And just like that, my peacocks have grown back their lustrous covert tail feathers signaling the start of a very special time of year - breeding season.
From February until early August, the peacocks display their stunning and iridescent tail feathers, strut back and forth shaking their hindquarters to produce a rattling sound, and make loud calls to the females. Once the season is over, the males shed their plumes in a process called molting and regrow them longer and fuller the following year. My peafowl thrive in a large enclosure just outside my stable. I visit these beautiful birds every day. I love calling out to them and waiting for their energetic responses. They are all doing exceptionally well and remain active, curious, and very vocal.
Here are some of the latest photos of my peafowl, enjoy.
I share my farm with an ostentation of beautiful peafowl – peacocks as well as peahens. Peafowl are members of the pheasant family. There are two Asiatic species – the blue or Indian peafowl native to India and Sri Lanka, and the green peafowl originally from Java and Burma, and one African species, the Congo peafowl from African rain forests. All my peafowl are Indian.
My peafowl live in a large pen outside my stable, completely enclosed to keep them safe from predators. Here is a beautiful and very curious “blue boy” coming to say hello.
This is the outside of the coop. Peafowls are very hardy birds, and even though they are native to warm climates, they do very well in cold weather as long as they have access to dry areas away from strong winds. These birds will spend most of their days outdoors, and nights in their coop where it is warm and cozy.
This is a female, or peahen, inside the coop. All my birds are friendly and come up quite close to visitors.
In autumn, when it is not mating season, the males’ plumes are shorter. This photo of one of my adult males was taken last November.
This photo was taken yesterday of a mature male with his gorgeous tail feathers hanging behind him. The train gets longer and more elaborate every year until five or six when it reaches maximum splendor.
Each of the multicolored eyespots, ocelli, on the peacock’s train is a complex structure with dark centers surrounded by concentric bronze-gold and blue-green regions. These eyespots are the most important attractions to the females during the breeding season.
All peacocks and peahens will look you in the eye, but if you stare at them or seem aggressive in body movements, they will feel threatened. This is white peahen. White birds have a genetic variant called leucism, which involves a partial loss of pigmentation and white or cream-colored plumage. This is different from albino peafowl, which have albinism, causing a complete absence of melanin and resulting in pure white feathers, pink or red eyes, and pale skin.
I have a white peahen and a white peacock. As beautiful as all peahens and peacocks are, they don’t make very melodious sounds. Peafowls have 11 different calls, with most of the vocalizing made by the peacocks.
Both male and female peafowls have the fancy crest atop their heads called a corona. Male peacock feather crests are blue or green in color, while female crests are a more neutral shade of brown or cream.
And here it is – a male just as he opened his tail. A mature peacock can have up to 200 feathers in his tail, which can weigh about a half pound during mating season. Peahens usually choose males that have bigger, healthier plumage with an abundance of eyespots.
Here is the same male strutting around in a circle. Researchers found that the longer the train feathers, the faster the males would shake them during true courtship displays, perhaps to demonstrate muscular strength.
These peacocks are “twinning” it. Peacocks are polygamous by nature, often having several partners during the season, and after courtship, and mating.
And here is the white male. No matter the variety, these male creatures boast impressively sized and patterned plumage as part of the courtship ritual – it’s so interesting to watch.
Females can also fan their short tails and do so when they feel threatened or want to appear bigger. This peahen was in no danger, but perhaps she didn’t like her photo taken too closely.
Notice, the females are less iridescent with more muted colors and markings, and no long tails. While these birds love to forage for insects, I also provide a healthy mix of cornmeal, soybean, and wheat. And, I feed all my birds lots of fresh greens. In the wild, peacocks are omnivores – they eat insects, plants, and small creatures.
This hen is watching the activity from her perch. While these birds are ground feeders and ground nesters, they still enjoy roosting at higher levels. In the wild, this keeps them safe from predators at night. My outdoor birds all have access to natural perches made from old felled trees here at the farm.
Peacocks can fly, but only two-percent of the time, and only for short distances. Peafowl learn to fly by about six-months of age.
This is one of their favorite roosts. From this vantage point, the peafowl can see all the activity happening around the stable. Peafowls are stunning to look at, but do not underestimate their power. These birds are extremely strong with very sharp spurs – just look at the legs and feet of these peacocks. Full-grown, peacocks can weigh up to 13-pounds. Females can weigh up to just under nine.
Peacocks and peahens are very smart, docile and adaptable birds. They are also quite clever and very curious. Whenever I visit, I call out to them – and they respond.
And remember, only the males are peacocks. The females are peahens, and both are called peafowl. Babies are peachicks. A family of peafowl is called a bevy. And a group is called an “ostentation” or a “muster.” Follow along through the season – I wonder if we will have baby peachicks later this year.
Do you have all your seeds for the next growing season?
This time of year is when many gardeners peruse, study, choose, and order seeds from the many purveyors who send out catalogs each winter. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, and I, sow thousands of seeds in my greenhouse every year. We order seeds from our favorite sources, but I also get seeds from friends, find them during my travels, and save them from years past. Growing from seed is an affordable alternative to purchasing plants, but one can also choose from a greater variety of seeds than what's typically available at a nursery. K Greene is the co-founder and creative director of Hudson Valley Seed Company, a national seed business and regional seed farm devoted to producing seed and celebrating seeds through art. Yesterday, K spoke to members of The Bedford Garden Club about the importance of seeds and his passion for preserving them.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Before we know it, the gardens will be bursting with color once again. This is my large flower cutting garden in early June, when so many vivid lupines and other flowers are in bloom.
Here is a section filled with poppies – those colorful tissue paper-like flowers that look stunning both in the garden and in the vase.
Poppies produce open single flowers gracefully located on long thin stems, sometimes fluffy with many petals and sometimes smooth.
These are poppy seed pods – what’s left on the stem once the flower blooms and the petals fall off. As the seed heads turn brown with ripeness, it’s time to cut them and harvest the seeds.
Here, the top is cut off to show all the seeds. These seeds can be tossed randomly in the garden to self-sow the next year. Each seed pod can hold more than 200 seeds, which, in nature, eventually shake out on their own as the winds blow.
Look at all those seeds – tiny bluish-black poppy flower seeds.
Much bigger are the sunflower seeds. These are ready to harvest when the foliage turns yellow, the petals die down, and the seeds look plump. Some of the seeds on this flower have already been eaten by birds, but there are many that can also be harvested and saved for planting.
Aside from purchasing our seeds, every year Ryan collects the flower seeds from plants we like best, separates them, and stores them in a cool, dry, and dark location.
We grew all of these pumpkins and winter squash from seed also – again, some bought and some saved from fruits I’ve enjoyed over the years.
Many are from heirloom seeds. Heirlooms are old-time varieties, open-pollinated instead of hybrid, and handed down through multiple generations of families.
Pumpkin and squash seeds are planted directly into the ground between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow.
Yesterday, K Greene traveled down to Bedford and spoke about the “Art of Seed.” He explains the cycle of seeds – seed germination, seedling formation, growth, development, pollination, fertilization, and ultimately the formation of fruit and more seeds.
He explains the diversity of seeds, their beauty, and the importance of saving those seeds that may otherwise disappear. K says seeds evoke stories and are much more important than just their commodity – they pass down a rich history and value from generation to generation. Here, K shows members a bowl filled with seeds, showing the varied sizes and types.
In this slide, K shows how seeds have changed over the years – how wide the variety options were a century ago, and how much they have lessened in the years following. More effort is needed to understanding the origin of seeds, the science of seeds, and ways we can preserve them.
One way to raise awareness for the importance of seeds is through art. K feels seed packages communicate a particular seed’s story. At Hudson Valley Seed Company, K and his partner, Doug, pair up with various artists who resonate with individual seeds and interpret their stories.
Hundreds of artists apply each year from across the United States, sharing their works. Here is one submission for Honeynut Squash. (Photo from K Greene)
And here it is folded up and packed with seeds inside. This art pack tells a story tens of thousands of years old. Look closely and see the mastadon. Mastadons, wooly mammoths and prehistoric elephants, ate and spread the seeds of ancient wild squash across North America.
This art pack was done for a beet blend showing how diverse the mix is. (Photo from K Greene)
Here are other art packs from this year. This initiative has led to the commissioning of more than 250 works of art as well as a traveling gallery show called “The Art of Seed.”
K is passionate about the company’s original mission of “protecting seeds, increasing seed diversity, fostering an ethical seed landscape, and celebrating the art of seed.” I hope this inspires you to look more closely at the seeds you sow and appreciate the wonderful purveyors who save and develop them from year to year.
Here in Bedford, New York, we're expecting mostly sunny skies today and temperatures in the low 30s - one day after our first major accumulating snow storm of the season.
The swift moving weather system started early yesterday morning and ended by early afternoon dropping more than eight-inches of beautiful white snow in the area. This snow was heavy and stuck to everything - the tree branches and shrubs, stone posts, walls, and steps, and the tops of all the burlap-encased urns and boxwood. Unfortunately, I was away on business and missed it all, but my crew back at the farm took many images to share. I hope you saw some of them on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
Here are some more, enjoy.
It’s always nice to tour the property while the snow is still coming down. For several hours, the farm was truly a veritable winter wonderland. These are the branches of a horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum – one of two large specimens in front of my stable.
This linden tree-lined path between the paddocks runs from my Winter House and carport down to the chicken coops.
Here is the little Basket House nestled in the grove of bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. The snow dropped about eight inches – the most snow we’ve had from one storm in quite some time.
On one side of my pergola is this weeping copper beech tree, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground.
The 100-year old white spruce fencing has stood the test of time. I love how the snow collects on the fence rails. I have photographed sections of this beautiful fence many times through the seasons.
This is a row of six weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. They line one side of the soccer field I set up for my grandson, Truman. These are such graceful and shapely specimen trees, very densely branched and adaptable to various soil conditions.
Looking up are the high branches of the mighty pin oaks, Quercus palustris, that grow alongside my Equipment Barn.
Tucked away between the Equipment Barn and a grove of weeping willows is my pinetum. It includes pines, spruces, and firs, as well as other evergreens.
This is the espalier of Asian pear trees we planted in front of the goose and peafowl pens. Espalier refers to an ancient technique, resulting in trees that grow flat, either against a wall, or along a wire-strung framework. Many kinds of trees respond beautifully to the espalier treatment, but fruit trees, like apple and pear, were some of the earliest examples.
This snow on the coop fencing is like a privacy wall. Snow stuck to nearly every surface and crevice.
Notice the holes in the burlap. It’s a “Good Thing” I developed to help our avian friends during winter – they love to take cover inside, especially during storms. On the left, my handsome Friesian, Hylke.
Along this carriage road on both sides are my young azaleas – very different looking from mid-May when they erupt with swaths of beautiful bright colors.
On one side is this Japanese Stewartia tree. Looking closely, one can see its distinctive multi-colored bark which peels in strips of gray, orange, and reddish-brown.
Here, it is easy to see which direction the snow was falling. This was a wet snow. Wet snow occurs when the air temperature near the surface is above freezing, causing the snowflakes to partially melt before reaching the surface. This causes the snowflakes to become “sticky.”
Here is a view looking through my orchard that surrounds the pool. More than 200-fruit trees are planted in this space.
Just outside my tennis court is this old apple tree. This is a favorite here at the farm. It grows delicious juicy sweet green apples.
Here’s a look through the woodland. Thankfully, the wind was not too strong, so none of my trees suffered any damage.
In this “pine paddock,” with its snow covered ground still undisturbed, it is hard to miss the stand of great eastern white pine trees, Pinus strobus. White pines are the tallest trees in eastern North America.
The Boxwood Allée looks so different in winter. I am so glad the boxwood is covered under burlap shrouds to keep everything protected from the snow.
Here’s a stand of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia, with their straight trunks – impressive trees by any standard, and beautiful in any season.
On the right, one can see a bit of the old corn crib, which is original to the property. The unique “keystone” shape, flaring from bottom to top, was designed to shed water. The snow stopped falling by early afternoon, but I am so glad we captured some of the fresh beauty while it lasted.
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