Photo: Christie Brinkley/Instagram
Christy Brinkley has been nurturing a gorgeous backyard landscape at her Hamptons, New York, home for years — becoming an expert on chemical-free gardening, and growing gorgeous veggies and flowers through every season.
PEOPLE asked the supermodel and entrepreneur to answer readers' biggest backyard questions, beginning with how to fix a major planting faux pas.
Q: I forgot to plant bulbs last fall. What are some early blooming flowers I can plant soon to make my yard feel like spring ASAP?
A: “I too forgot to plant all my bulbs,” admits Brinkley. “But there are bulbs that can be planted in spring, like lilies and dahlias. They may not give you springcolor[they’ll flower in summer], but they’ll give you spring magic.”
“I think it’s that renewal that makes springs so exciting you almost don’t need the color because the leaves themselves feel like such a miracle as they emerge from the thawed winter soil,” she adds. “Once they do bloom, they’ll make beautiful bouquets, which you can put throughout your home. They have lots of gorgeous blossoms and, with lilies, great fragrance too!”
Christie Brinkley/Instagram
Q: I’m over winter! How can I start getting ready to garden now? I don’t have a greenhouse, but I have a sunny kitchen window.
A: “My kitchen windows are full of seedlings starting to sprout,” she says. “I bought biodegradable seed starting trays and organic seed starting soil. I’m getting a head start with a variety of tomatoes because nothing tastes more like summer than tomatoes still warm from the sun, fresh off the vine! I’m in zone 7 in the Hamptons, so I usually wait until Mother’s Day and then I plant away outside.”
Q: I want my garden to be colorful and interesting as much of the year as possible. What are the best plants or flowers that bloom in each season so there’s always something popping?
A: “I feel like my garden is always doing something that surprises and completely enchants me,” explains the star. “In early spring, I find little snowdrop flowers at the edge of the forest and daffodils under the trees in the lawn. I’m always excited to see the hellebores return with their petals celebrating the warmth of the spring in the still fresh cool breeze.”
Come late spring and early summer, she says, the beauty and blooms begins to peak.
“The peonies pop up with petals like a ballerina’s skirt and the sun literally dances around in their joyous pink cups. And when the Chinese tree peonies bloom with Hyde dinner plate-sized blossoms, they beg to upstage you in a selfie. (Of course you comply!) Next come the rhododendron and azalea in every shade of pink, red, and purple, and they grow so big you can literally stand under them in a glowing pink world!”
In mid-summer, “it’s time to let the Kousa dogwood take the spotlight,” says Brinkley. “They put on a show of white flowers that’s so beautiful you have to have a party to share the beauty with friends. In zone 7, June, July, and August are all about flowers. In October it’s all about the fall colors, and we have a ginkgo biloba that is truly a gorgeous spectacle.”
While late fall and winter in the Northeast mean the garden is dormant, Brinkley brings the magic inside. “I always have my indoor plants like my favorite Bougainvillea in my sunny windows. No one can believe I get them to grow in my home, but I do.”
Q: I want to create a garden without any harsh chemicals, but how do i keep pests from destroying everything?
When it comes to pests, she says, “I keep a close eye on plants that are prone to getting flies, like my rhododendrons, and the second I see them, I get out my hose with a strong spray handle and I squirt them down. Then I get a bowl of organic dish soap and a sponge and wash the affected leaves.”
Certain companion plants will also help rid a garden of harmful bugs. “I plant marigolds and basil around my tomatoes and I’m quick to pinch off tomato leaves that look suspicious,” says Brinkley.
source: people.com
