Fifteen or so years ago I moved a seedling into a spot near the driveway and watched it grow into a lovely tree.  It was a bitter cherry, Prunus emarginata.  Unfortunately, about 5 feet above ground where the trunk split in two, it was developing a bole and it looked like a crack was forming, as well.  I had read that bitter cherries are notoriously weak trees and tend to topple in even minor storms.  Sadly, this one, being near the house and driveway, had to go.

We had a tree service take it out, along with a precocious black locust sucker that had popped up along the north fence line that was tangling with the wires.  The original black locust tree had been taken out before we moved to this house 20 years ago, but it continues to sucker!  I suspect we’ll have similar problems with the bitter cherry, as it has thrown suckers all over the yard!

Below are the locust stumps.

I was sad to see the trees go, especially the bitter cherry, as it was the favorite tree in our yard for all types of birds.  Luckily, there is a silver lining…well, more of a wood-toned lining:

Lots of excellent fruit wood for us to take to our cabin and burn!

And a massive pile of chips (this was only part of what the tree produced!) that I will use to mulch various areas of the garden!

The stump grinders will come and dig out as much stump and root as they can, and then we’ll have to be super diligent about fighting the myriad suckers that appear, but I’m excited to have opportunities in that garden bed that I didn’t have before.

I already ordered trees from Raintree Nursery to revamp the entire border and make it productive.  I ordered two columnar apples trees and two dwarf cherry trees.  I also ordered a different type of blackberry (Chester) and a purple raspberry–not positive where I will put them, but excited, nonetheless.

The garden has some early color, as the Hellebores have jumped up and made themselves known.  This one, from Plant Delights,  is in the Douglas fir bed:

    Here is the Lenten rose that brother Tim bought us some 20 years ago:

Strong growing, and happy near a downspout, I expect the flowers will be open by next weekend.

And below is a similar, though earlier cultivar from sister Cate.  This one just makes you smile with the splashes of color inside that it hides so shyly with downward pointing flowers.

Here are some other pictures from around the garden and greenhouse.  The snowdrops are fully open now and I got some interesting shots of them.

This last picture shows that something was nibbling the flower.  It might be a baby slug or some bug or other.

Some other miscellaneous pictures below:

Crocus trying to bloom, but not finding the weather they like just yet.

Wallflowers from seed last year–should give an excellent flower show in a month or two.

The only seedlings up from the greenhouse planting several weeks ago are these hardy geraniums.

And these…

These Cymbidium buds are ready to pop like balloons!  I have been so patient, but I can’t wait to see what these look like.  The reward of a lazy labeler is a surprise flower at every turn!

And a few white holiday cactus flowers from the greenhouse:

Not a great photo, as the camera is focused on the chickweed that has sprung up in the pot!  Weeds are annoying in so many ways–they even photo bomb!