It’s been a long time since I shared pictures of the backyard garden. It is so incredibly beautiful right now.
The fruit trees are in bloom in the garden, and if you stand still, you can hear the bees and see them work.
The birds have been enjoying the garden, too. I’ve seen a violet-throated humming bird, a California quail, a red-tailed hawk, mourning doves, pigeons, and lots of smaller birds that I’m still working to identify.
The daffodils are just starting to bloom, and will open more fully in the next two weeks.
The Dorsett Gold apple has been in bloom for a couple of weeks.
My 20th Century Asian pear, espaliered on the wall, is starting to bloom.
The scent from the blosoms in the garden is wonderful.
It’s going to be 83ºF (29ºC) today. I’ll be out in the garden.
Your garden is beautiful. It makes me look forward to warmer temperatures here in snow covered Michigan!
Are those green onions by the bench? I plan on using more onions in my garden this year, but your picture gave me a few new ideas to plan!
It is beautiful! I love your non-plastic children’s toys. I would really like to see your kids’ rooms sometime. I could use some inspiration on shared rooms that still look nice!
Just beautiful and to imagine it’s all done by you
That would be an excellent place for them, but those are actually paperwhites! They bloom outside here, starting in November. I’ll deadhead all my paperwhites this month, and they’ll take a couple of months to die back. Then I’ll cut them off at the ground.
Thanks! My husband and his brother made the swingset and the merry-go-round, and put in the metal to go around the in-ground trampoline. The children play outside almost every day of the year.
I’m still working on the girls’ rooms a bit before they’re picture-worthy, but I have a Pinterest board with children’s rooms that you may enjoy for some inspiration.
https://www.pinterest.com/prudent/childrens-bedroom-ideas/
Oh, it is just so pleasant looking and peaceful. I think of the book THE SECRET GARDEN.
The lampost is very nice…is there one either side of the yard? Are those reclaimed posts? They make your yard look very park-like.
How fantastic everything looks! Thank you for the photos of Spring arriving, your yard looks really beautiful 🙂
There are 4 of them. They are 9 years old. The sun has really oxidized the paint and they need to be repainted. I’ll probably end up painting them the same rustoleum as I painted the sundial.
Temperatures of 29C, no snow, trees and flowers in bloom…what a lovely dream!!!
Oh I love the photos. I want spring so badly. We are getting 3″ more snow later today. I did plant some free carrots seeds inside after reading all you are doing in the garden. Makes we want to get out and work on mine, but can’t yet so I decided to plant some inside. They are up and looking cute:)
Thank you! I will check that out.
My 3-year old exclaimed, “Ooh, that’s a lovely garden!”
That’s so beautiful! Spring is starting to arrive here, but, of course, you are further along then we are, since I’m in Oregon. Our daffodils are starting to bloom, and some of the blooming trees. What we have, that you don’t, is MUD. All over the place:( I think I clean up a pound of it every day–LOL! But, each area has it’s benefits and downsides, and spring is good no matter where you are. I have so much inside work to do right now, I think I’m actually grateful that the outdoors and not calling my name, yet.
Your lovely garden makes me want to have a couple of hours free to sit in it, look around, and read a little from a favorite book. It’s like a mini vacation!
Your photography is absolutely stunning! I can’t wait for things to green up in this part of the country.
Just lovely!
I’m pinning your post for inspiration! So gorgeous. Thank you for sharing Brandy.
I’m so jealous, as we have ice and snow and temperatures in the 20’s right now. However, they are promising we’ll see some 60’s next week, which is quite unusual for this early in the year. We will take what we can get! It’s still a good month away from planting even the cold weather things for us. I have been reading some flower catalogs, though. Thinking of giving up vegetables this year, although don’t know if I can successfully do that. I can still move along the ground but getting down and then up again is harder every year!
That is so pretty. It looks just like a park. Brandy you sure have a gift for landscaping. I wish you were close enough to give me a few tips. I have a bay window in front of our house. It is low, so anything in front of it covers the view. I have tried so many different things there in the past 30 years my husband is ready to put artificial things there just to keep from taking out things that I believe don’t work. I am green with envy.
I also deal with dogs. Our basset and dachshund like to dig. Not deep holes, just dig. What a pain. But hey, you get to love them like kids so you put up with the stress.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures. I am loving my paved walk way under my clothes line. So nice. I planted my Lady Banks white rose near my clothes lines too. I hope this one lives.
Stunningly beautiful! You are an inspiration in so many ways!
Hi Brandy and your garden looks absolutely gorgeous.
We too love to watch the birds and hear and see the bees in our flower and vegetable gardens here too. Our gardens are in full bloom with ornamentals like Canna Lilies in shades of bright yellows, deep reds, and a rich orange and yellow spotted ones, daisies in shades of purples, yellows & whites, a variety of variegated bush orchids with lovely white trailing flowers, and white day lilies.
As I have mentioned before our next door neighbour is an apiarist so therefor we get a lot of bees in our yard from next door. One of the most beautiful things is the girls as we call them (the bees) have adopted us as part of their territory and are extremely friendly. When we go around the yard hand watering our seedlings, or fertilising they literally follow us around from plant to plant as we water. As it has been so hot we know that they are after the water to quench their thirst. They also lay on the dirt of the pot plants on our back stairs after we water them too, I am assuming it cools their bellies off and gives them some heat relief as well.
Normally our water tanks are full and they drink from the top of them, but however of late we have been using a lot of water from them to water in our new seedlings and there is none on top for them to drink at the moment. This is their new way of getting water, I am sure that they look for us going out with the watering cans and get together in a little group to follow us from plant to plant, so incredibly beautiful to watch :D. They also have a happy high pitched buzz which is light and cheery and also another buzz which is far deeper to show us they are angry too, we however never get stung. Usually we hear the deeper buzz if they are on plants that we are clearing that have blossoms on them, so they let us know of their discontent.
We also have a lot of birds as well visiting the yard, we have a family of friendly magpies, woodland pigeons, noisy minors, kingfishers, kites, rainbow lorikeets, multi-coloured parrots, the dreaded plovers that attack viciously if they nest in your yard, and also galas or otherwise known as the Australian Pink Cockatoo who take great delight at swooping down from the trees and shredding leaves off your lettuce plants in a flash whilst you are watching them, and more still I need to identify as well.
Reading your post this morning was a lovely gift, Brandy. Your garden looks beautiful and your description of the bees and birds makes me yearn for springtime. In reading comments, I also enjoyed hearing about your children playing outside every day. That would complete the picture of this beautiful scene.
Here in NC our daffodils and hyacinths have just come into bloom and the birds are waking me up with their delightful melodies. Spring is such an exciting time of the year. Happy Gardening!
Have you thought about building them a place to drink? The bees need something shallow–like a birdbath but not as deep–with some stones on it to land while drinking so that they don’t drown. Bascially, a saucer with some rocks. You could fill it while you are watering since it is so hot and likely to evaporate.
Gorgeous!!
I’ve been bitten by the Spring Fever Bug; I’m off to look at plants and trees to plant here in our 4B zone. I’m done trying to grow plants from seed; it’s just too cold in our basement, even with grow lights. I’ve been wanting a Meyer lemon tree for indoors. I have 100.00 in Amazon; I’m giddy at the possibilities!
I don’t blame you for wanting plants! I have trouble with starting seeds indoors. If I can direct seed outdoors, it works, but for some things, it’s more frugal to buy a plant that is living rather than waste money on seeds that don’t grow.
Have fun!
As always, your garden is beautiful and your picture taking abilities are breathtaking. 🙂 Daffodils are my first sign that spring is really here. We won’t have ours for nearly another month, so I love seeing them here. Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Brandy and yes we will be doing that, thank you for the suggestion. It is the first time that we have used the tank water to the extent we have of late, and the only time since living here that there has been no water on the top of the tank for the bees & birds to drink from.
And to think that I was excited to see 3 purple crocus blooms this morning! Lovely yard and plantings.
Oh I love it! Spring makes me so very happy. I always admire your garden and the photos of it. I’ve been working to identify the birds visiting our feeders, too. I think my favorite these days is the tufted titmouse. So stinkin’ cute!
Good Morning Brandy,
I love your site and find such inspiration from you. Your garden is breathtaking and obviously so loved by you and your family.
You have several espaliered fruit trees, could you just give a little info on them? Do you purchase dwarf trees and espalier them yourself, or do you buy trees already espaliered? I’d love to add a few to my garden but have always been intimidated at the prospect of the pruning necessary. Thanks Brandy.
Linda
Lorna, I had to google plover as that did not sound like them to me, but there were links for Australian plovers also called lapwings(?). They are different than what we know…there were even utube links of them defending their nests, as you mentioned. Red winged blackbirds will dive bomb you if you get too close to their nests. We don’t have pigeons here in the country that I can think of but we have lots of mourning doves…they are one of my favorite. I love their coo and that they always travel in pairs. We have nothing in the wild like parrots or cockatoos, beyond the occasional sightings you hear of an escaped parakeet.
Your garden is so lovely, thank you for sharing it with us! We recently planted a backyard orchard, and it’s nice to see what the Asian pear blossoms will look like!
I also very much appreciate your mentioning now and again how much time you invest in your outdoor space… Whenever I feel discouraged about ours, I remind myself that a lovely garden likes yours takes many thousands of hours! It’s wonderful to have you as a role model!
I was curious and wondered how large your backyard is. Thank you for all the wonderful info.
Our house sits on a .24 acre lot. I don’t know the exact size of just the backyard. Thankfully the lot is a straight one, with most of the space in back rather than in front of the house. A little less than a third the depth of the back is a patio (not visible in these photos). My trees are mostly semi-dwarf trees, which allows me to fit more in the space that we have, as those can be 10-15 feet apart in a garden.