As humans, we like to surround our homes with plants and trees to decorate with, to provide shade, and to provide homes for wildlife – big and small. Our yards become a webwork of beauty when we let nature take its course.
Sometimes we plant to mark the beginning of a stage in life, or we let things just grow because they seem to thrive where they’ve been planted.
Like the tree at the end of our driveway. It grew like a weed over the years, just like our kids did.
In our yard, our topsoil is fairly rich, but underneath it is sand. So for trees to grow, they have to be fairly hardy. We planted all of our trees the second year we were in our home, and none of them have grown as quickly as we thought they would in 28 years.
Our three flowering crab trees seem to be stunted to me. Every year, they bloom, but every year, they stay essentially the same height. The birds enjoy flitting to and fro between them, but the trees don’t grow very tall.
Next to the house is an Arborvitae tree that has been snacking material for the deer in the winter. We don’t have the heart to take it down because the birds build nests in it every year. And…it was one of our first purchases for trees, we hang on for sentimentality reasons. It does seem to get taller, every year, despite the challenges it has to overcome.
We have a maple and two catalpa trees in our backyard, and the maple keeps growing taller each year, but the Catalpa seem to be stunted as well. They bloom every year, so that’s a good sign they are growing. They drop their blossoms quickly in the spring.
They provide a bit of shade and a sniffing spot for Copper when we’re out in the yard.
And the birds like to perch in them and sing songs, but the trees remain small compared to the ones in the forest across the field.
Needless to say, we don’t have a mighty oak in our yard. No big trees like the one we saw at Wollersheim Winery.
Now that’s a mighty oak and one that was loved enough by the owners, that they’ve gone to great extremes to save it. Read more about it here.
In the front of our house, we have Spiraea ‘gumball’ flowering shrubs. They are colorful when they are in bloom.
Not so much right now, they blend in with the dull colored grass and look somewhat woebegone at this stage of the season.
They attract bees and the nasty Asian beetles while they are blooming.
Now they are attracting tiny spiders. In the bright daylight, I rarely notice the spiders, but in the early dew-drenched mornings, it’s fun to see how busy they have been.
#31SRW Photography Challenge Day 15: Trees or Grass (rules of challenge found here).
PS – How about you? What kinds of trees do you have in your yard? Did you or do you plant to commemorate a special time in your life? What’s your favorite kind of tree?
That’s a wonderful piece of land you have 🙂 Too bad though, many of the pictures don’t show up :/ I’ve tried refreshing the page, thinking it might be my browser, but they still don’t show :/
Thank you! Hmm…they all show up for me, can you try looking again? Are you viewing on a phone or tablet? If you’d be so kind to share how you’re viewing, I may learn something about how to fix it?! Thank you for telling me, I appreciate the feedback.
Forget my previous comment… The Internet were just pulling my leg, after all 😛
Beautiful pictures, Shelley, I particularly like the spider web ones!! xx
Excellent, thank you for clarifying…and for stopping by to take a peek at my world!
Beautiful trees and yard you have! We are still fairly new to our home in Maryland and are learning what works–in our clay soil–and what doesn’t. We have a crepe myrtle that’s big and has been here much longer than we have. We tried a fig tree, because a neighbor (a native of Sicily) gets figs from hers each year. However, our tree didn’t make it. We planted a beautiful, if small, fuchsia oleander tree, which has attracted hummingbirds–so that’s exciting–and we’re crossing our fingers it makes it through the winter.
Thank you! Oy, yes, clay soil is tricky to work with. Nice that you’ve found a tree that attracts the hummingbirds, I hope it makes it through the winter for you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!!
Love the spider photo, Shelley. I also love that you and hubby have a sentimental spot for the arborvitae. I’m sure the birds thank you. Your yard is lovely and I bet you enjoy it immensely in the summer. Looks like a great place to hang out.
Thank you, Mary! We do love it here and the birds seem appreciative as well. Thanks for taking a peek into our world! Enjoy your week – stay cool!
We had a natural area in the back of our property that was full of tall pine trees, the kind that tend to fall over during severe weather, so we had them all taken down and the backyard landscaped. When they took all the pines down, we found a willow oak among them that wasn’t growing much because it was shaded by all the pines. It’s grown like gangbusters since then. The landscaper planted cryptomeria along the fence that divides our yard from the one next door. They looked a little skimpy at first, but in the 14 years since then they’ve really filled out and it’s like a wall there.
We also have a huge magnolia in the front yard. That came with the house…
Nice macrophotography. my favorite is the spider web. Be a great note card during the halloween season.
Aw, thanks! Yes, that’s a GREAT idea!! xx