It takes a lot of time and patience to develop a garden. Here at my Bedford, New York farm, I pay close attention to all the beds - how the plants grow, what varieties work best, and what areas need filling. And then, every spring I add a few more colorful and interesting specimens.
Over the holiday weekend in Maine, I visited several nurseries - Surry Gardens, Frost Farms, Plants Unlimited, and Dublin Gardens. I was able to bring back a nice collection of beautiful plants including physocarpus, peonies, irises, baptisia, and some stonecrop sedums to add to the wall below my terrace parterre. Yesterday, Ryan, Brian, and Phurba got them all planted before today's expected rain.
Enjoy these photos. And tomorrow, I'll start sharing images from my Memorial Day weekend at Skylands.
The pool is surrounded by two developing hedges. On the inside of the fence, about 170 purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple’ which will grow to 40 to 50 feet in height and only 10-feet wide which makes them perfect for tight spaces. Here, on the outside – an interesting combination of alternating shrubs – one phsyocarpus and then one cotinus, etc. We added a few more physocarpus to this area to replace specimens that were not growing as robustly or were needed elsewhere.
Physocarpus, commonly called ninebark, is an upright, spreading, somewhat coarse, deciduous, Missouri-native shrub which is closely related to the genus Spiraea. It boasts deep burgundy foliage with ovate to rounded, usually three to five-lobed leaves that are dull green in summer changing to an undistinguished yellow in fall and bronzy red by the time the leaves fall in late November. Physocarpus blooms now in early June with these white button-like flowers.
I also added a few more tree peonies to this border planted in semi-shade under a stand of giant sugar maples across from my Summer House. Many of the specimens were transplanted from my Turkey Hill garden, while others I’ve added over the years.
Some of the tree peonies are still blooming, but unfortunately the tree peony season is very short – only seven to 10 days. These unimaginably large, and often fragrant yellow, white, pink, and burgundy flowers are some of my favorites – I look forward to seeing them every year.
The pink varieties are more fragrant than the darker maroon flowers. This one has slightly wavy petals with a gold center.
In my flower cutting garden, Brian plants another iris. There are about 300 species in the genus Iris. This large group includes plants that grow from bulbs such as Dutch irises, as well as traditional perennial types of iris, such as the bearded irises, and Siberian irises.
These distinctive, six-petaled flowers have three outer hanging petals called “falls” and three inner upright petals called “standards”.
Irises bloom best in full sun, and they unfurl their stunning flowers from spring to early summer.
I’ve been working on this flower cutting garden for several years and it has developed more and more every year. I wanted the plants to be mixed, so every bed in this garden would be interesting and colorful.
This is stonecrop sedum ‘Chocolate Ball’ – I planned these for the wall and steps surrounding the terrace outside my Winter House kitchen. Sedums really work well in rock gardens. Sedum is a large genus of flowering plants, also known as stonecrops. Sedums are members of the succulent family. They have fleshy, water-storing leaves and are drought tolerant.
Ryan divides the plants from the tray into smaller sections to fit some of the crevices in the wall and between the stone steps.
Traditionally, creeping sedums are grown for their colorful foliage – blue, yellow, copper, maroon and more – or for their draping form which softens the edge of containers and rock walls. Sedum, like other succulents, retain water in their leaves and can thrive in dry climates. They need little soil and water to survive, which makes them excellent for planting here. Ryan is wearing my Martha Stewart MTS-GLVNP2-SL-M All-Purpose Non-Slip Garden Gloves – available at my shop on Amazon.
Once sedums become established, they require very little supplemental water to thrive.
Here, Ryan tucks the sedum in a corner, where the steps meet.
Once he finds a suitable hole, he presses some potting soil into the crack.
And then places the sedum securely into the same crevice. To provide interest, Ryan tries to plant the sedum next to different types along the wall.
Most sedum has a trailing nature and will begin cascading down the side of the wall as it grows.
Once the roots take hold, the plant will wedge itself in and begin to spread.
Here is an already established sedum that has spread across these stones.
Sedums thrive nearly anywhere as long as they get good drainage.
We first planted sedums here in 2012. And every so often, we add more and more – it is growing so nicely on this wall. A rock garden is an easy, low maintenance way to add beauty around any home.
Early June is such an exciting time at the farm because so much is growing and blooming, especially in my flower garden.
The perennial flower cutting garden is located just outside my main greenhouse at the foot of my long clematis pergola. Every season, I add a number of flowering plants to this collection. And right now it is bursting with vibrant colors - the poppies, roses, lupines, goat's beard, columbines, and dianthus are all blooming. I am so proud of how well it has developed.
Here are some recent photos, enjoy.
This garden bed is just outside my fenced flower cutting garden – both are among the first ones seen when visiting my farm. My cutting garden is several years old now and has developed more and more every year. I wanted the plants to be mixed, so every bed in this garden would be interesting and colorful.
Anyone who visits this garden admires the bearded irises. These flowers get their common name from their blooms, which consist of upright petals called “standards,” pendant petals called “falls,” and fuzzy, caterpillar-like “beards” that rest atop the falls.
Bearded irises need full sun, good drainage, lots of space, and quality soil. They come in just about every flower color, both solids, and bi-colors. Branched flower stalks range in height from eight-inch miniatures to 48-inch giants – and all make excellent cut flowers.
I grow many alliums here at the farm and they continue to bloom so beautifully. These easy-to-grow bulbs come in a broad palette of colors, heights, bloom times, and flower forms. They make excellent cut flowers for fresh or dried bouquets. What’s more, alliums are relatively resistant to deer, voles, chipmunks, and rabbits.
These are the large leaves of Rodgersia – a genus of flowering plants in the Saxifragaceae family. Rodgersia are herbaceous perennials originating from east Asia. The common name is Roger’s Flower.
And here are the Rodgersia flowers. These tiny white to pink flowers arrive in late spring into midsummer.
Robust and beautiful, Nectaroscordum siculum, or Sicilian Honey Garlic, displays showy clusters of gracefully drooping bell-shaped flowers in late spring to summer.
Ornithogalum umbellatum, commonly known as star of Bethlehem, is a bulbous perennial that is native to the Mediterranean region. Narrow, semi-erect, grass-like, linear leaves grow in a basal clump with each stem bearing 10 to 20 starry white flowers in an open, umbel-like, terminal cluster. Flowers are striped green on the outside. Flowers open near noon and close at sunset or in cloudy weather.
Aruncus dioicus, commonly called goat’s beard, is a Missouri native plant which occurs in moist woodlands and along bluffs in the central and southeast part of the State. A tall, erect, bushy, clump-forming plant typically growing four to six feet high features pinnately compound, dark green foliage and showy, plume-like spikes of tiny, cream colored flowers which rise well above the foliage in early to mid summer.
But don’t confuse this Aruncus dioicus with the Astible, which is a smaller plant with straight upright plumes.
Right now, there are gorgeous poppies blooming everywhere – those colorful tissue paper-like flowers that look stunning both in the garden and in the vase. Poppies are flowering plants in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. They produce open single flowers gracefully located on long thin stems, sometimes fluffy with many petals and sometimes smooth.
Poppies are attractive, easy-to-grow herbaceous annual, biennial or short-lived perennial plants.
The plants typically grow to about two feet in height forming colorful flowers during spring and into summer.
Flowers have four to six petals, many stamens forming a conspicuous whorl in the center of the flower and an ovary of two to many fused carpels. The petals are showy and may be almost any color. Poppies require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil.
There are numerous types of dianthus – most have pink, red, or white flowers with notched petals. This is Dianthus ‘Sweet William.’
Here is another dianthus – very different with its fringed blooms.
And here is a dark pink variety – also heavily fringed.
I have many roses in my flower garden. Some of them were transferred here from my home in East Hampton. I am so happy with how well they’re doing. In the last couple years, I’ve added to this collection of roses – David Austin roses and various varieties from Northland Rosarium. A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are more than a hundred species and thousands of cultivars.
Roses come in many different colors, such as pink, peach, white, red, magenta, yellow, copper, vermilion, purple, and apricot. And many different shapes. This one is also very fragrant.
Here is a beautiful rose in light pink and white. Single blooms are fully opened and almost flat, consisting of one to seven petals per bloom.
Johnny Jump Ups are a popular viola. They are native to Spain and the Pyrennes Mountains and are easy to grow. Small plants produce dainty, fragrant blooms – some in deep purple and yellow.
And here are some of the first lupines of the season. These flowers are attractive and spiky, reaching one to four feet in height. Lupine flowers may be annual and last only for a season or perennial, returning for a few years in the same spot in which they were planted. The lupine plant grows from a long taproot and loves full sun. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spike, each flower about one to two centimeters long. The pea-like flowers have an upper standard, or banner, two lateral wings, and two lower petals fused into a keel.
Lady’s mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris, grows along both sides of the path of my cutting garden. It is a clumping perennial which typically forms a mound of long-stalked, circular, scallop-edge light green leaves, with tiny, star-shaped, chartreuse flowers.
Geum, commonly called avens, is a genus of about 50 species of rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plants in the rose family, widespread across Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa, and New Zealand. They produce flowers on wiry stalks, in shades of orange, white, red, and yellow. Geum is a relative of the strawberry. Its bright and showy, cup-shaped flowers appear in late spring.
Flowers open every day in this garden and we continue to plant more and more flowering plants here. I will share more photos as new blossoms appear.
The beds in my vegetable garden are filling up quickly. We already planted a variety of crops including onions, leeks, a selection of brassicas, as well as seeds for fava beans, soy beans, beets, cilantro, and more.
A few weeks ago, we also planted our potatoes. Potatoes are grown from “seed potatoes”, which are certified disease-free and specially grown in nurseries for planting purposes. This season’s “seed potatoes” came from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a small family-owned business located in Ellensburg, Washington.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
Every year, we plant a large variety of potatoes in my vegetable garden. I’ve been getting ours from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds for years. The company is one of only 10-certified organic seed potato growers nationwide. Here is one of the potato “seeds.” Each tuber or potato has several buds. These are the small sprouts we call potato “eyes.” It’s from these buds that new potato plants can grow.
I like to plant different varieties – some of our favorites from years past as well as those I haven’t yet tried. Among this season’s selections – ‘Albertine’, a new variety exclusive to Irish Eyes. Albertine potatoes have yellow, smooth skin, shallow eyes and yellow flesh. It is disease resistant and a good variety for first time potato growers.
‘Kennebec’ potatoes are short oval potatoes with smooth, pale yellow skin, shallow eyes and white flesh. They’re great for fries, hash browns, and many other uses even without peeling.
The ‘Yukon Gold’ potato is a round tuber with smooth, thin yellow skin with pink coloring around shallow eyes and yellow flesh. It provides excellent flavor when baked, boiled or made into salads or fries. This best selling early variety is a moderate keeper, and is drought-tolerant.
The potatoes need some preparation before planting. Some of the bigger varieties – bigger than the average sized chicken egg – are cut into pieces. Each piece should have at least two eyes.
Next, Ryan takes each cut side of a potato and coats it with Douglas fir bark dust.
This dust helps to heal the sliced area, so it doesn’t shrink or curl. The slightly acidic bark is also a natural fungicide and moisture buildup barrier.
Ryan carefully dips each piece into the dust until it is completely coated. Potatoes contain 18-percent starch, two-percent protein, and small amounts of vitamin-B6, iron, niacin, magnesium, thiamin, folic acid, and potassium. They are also a good source of vitamin-C, low in sodium and easy to digest.
Here is is easy to see the coated potato halves.
Ryan does the same for all the potatoes, keeping them separated in trays by variety. ‘Dark Red Norland’ potatoes are loved for their richer red skin color. These are round to oblong tubers with white flesh. They store well, and are excellent for roasting and boiling.
Here’s another new variety exclusive to Irish Eyes – ‘Sunrise Gold.’ These have yellow skin and moist yellow flesh. Each ‘Sunrise Gold’ potato is large, round to oval in shape with very shallow eyes. ‘Sunrise Gold’ is a great breakfast potato.
Ryan lines up all the trays of potatoes so they’re ready to take down to the vegetable garden for planting. The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum.
Potatoes perform best in soil with pH levels 4.8 to 5.5. Potatoes are easy to grow as long as they have access to full sun and moderate temperatures.
Potato plants are perennials that grow low to the ground like vines. Brian places each of the potato pieces about six to eight inches apart. The bed has already been prepared with twine, so the potatoes are planted in straight, tidy lines.
Three rows of twine run the entire length of each bed about 10 to 12 inches apart. Potatoes can be planted in cooler soils at least 40-degrees Fahrenheit. They do best as rotation crops and should be placed away from where potatoes, tomatoes or peppers were grown in the last two years.
Next, Phurba follows behind planting each potato. He starts by digging a hole about four to six inches deep using a garden trowel.
The seed potato pieces are placed in the ground with eyes faced up and cut sides down. When selecting seed potatoes, avoid planting those from supermarkets in case they were treated by sprout inhibitors. And look out for any green areas. The green parts of a potato’s skin, as well as the leaves of the potato plant, contain a toxic compound. Although poisoning from potatoes is rare, it’s always best to cut out these green areas when peeling potatoes before cooking.
Once the potato is in the hole, Phurba backfills with the same nutrient-rich soil, fully covering the potato. Today, potatoes are the world’s fourth-largest food crop, behind rice, wheat, and corn.
As each row is planted, Ryan places a marker, so every variety can be identified. These large white markers come from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. They’re birchwood veneer stakes made in Maine, and are treated with an environmentally-friendly, water-based preservative so they last longer through the season.
Phurba is careful to cover the seed potatoes without disturbing how they are positioned. In the United States, Idaho and Washington produce the most potatoes each year. Other states with major potato crops include North Dakota, Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon, and Maine.
Once the potatoes are planted, Brian removes the twine from the bed. Long lines of twine can be saved for later use.
Potatoes need at least one-inch of water per week. Potatoes require less water to grow compared to other staple foods such as wheat, rice, and corn. I cannot wait until harvest time – a first modest harvest of potatoes should be ready about 65 to 70 days after planting.
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