Big blocks of hay have long been a staple of autumn garden décor, but the trend has never been bigger than it is now. Celebrity event planners who get paid millions to create season-appropriate settings for splashy events say that the rustic look is IN right now. Hay bales set the stage for a comforting, country-style vibe to your fall garden décor.

The blocks give you a chance to build upward, adding some height to your fall garden style, and potted mums and other fall flowers can be placed on the lower ‘steps’ of your hay architecture.

I talked with The Farm’s resident décor expert, Tim, about some smart steps to take before you start dropping those heavy hay bales all over your front yard. Tim says that you should try to avoid burning out your lawn beneath those hay bales. “If you can lay them on a bed of mulch, that will help protect the lawn beneath,” says Tim. “And if you have a wide sidewalk, you can place hay bales on that.” Of course, when the fall season is over, it’s easy enough just to pick up and remove any hay bales that do sit on your lawn or beneath your shade trees, sprinkle some grass seed, and watch your lawn recover from the very brief time it supported your fall-fantastic hay bale décor.

Other ways to display hay bales:

• Drape them with colorful autumn leaf garlands (also found here at The Farm)
• Set up a friendly scarecrow either sitting on them or standing behind or beside them
• Use them to hold silver tin buckets holding piles of pinecones that you’ve gathered from your property and put to good use
• Decorate them with potted mums and other fall flowers, with containers placed in front of the hay bale pile, as well as one or two containers placed on the lower levels of it.
• Never display lit candles on hay bales, not even ones in what you deem safe candle containers. Keep lit flames far from hay, wet or dried out.
• Insert inexpensive solar light stakes around the hay bale arrangements.
• Come in to The Farm to get inspired on how to display your hay bales and other fall décor items. Tim’s a master at setting a scene, so come see his newest, expert trends in fall garden décor.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Considering how much time you may spend in your office, it’s uplifting to surround yourself with beautiful, healthy plants. I say healthy, since a struggling, stressed-out, crispy plant is only going to depress you…we brought home a challenged plant from my husband’s office to nurse it here, and bought him a fresh, new plant for his desk.

Not only is a healthy plant going to boost your mood, it can clean the air you’re breathing in the office environment, which is very important for your health and energy levels. Many offices don’t have windows that open, and with fall coming at us, with flu season right behind it, clean air is a Must.

Here are some of the top plants to get for your office, or to give to your assistant on the next gift-giving occasion:

Spider Plant: They’re large, green and lush, often with a white stripe down the middle. Keep them near a window but out of direct sunlight, since the heat and light of direct sun will cause these plants’ leaves to brown. These are easy-care plants, not needing a lot of light, not being sensitive to temperature changes (which can happen when the office AC conks out) and they’re happy with just a brief daily watering.

Philodendrons: These provide a tropical feel for your office, with their large leaves and lovely color. They like cool temperatures (between 60 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit), but they’ll tolerate a warmer environment. Place this plant near a window for some light, but they’re not huge light-needers. Farm-bought plant nutrients give it a boost to keep it healthy for you.

Lucky Bamboo: All they need is a pot of water with some rocks, bringing happiness and luck to your work space. Keep them watered so that they can grow tall. This plant is an office favorite, since it doesn’t have feeding needs and is happy on a windowsill with some sunlight.

Cactus: Cacti and succulents are growing in popularity, since they’re very easy to take care of. They prefer natural light, so placing them by the window is best. Since they don’t require a lot of water, they survive the weekends without getting moisture and can even be left for a few weeks (such as during a business trip) without worry. A big trend now is to line your office windowsill with several different types of flowering cactus and succulents for visual interest.

Pothos: These green plants have heart-shaped leaves with white splotches on them, doing just fine in a variety of lighting conditions. They can be cut to a round shape, or you can let their long tendrils grow to hang down over desks or filing cabinets.

Some additional air-cleaning plants:

• Rubber plants
• Dracaena
• Peace lily
• English ivy
• Umbrella plant [In brighter light, this one needs more water]
• Boston fern
• African violet [These need lots of light and moisture, but they add a happy burst of color to your office and clean the air beautifully for you!]

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

If you’ve vacationed on a tropical island, you know how beautiful those tropical plants can be, how they scent the air, and put you in a great mood. “Oh, I wish I could have tropical plants!” is a common thought among home gardeners who worry that it would be impossible for tropicals to thrive in their homes. But it’s not impossible at all. You just need the right spot in your home to provide these plants’ light and warmth needs. Here are some of the top indoor tropical plants that could add some island bliss to your home or office right now:

Orchids: These take some special care, such as watching their water levels and providing the right light at the right time. Orchid varieties such as phaleonopsis, miltonia, lady slipper, and nun orchids prefer low light while in bloom, and modern light when they’re done blooming. It’s a common beginner’s mistake to put the orchid plant in a bright, sunny spot and think it’s getting the light it needs. What’s more important with orchids is giving them the humidity they need, which might mean placing a gorgeous, arching orchid in your bathroom to capture that shower steam. The Farm’s plant experts can educate you about specific orchid needs, and you can ask for a printout of smart orchid care that gets into great detail. If you’re planning to give an orchid as a gift – which is very popular! – give a copy of the orchid care printout as well, so that your recipient can keep that orchid thriving.

Bromeliads: These tall, brightly-colored floral plants grow quite well indoors, since they don’t need the humidity that many other tropical plants need. You get the color without the humidity hassles.

Desert Rose: This succulent likes to star warm and well-lit in natural sunlight, and provides tiny pink flowers in a bonsai-type display. The sap is poisonous, though, so keep this one out of the reach of pets and small children. [Remember that tropical plants’ native environments have some dangerous predators, so their natural ‘arsenal’ often includes poisonous, non-edible elements, thorns and other plant-protectors.]

Tropical plants don’t come from cold-weather environments, so warm locations inside the home are a must. For instance, don’t place a hibiscus right next to an air conditioner or under a cooling fan, and keep them out of the bedroom that always gets the coldest air conditioning blast.

Where’s the Bird of Paradise that always reminds you of your honeymoon or favorite vacation spot? That one’s a bit of a challenge to grow indoors, since it needs the light and humidity levels most often found in a greenhouse. But of course if you have a greenhouse, this colorful tropical plant could be yours to grow and show off!

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

A fresh cover of mulch gives any garden a boost in appearance, providing a uniform cover and color and making your plantings look like new. If you’re planning to mulch now or in the fall, keep some important Do’s and Don’ts in mind:

DON’T create a mound of mulch around young trees’, shrubs’ and hostas’ crown or trunk. This volcano-shape of mulch causes water to run away from the plant’s base, keeping moisture from the roots. As a result, a new tree or plant’s root ball can actually shrink beneath the ground. Create an open ring or berm around plantings to let the water seep down where needed.

DON’T: Mulch too much around new or established trees and plants, since thick layers too close to the roots invite pests and disease.

DO keep mulch height to about two inches, especially around young trees. This is enough to discourage weeds from growing around the trees and in your garden. Water can seep down through this thickness, which provides enough cover to keep roots cooler in hot weather.

DO purchase quality mulch, made from fresh organic materials. It’s actually a mistake to try to save money by mulching your own wood, since you may not be aware if logs or cut-down trees, pulled-up shrubs or even tree leaves have any types of rot or disease. Fresh, pristine mulch is worth the investment, keeping your garden plantings safe and sound.

DON’T mulch before you test your soil’s pH levels. Your soil might need some doctoring with lime or other pH adjusters to achieve its healthiest levels before you cover it with mulch.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Shade-loving plants add color, texture and beautiful scene-setting to those darker corners of your property…and as your trees have grown and gotten fuller, you might have different shady spots than you did when you first moved in.

We have some new shady circles beneath our mature trees, and an entire shady section in the back of our house, thanks to our neighbor’s new, tall fence. So instead of bemoaning our lost light, we see the opportunity to put in gorgeous shade-happy plants and flowers. Lighter-colored green plants (including more silvery hostas) brighten those shady spots better than deeper-hued plants, so keep color in mind.

Here are some of the top shade-loving plants you might wish to put in now, or keep in mind for next year’s garden design:

Astilbe: These feathery plants come in bright colors such as reds and pinks, and also in fall-friendly tans, adding some height and an interesting texture to your shade garden.

Brunnera: The shimmering silver foliage of the Brunnera adds nice color to a shady-spot, is known to grow well in tree root areas, and isn’t a favorite of deer.

Ferns: Ferns love the low light, and add soft, delicate texture to your shade garden. They pair very well with hostas. They need consistent watering, so watch out for drying leaves, and get that mister on them often.

Heuchera: One of the most colorful shade to sun perennials, this plant likes a little bit of sun during the day to bring out the shine in its foliage, but otherwise is used as a groundcover between larger plants. Chartreuse/ lemon – green colors prefer shade.

Hostas: Hostas provide large leaves with multiple variations of leaf colorings and striping, white or cream-colored leaf borders and lots of bang for your buck. They grow well under trees, but they do need really great drainage and good spacing to keep them healthy.

Hellebore: This shade plant provides year-round evergreen foliage that deer don’t like to eat, and you may get late-winter blooms from this plant as well.

Ornamental Grasses: Talk to The Farm’s staff about choosing the perfect grasses for your garden shape, so that you know which ones spread out and which ones grow taller.

Pulmonaria: This plant, especially in its Raspberry variety, provides fuzzy silver spotted leaves.

Tiarella (Foamflower): A slow-grower, this plant provides colorful leaves right through until winter, and works as a great groundcover.

Ideally, your shade garden will become a work of art, with a mix of color and texture, growing thick and lush through each season.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

I’ve spent many of my Bonus Bucks on Hostas from The Farm over the years – and right now I’m watching over them, since they’re having a little bit of trouble. The deer can eat them like candy if I’m not careful, and if I miss a scheduled spray of Deer Off or Scram, my hostas can get eaten to the ground. So I actually have a reminder alarm on my computer to get out there and give them a spritz of deer and pest repellant.

We’ve had a few groupings munched down to the stalks, and I’ve just learned that rabbits like to eat younger sprouts of hostas, so sometimes those nibbles are bunnies, not bucks.

If you have lots of different kinds of hostas like we do, you may notice that the deer prefer some cultivars of the plants more than others. Plant breeders have come out with hundreds of different types of hostas, from green and blue-tinged varieties to large, metallic-tinged plants.

Hostas are the most popular shade perennials, because they get better with age. Over the course of our four years in our Morristown home, we’ve divided our hostas a few times, getting great container and ground plant color and texture in our gardens. They love the low light, the shade, and we have some container hostas doing great in partial sun. When they’re in too-bright sun, their color seems to bleach out a bit.

But we’ve noticed a little something that you should look out for in your own hosta plantings, and mention to anyone you give a hosta plant to as a gift:

Slugs love hostas, too. You may see a slug or snail trail of silvery slime running through your hosta plantings, evidence that these nocturnal pests are munching small holes in your leaves. Slugs can turn your garden into their own buffet, so look at organic pest treatments specially formulated to eliminate your slug or snail issues. Some gardeners still use their grandparents’ favorite slug solution: beer traps. You just fill these little saucer-shaped traps with a bit of beer, the slugs get attracted to the beer, fall in and meet their brewed-up end. [Of course, this solution isn’t smart if you have pets or children in your yard…the organic pest treatment may be preferable.]

If you see irregular notches of chewed-up portions on your hosta leaves, the pest may be black vine weevil, whose larvae feed on the roots of hosta plants, causing yellow, wilted leaves. Organic pest solutions can remove this threat to your hostas.

And if you see evidence of nematodes (microscopic roundworms) on your hostas, which would be brown stripes on the leaves, those plants may need to be pulled up and destroyed (not composted.) To prevent this issue, don’t plant hostas too closely, since wet foliage encourages nematode presence. Several other infestation types are caused by too-close plantings and too-wet foliage and stalks, so spread out your plants well to give them airy room to grow without attracting pest infestations.

Some other hosta tips:

• When planting, don’t place individual clumps too close together
• Give them time. It can take three years for some hosta types to reach their largest, fullest size
• Pull mulch away from the crowns of your hosta plantings, to keep the moisture levels controlled and deter pests as well as root rot and other plant-destroying conditions.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

If you follow celebrity news, you’ve read about big stars who renew their wedding vows. Heidi Klum and Seal do so every year, and on the new reality show Ice Loves Coco, they had a vow renewal bash that let Coco wear her dream wedding dress. You don’t have to be a celebrity to renew your vows, and the biggest trend right now in love and romance is taking a private moment in your prettiest garden or yard spot to speak words of love to one another.

There’s no $50,000 wedding re-do price tag on the private moment vow renewal, although some of our Morris County couples do plan lavish backyard celebrations with tents, gorgeous exotic flowers, aisle runners and catering, not to mention a wedding cake.

Here are some tips for your backyard wedding vow renewal:

• Carry your own flowers. If you’ve planted roses or other beautiful blooms, take some cuttings and hand-wrap your own bouquet for free. Carry that down your garden path to where your sweetheart awaits.
• Wear a pretty little dress. A simple sundress will do it. Dressing up even a little makes the moment extra-special and allows for lovely photos.
• Take photos! Ask the kids to snap some pictures of the two of you, or set your digital camera’s auto-take feature to capture lovely poses in your yard. My husband and I went to REI and bought a flexible camera stand that actually grips onto trees or porch rails, securing our camera to get great shots from an angle. I love panoramic shots, so check your camera’s settings for that feature to capture your garden in full summertime bloom all around you.
• Repeat your original vows, or write new ones of your own…and don’t be afraid to be funny! This is your moment, with no rules, and you might find it more fun and more ‘you’ to take a light-hearted approach.
• Think about renewing your vows every year. Some people do so every time they’re on vacation, some do so on their actual wedding anniversary – and it doesn’t have to be a milestone anniversary like your 5^th, 10^th and so on. Married 4 ½ years? Renew now! 17 years? The time is right!
• I love this: each time you renew your vows in your garden, make it a ritual to add a flowering plant to your garden. As time goes by, your ‘love corner’ of your garden will bloom and grow.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Today’s brides and grooms want their friends and family to have a fabulous time during the wedding weekend, and they’re looking for fun and affordable activities that appeal to all ages. While some of our Northern New Jersey customers take their out-of-towners to New York City or to Hoboken for a day of touring, many more would rather skip the travel prices and stay local. Which makes The Farm a fabulous stop on the ‘staycation weekend’ itinerary. Kids can visit with our menagerie, couples can sit by the lake and watch the swans, and who says you have to go to the Short Hills Mall for a day of shopping? When you plan a day of shopping at The Farm, everyone gets to pick out garden gifts like ceramic plant IDs, pretty pottery, mini stone figures, stylish garden gloves and other goodies that remind them for a long time of your wonderful wedding weekend.

You don’t have to be the bride and groom to plan this outing. So many wedding guests play host to visiting friends and family while the bride, groom and their circle busily put the finishing touches on their wedding celebrations, and the local outing is a top draw for those who have 15 or so in their visiting group. A morning spent walking through the gardens is a morning well-spent and a fine look at the best of The Garden State’s true beauty.

There’s no need for a guided tour. Encourage your guests to wander at will, and everyone meets back at the entrance at a set time, after which you can all go back to your place, and your gardens, for an afternoon’s cookout. The outing is free to you – which is welcome news to hosts of big groups – everyone gets their shopping on, and the garden splendor at the Farm puts everyone in a delightful mood for the rest of the weekend’s events.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Since it’s wedding season, a great many of our New Jersey brides and grooms are hosting wedding morning brunches before they depart for their Big Day. And a fabulous new trend is for wedding guests to invite out-of-town friends and family over to their places, too, for a wedding morning breakfast or afternoon cocktail party before an evening wedding.

These events get gorgeous when you add some potted flowers to your at-home party décor. I’m in love with the begonias, ranunculus, roses and kalanchoe plants at The Farm and recommend them not just in bridal white, but in full-blooming color. Place one potted flower on each of your tables and end tables, on the coffee table, on your bar…setting the scene for a lovely gathering. And after the party, you have potted blooms to enjoy indoors or plant in your garden as a sweet and sunny remembrance of the day.

Since so many guests come in from out of town, this gathering is happening often during the wedding weekend. Not just on the morning of the wedding, but the day before and the day after. So pick your party day and time (remembering that post-wedding parties are all the rage now!), and enjoy decorating with flowers just like the bride does!

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

I’ve just returned from San Diego and L.A., and one of the things I noticed is that Southern Californians love their outdoor fire pits…just like we do here in Morris County…and that many of the tall, arching organic flowers I admired out there are the very same ones gracing the grounds of The Farm. When you read home décor magazine features about ‘California living,’ it’s inspiring to know that’s the very same thing we’re all doing here.

We sat by chimineas and fire pits during the cool evenings, at cocktail parties and while visiting with friends, and the outdoor entertaining vibe was upscale and elegant, while at the same time chic and cozy. And we pulled out our Star Finder app to ID the many constellations above, even on a cloudy night – something I highly recommend for the whole family, especially during the later, wind-down hours of your backyard parties. Warmed by the fire, you can stay out there for hours, listening to the nighttime quiet and spotting planets and stars with guests young and old.

I was amazed by the variety of fire features during our week in California… portable metal ones, built-in concrete ones, southwestern rectangular ones, and Spanish-style chimineas in rustic reds and oranges, again the same as the ones we love here at home.

What’s your style of chimney or fire pit? If you have one already, tell us about it. If a fire pit is on your dream wishlist, which kind would you get? Not sure? Come to The Farm to check out our fire features, and talk to our staff about the best placement and securing, plus safety advice for ‘lighting up’ your summertime and fall evenings.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.