Bringing Up The Babies

Today was actually a really nice day for me.  The weather was beautiful, albeit a little warm for April.  I got a lot done, including photos for this post, and I got Wordle in three guesses today.  Woohoo!!  😀    

   

About that title -- this isn't about grandbabies or even puppies.  Last year, we watched a movie called "Bringing Up Baby" -- an old movie with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.  It was a fun and funny movie, and for some reason the title popped into my head when I started to write this post.  In this case, the "babies" are our new, young trees.  Last year after we had the dreadful poplar trees removed, we purchased 14 crape myrtle trees -- the variety is "Natchez."  They will have white blooms; we thought white would look good with the new black shutters and white trim on our house.  They're a good choice of trees for our area (and most of the south) because they're heat tolerant and drought resistant, and they bloom through the summer until the first of fall.  They don't get enormous, but they get large enough to provide some shade, so that's a nice thing.  We wanted ornamental trees for a change instead of trees more suitable for the forest.  😏

   

Alex, the hard-working landscaper who got our yard whipped into shape last fall, planted the crape myrtles from our mailbox most of the way down our property line.  We made sure to give them plenty of water after they were planted, and we got lots of good rain from fall into this spring.     

It's kind of hard to read, but I typed "weeds" in yellow in the lower left corner of this picture.  All of that area will have to be sprayed.  I don't like to do weed spray, but I spent three hours in our natural area out front on Monday, and you can't tell I did a thing.  There are some clumps of daffodils (also typed in yellow) behind the crape myrtle trees.  Those are in our neighbor, Parker's, yard.  They were planted many years ago by the lady who lived there when we first moved here.  A few of the daffodils migrated to our side, and we're happy for them to stay.    

About a month ago, we purchased ten evergreens, Arborvitae, (variety Thuja Green Giant).  We really like these little trees, and I've been calling them our babies.  They won't stay that way for long, though.  These are supposed to grow three to five feet per year.  We wanted a screen at the back of our property, but we wanted something different from the crape myrtles.  I like the fluffy foliage on these trees, as well as their pretty, conical shape.  They're also heat tolerant, drought resistant, and the deer don't like them.  Yay!!  The wooded lot you see behind our evergreens does not belong to us.  Truth to tell, I'm not exactly sure who it does belong to.  At any rate, it has a lot of unchecked undergrowth and vines, and they were all creeping into our backyard.  Alex and his helper have also done a great job of cleaning that up, and they're not finished yet.     

   That's our dogwood tree in the background, and our neighbor's pretty camellia bush is behind it.      

   

A close-up of the dogwood blooms.  I'm just that much too short to get a good shot.  The sky was so pretty here today; it was a pleasure to be outside.    

This angle is from the dogwood tree looking back toward the other side of the yard.  We haven't had much traffic at the bird feeders the last few weeks, and I miss seeing those little cuties.     

  The other new tree we got this spring is an apple tree, Apple Df. Rome.  Incidentally, Rome apples are the kind of apples I use to make my apple pies in the fall.  We were so excited to see these blooms today.     

We've already resigned ourselves to maybe not getting any apples before the squirrels, deer, and birds get to them.  When we first bought this house, there was an apple tree on the other end of the yard.  The tornado that visited us in 1998 took the old apple tree down.  When Hal was growing up, his grandpa had a small apple orchard; he grew Stayman Winesaps -- you can read about them here.  The nursery didn't have that variety, so we went with the Rome instead.     

   Where I've typed "Apple Tree" in white in the left of this picture is our little baby tree.  😉  You can barely see it here.  I forgot to take a good picture of it.  The chain link fence belongs to our back neighbor, and it got badly damaged by some men they hired to do tree work.  Hopefully, it will get fixed soon.  I would love to have a darling white picket fence running along behind our new trees.     

We also put up a new bluebird box this spring.  Our old one had rotted and fallen off the post.  Our subdivision was built on what used to be farmland -- a dairy farm to be precise.  This old wooden post was here when the cows were here; I guess one day it will fall down, too.     

Moving around to the front, the upright boxwoods and pansies we planted on the porch last fall are doing great.   

The autumn fern made it through the winter, as well.   

This solar lantern was a gift from Hal's former boss, who retired the year before Hal did.  She's such a thoughtful person.   

I was about to forget this tree purchased last fall -- an eastern redbud.  It is replacing the very old redbud that was here when we bought the house in 1996, and after weathering so many storms, it finally broke and fell last year.  Redbuds have always been one of my favorite trees, so this was the natural choice to replace the one we lost.  It just has a few blossoms this year, but they're awfully pretty.   

We planted three Lenten roses last fall, and this is the only one that bloomed this year.  The other two look healthy, so they'll probably bloom next spring.  These blooms are such a dark purple, they almost look black.  I'm excited to have them, but I'd love to have some pink ones, too.   We've also planted some day lilies, transplanted from my mom's yard, out back.  We planted a butterfly bush purchased from the nursery out back, too.  I'll show those when there is more to see.     I'm sorry for the long post today -- there was so much to show and tell.  I shared last fall the ugly part of all this with the trees being cut down and the stumps ground up.  I'm excited to show the prettier side now.   
Thank you so much for visiting and reading today!!  I appreciate those of you who haven't given up on my blog, and I hope you'll come back again.  😊  I hope that you are all having a lovely spring in your part of the world -- have a good rest of the week!     Hugs,