliar blades. Japanese forest grass comes in several hues and may be solid or striped.
Tricyrtis hirta, the toad lily or hairy toad lily, is a Japanese species of hardy herbaceous perennial plant in the lily family Liliaceae. Toad lilies are hardy perennials native to ravines and woodland edges in India, China, Japan, and other parts of Asia. Toad lily flowers bloom in a range of spotted colors in the axels of the plant.
This is lady’s mantle, Alchemilla mollis. It’s a clumping perennial which typically forms a basal foliage mound of long-stalked, circular, scallop-edged, toothed, pleated, soft-hairy, light green leaves.
Here is one of the two large Japanese maples we planted in 2019. With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars, the iconic Japanese maple tree is among the most versatile small trees for use in the landscape. They look so pretty with all the green foliage surrounding them. Japanese maples are native to areas of Japan, Korea, China, and Russia. In Japan, the maple is called the “autumn welcoming tree” and is planted in the western portion of gardens – the direction from which fall arrives there.
Red-leafed cultivars are the most popular of the Japanese maples. Japanese maple leaves range from about an inch-and-a-half to four-inches long and wide with five, seven, or nine acutely pointed lobes.
And here is the other – both are doing excellently. Japanese maples grow well in moist, organically rich, well-drained soil. Their forms can be weeping, rounded, dwarf, mounding, upright, or cascading. Japanese maples typically grow about one-foot per year for the first 50-years, but they can live to be more than a hundred years old.
I also planted smaller Japanese maple varieties in this garden. Among them are three varieties of Japanese maple – Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’, Acer palmatum ‘Shaina’, and Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Red Dragon’.
This garden and the adjacent Stewartia garden are constantly evolving and coming along so beautifully – I am looking forward to watching it flourish for many years. I hope this blog inspires you to do some planting in your garden – there is still time left in the season.
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