Springtime In My Yard
This is our flowering pear tree. I planted this as a seedling over 25 years ago.
Look what is popping up in the garden. I picked my first batch of asparagus! I will continue to pick and eat it until the first week of June.
Soon I will be picking rhubarb. I freeze this and use it all year long. The leaves are poisonous but the stalks are wonderful for baking cakes and pies. I can’t wait to make my favorite strawberry rhubarb pie!
My husband made all new raised beds using composite boards because the wood ones were falling apart. I still need to top this perineal herb bed off with dried manure and work it into the dirt.
I can’t for the life of me understand how my annual parsley made it through the winter! I am told it won’t be good to use but of course I will have to try. It sure looks OK to me so I will cut it back and see what it does.
My new cabana weathered nicely though the winter.
At my 50’ arbor the hosta have started to grow but the wisteria on top hasn’t yet. All of this will get new mulch soon.
This is my sweet cherry tree, I wish I had as many cherries as I do flowers! This is another tree I planted as a seedling and it is huge now! It’s never given me good quality cherries and what it does produce the birds eat before I do, however, they have to eat too. The arbor behind it is about 8 feet tall so you can see the massive size of this tree.
The red bud trees were free seedlings with a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation. Back then I paid $10.00 for a membership and they sent me 10 seedlings.
After taking all these pictures we were hit with about 4” of snow!
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Categories: My Garden
Your trees are gorgeous, Your husband did an excellent job on those raised gardens too.
Thank you and he really did. He worked on them over the winter and since they are the composite boards they should last a very long time. He even moved all of the mounds, except my herbs, and put in all new dirt. I will tell him you said that, it will make his day.
If he is ever bored, I’m sure I could find somethings for him to work on here too. 🙂
Hahaha I will relay the message!
Cool beans! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Your property is AMAZING!!!!
Awe thank you so much Cathy! It has been a lot of work over the years but has been worth it.
Your garden is beautiful! I especially like the arbor. I believe a persons garden is a reflection of themselves and personality. Bravo. I enjoyed my walk through your eyes. G’day.
What a nice thing to say! Thank you for that, you made my day.💕💕💕
Beautiful pear tree. Ours a bit smaller. Just as full of blossoms, though. Dreary, windy, cloudy spring, so far. Wouldn’t mind if it brought added rain; but, no. Plenty of spare wind for another week at least – if you could use some. :-]
Hahaha we have farm fields on 3 sides of us. We seem to always have wind! But then again, the wind is better than the snow we got! Thank you Ed and have a great weekend.
Spectacular! How wonderful!
Awe thanks Pam! ❤️
So wonderful to see all the beautiful little beginnings of spring! Enjoy that wonderful asparagus!
Thank you Dorothy you know I will…lol
Really great,I love the photographs of the flowering pear tree,sweet cherry tree,red bud flowering tree and of course the asparagus and rhubarb..thanks a lot for sharing.Take care.🌹🙏
Thank you for being so kind Francis! Have a great weekend!
My pleasure.🌹🙏
How lovely, I like your cabana!
I have wanted that cabana for years. Then last year they started selling them down the road from me. Of course I couldn’t buy the generic design, I had to have it designed the way I wanted it…lol. It is my sanctuary at sundown when I listen to the birds sitting in their nests chirping away. My grandkids and I sit at different ends and toss balls and I have a large wooden table for eating on, the seats are built in. The cabana was the last thing I wanted for the yard. I have my two small ponds, an arbor and the cabana….done! Thank you Mel!
Everything looks beautiful at your place.
Thank you so much!
Beautiful!! Your blossom is much fuller than mine, maybe a fortnight away I think. Ha, like you I have large cherry tree but the birds always get to the fruit before me and seem to strip it entirely almost overnight! One day, they are there, next day gone 🙁 Good luck this year 😉
Thanks! Yes and it’s the same way with my blueberries! The birds come first thing in the morning so what I do is pick them after supper and there aren’t any ripe berries first thing in the morning. Besides the early bird is suppose to get the worm not my blueberries…lol
Haha, yes!! They should stick to the worms not our cherries!! 😉 But I would not be too sad if they picked the moles out of the ground too! 😉
Oh yes! I think we have an entire city of moles in our yard. Unfortunately they are digging in our garden through my asparagus, rhubarb and blueberry roots. It’s funny because they rarely tunnel in the raised beds.
Grrrr …. I genuinely feel your pain!!
You have a very beautiful backyard!
How do you pick the pears off your tree?
We have 1 rhubarb plant in our backyard that yields two harvests each year. I’m looking forward to making your strawberry and rhubarb pie in a few weeks!
It is a flowering pear, so no fruit. The cherry tree is so much bigger and I have never been able to get up on it so the birds enjoy what cherries it produces. I can’t wait to see how you like the strawberry rhubarb pie, my absolute favorite!!!! How nice that you are growing rhubarb. Have you ever made rhubarb sauce?
I’ve made the strawberry rhubarb pie twice last year and loved it both times. The rhubarb was something the previous owner planted. Only 1 plant and we enjoy it now. 🙂 Haven’t made rhubarb sauce before. Do you have a recipe?
Sure do and it is super easy! You can adjust the sugar to your own liking but this is how I like it. https://wp.me/p7LF0S-2gK
Also did you know if you let the rhubarb grow the flower stalk and let it dry out completely planting them in late August to early September, you can tap the seeds into the ground for new growth?
Very cool. Thanks for sharing! I will have to give it a try. 🙂 We get two harvests from the same plant. So maybe one pie and one sauce. Thanks!
You’re welcome! Have a great weekend!
Gotta love those National Arbor Day people. When we lived in Connecticut I got trees from them…in a business sized envelope. Planted a black walnut tree which over the years grew higher than my house! It was beautiful!
I know what you mean they grow like crazy! The flowering pear came from there too!
Diane, you have a fabulous garden
Thank you Sheree it is a labor of love.
What a gorgeous yard, Diane! All your hard work, weeding, pruning, watering, etc. have paid off. I hope the snow didn’t kill anything. It was a record-breaking 32 degrees here in Charlotte. Not so good for irises and azaleas in full bloom. Fingers crossed for our blueberry bushes.
Thank you Janet. Our yard is finally where I can easily keep it well groomed. I am having surgery soon and after I recover I will be buying 10 yards of mulch to keep the weeds at bay, I do this every 2-3 years. It will fill our entire basketball court when they dump it. Hopefully the weeds don’t take over before I recover as my hubby doesn’t weed…lol
Oh wow that’s cold for Charlotte! I hope your blueberry bushes make it Janet. Mine don’t have leaves yet and I did lose the fruit a few years ago from frost. Fingers crossed for you! Enjoy the weekend.❤️
Wow Diane, it was great walking through your garden! I love your pear tree that you’ve planted 25 years ago … must be great to stand back and look at this tree now 😊.
And your parsley definitely looks better than mine (and we can still use ours in food), I’m pretty sure your’s will be good too.
To eat from your garden … how fortunate are you!!
Thank you so much!
Snow! 😱 😊 It all looks in inviting and lovely, Diane.
Blue Rock Horses Frederick County, Virginia bluerockhorses.com
At least I got my asparagus picked first. Hopefully the rhubarb is OK, going out to check it tonight. Thank you Mitzy!
I love seeing photos of your garden! It looks so pretty and spacious. The blossom in the trees is beautiful!
Thank you Emily! It seems to change every year. My husband downsized about 6 feet of it this year. Now I am telling him I want to plant this and that and he just shakes his head. He never asked me if I wanted it smaller! 🤣😂🤣
It looks like a huge yard! It’s wonderful you have the cabana, arbor, fruit trees, other trees, and garden boxes. Do you have help in caring for all of it? Looks like a great place for gatherings.
We have 2-1/2 acres and no help. My husband cuts the grass with a riding mower. We both split the garden and I pretty much do all of the rest. I am finding every year I do something to downsize the work as I get older. I also have 2 small ponds with gold fish. Thank you Katelon!
Wow…that is a lot to handle with just you two.
You have such a lovely garden, I admired every image, especially the cabana, and the wisteria over the arbor, and that pear tree! Wow, just stunning! I can’t believe you got snow in April? Crazy. Looking forward to new recipes utilizing all the veggies in the raised beds! Love to help you “mix in the manure,” but sadly we live too far apart! Wear a face mask! All my best, C
Thank you Cheryl it is so pretty here in the spring. In the summer the garden is wonderful but the grass dies off from the heat (we don’t water 2-1/2 acres) and there isn’t that many flowers. Fall I love because all my mums are flowering. Have a great weekend!
Beautiful property Diane! It snowed here all day yesterday too, why? lol and snowed a little bit today, I put my sandals away!
I love rhubarb, I used to have some out back of our property but I don’t know what happened to it, it is now gone.
Thank you so much! The snow and cold definitely took care of the flowers on most of our plants and trees. I was happy I took pictures when I did as it was very pretty. My rhubarb is so old and it didn’t really multiply, but kept growing. About 3 years ago one of my followers told me how his just keeps growing more and more plants. I asked how he does it. He said he just lets it go to seed and knocks the seeds onto the ground. I was always told when the rhubarb flowers you cut the stalk of the flower off so the energy continues to feed the rhubarb…lol So now I pick all I want and let the last of the flowers dry on the plant and shake them to wherever I want new ones to grow. You should plant more!
Yes I’ll have to try to get another rhubarb plant this year, I miss it
You won’t be sorry. Have a great weekend!
Soooo beautiful.. a feast for the eyes..!!! 🙂 Love your garden and the cabana..!! The flowering tree is soooo satisfying to look at! Fills the heart with happiness just looking at it..!!! Thanks for sharing Diane 🙂
Thank you so much! I had my cabana installed last year and I absolutely love it! I sit there and listen to and watch the birds. We have a LOT of birds.
must be a wonderful experience! Do enjoy.. I will look forward to your pictures 🙂
Amazig place!!!
Thanks!
Amazing place !!! 😍
Awe thank you Alessia!
I’d love to have a pear tree and a cherry tree in my garden. We grow an lot of our own herbs and have some fruit trees, but they are still tiny and we don’t get much fruit yet!
At one point we had 3 peach, 1 sweet cherry, 1 sour cherry, 3 apple, 1 plum and 1 nectarine trees. Be patient the fruit will come.
Ohio and thank you it has been many years of work and growing.
Thanks for responding. I love your blog posts.
Awe thank you so much!
I cut asparagus this week even though it was only a couple inches high because we were having freezing temps and I didn’t want to lose it. If your rhubarb got hit by the frost/freeze it is best not to eat it. The oxalic acid that is in the leaves can travel down the stem and make them poison. I thought parsley was a biennial. It might go right to seed this year. Your pear tree is gorgeous!
I did the same thing with my asparagus Ruth, besides the tips are the best part…lol I only eat the rhubarb if it looks normal and crisp. That’s what I heard about the parsley and I’m sure I will need to buy new plants this year but I still have to try and save them. I can’t kill or waste food, makes my husband crazy. That flowering pear tree is just as gorgeous in the fall and the leaves stay on it till the very end. Have a great weekend Ruth! ❤️
Such a gorgeous pear tree, Diane!! And, of course, all the other photos are beautiful, as well! <3 Happy Spring! 🙂
Thank you Anita and Happy Spring to you too! 💕
Rebirth and renewal–much needed now. Thank you for this.
Well said Matt! You’re welcome!
Dianne, what a beautiful and soothing landscape. I am envious of how big your herbs are already.
They did really well last year. They have been in for about 3 years now and I have to keep ripping them out to keep them from overtaking the garden…lol I am gifting some this weekend to my mom. I can’t put in the annual herbs until mid May when the chance of frost is over. Thank you Bernadette!
Beautiful photos and elegant mix of pix and prose. Happy spring!
Awe thank you for such kind words!!!
Your yard and trees and gardens are so beautiful!
Thank you so much Patty!
Your garden looks so lovely! Can’t wait to see your strawberry rhubarb pie, yum! The trees are gorgeous! All I can say is wow! – Neek
Thank you so much!
Things are progressing nicely Diane for late April. It must have been that warm spell we had in the tail end of March to help things along. We had a freeze advisory three nights in a row and a local orchard in Detroit (right downtown which is a novelty) was asking for people to donate firewood, blankets and any help they could offer to keep their apple trees protected. Our flowering trees have been out and dropped their blossoms already. The cabana looks great. You’re going to get a lot of use out of it.
Yes I lost some asparagus because I didn’t check them yesterday. All the blossoms have dropped from the cold here. I hope the orchard can protect the trees. It is so sad when an entire year is gone because of one freeze! I have been fighting a robin in the cabana. She thought she was going to nest in the corner and I showed her differently. I was so afraid she would nest and lay eggs because then I couldn’t remove it. So we have been going out 1-2 times a day and removing everything she puts up there. She finally gave up! I didn’t want that mess and poo where we will be eating and entertaining. Plus she would probably attack us when babies would hatch.
Yes, they managed to salvage that apple crop the last I heard – it will not be bad tonight and going to 84 on Tuesday – crazy! The poor farmers. I had that with the robin on my lightpost near the front door. It has an elbow and she liked to build in the elbow – I check it several times a day, though she has not built in two years now – hopefully she got the message, but did not before as I’d tear it down and she’d build it back up – poop, mud all over the mailbox. I have had to take a store plastic bag or a small garbage bag and go and buy a newspaper (which now costs an arm and a leg for a newspaper) and stuff it in the elbow and hook the bag to the lantern part – looks great. 🙂 But finally she gave up. And I replaced the fixture at the side door because I got sick of the mess. The front I liked the look for the house appearance but I don’t use the front door to go in/out and I do use the side door and was sick of looking up when going out. Nests are dirty – I don’t blame you.
This Yard 🏡 is so cool green and Ecofriendly 💐🙂
Right now it is more yellow with all the dandelions! Lol
I love all your pictures.
Thank you so much!
No prob. U live in the US? Nice property. I always have the dichotomy of, do I want to live in the big city or out in the sticks?
Yes I am in the US. I have never lived in a big city. I grew up in a city with about 25,000 people and now I am in the country and love it!
I lived in downtown Portland, Oregon. I grew up in the Tampa Bay Area and all the colleges I attended had student bodies larger than 25,000. Lol. I love the energy and vibrancy of big cities that have ample galleries, coffee houses, bookstores and museums. But, I also love the quietude of the country and the landscapes and animals. I don’t really like the suburbs. Unfortunately, much of Florida is suburbs. I’m thinking of moving back to Oregon but, I have a few health issues I need to deal with first. Thanks for answering. Have a good Sunday.
Wow, looks amazing!
Thank you so much! 💕
i LOVE this!!!
Thank you Lisa!
Awesome, Diane!! It still looks cold there..
It finally is in the low 60’s but Tuesday is suppose to hit 80, go figure John!
I like 60’s lol!
What a gorgeous yard! I feel like you’ve been holding out on us, or I’ve just been missing these fabulous yard pics! That treeeeeeeeee!!!! And a 50′ arbor which will soon be covered in wisteria?! I’m drooling over here. I hope I don’t miss a pic of that in full bloom! You have my dream yard!
Thank you and yes you did miss the pictures, check them out they are gorgeous. https://wp.me/p7LF0S-1LY
Your arbor is MAGNIFICENT! Did you make that yourself?
Yes my husband and I back in 1997. He said I never do anything small…lol it is 8’ tall by 50” long. Thank you Amy!
That was an impressive pear tree and cherry tree – I don’t think I’ve ever seen any so big. You must have good soil. I’m envious of the asparagus…..and your cabana. I can see many outdoor meals there!
Thank you Joni! I bought it later last year so I am excited to use it a lot this year. Already the grandkids and our neighbor kids enjoy playing in it.
So lovely!
Thank you Jo!
Gorgeous! I can’t believe how big that cherry tree is.
I know isn’t it crazy!!! Thank you!
Amazing. I love everything.. your cabana is a favorite. You have a spring time movie in your backyard.
Stay Safe&Smart
I waited a long time for that cabana. It has built in seating and I have a huge table that I am sealing. Chairs out front and a fire ring behind it. Grandkids and neighbors kids love playing in it. I never thought about a movie..lol Thank you mamabpray!
Oh my goodness Diane! I am in awe of the beauty in your yard! I LOVE your trees. Wow, they are spectacular. You must love just spending time out there, soaking up the glorious sights and sounds of nature?
Your garden is amazing too! Dang, lucky you. Nothing beats fresh, does it? 😊
I’m so happy you have this beautiful space to call home and can relax and unwind. Thank you for sharing it with us! ♥
Your place is paradise! A lovely space!
Awe thank you Leah. It takes a lot of work but worth it. We don’t go anywhere very often so our yard is like my campground in nature.
Nature is so healing and having it in your backyard is so healing. 🙂
Absolutely stunning Diane…and that asparagus looks delicious 🙂
I get so much asparagus it’s crazy June. My husband doesn’t care for it so I pig out on it until I am sick of eating it then share it with my family. I haven’t tried freezing it but I do make asparagus soup and freeze that. Thank you June and enjoy the weekend!
wow, those trees and cabana Diana!!! love you get aspargus.. it takes soooo long. 💖💖
love! looks like a wedding is in order.. lol
I have a friend that is a photographer and she did a shoot with the after wedding pictures here. That was before the cabana. She took pictures by our two small ponds, under the arbor, throughout the yard and even on our swing hanging from a huge maple tree. Thank you for your kind words Cindy!
oh they are spectacular Diana and a treasure to see. Enjoy your cabana and thanks for sharing your beautiful yard with us! 💖
I love the arbour, and the flowering pear tree is stunning! Happy May 1st 🙂
Thank you I wish they would flower all summer long! Waiting for the wisteria flowers on the arbor to open next.
If only 🙂
Thanks for sharing. In our area that sort of thing is in a dream!
Yes but there is a different kind of beauty there in the people, land, sunrise and sunsets!