THE yard

At some point in the history of this property it was loved.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and we never had Rhod0dendrons in our yard that looked like this, I didn’t even think I liked them. Hard not to be in awe of these; they “are” in our new front yard. Since we bought the property from the original owners we have some history and pictures from it’s “glory days”, at least for the plants, so we know they had a good run - this is what they look like now

That’s them on the left; not quite the same. We are happy we had a glimpse of what they used to be but it’s time for them to go along with the telephone pole, stump, scraggly bushes… There’s a nice view of the water from the top of the property as you drive in that will open up even more once this is cleared - if the Rhododendrons still looked like the old photo we would have had to keep them; so it works out.

There is an amazing, huge walnut tree that stands over the front yard -

It used to be part of the neighbor’s property which was the original home in this area. Apparently there was a circular driveway that went around the tree as a grand entrance to that house. Willy, the eccentric “collector” pictured with the Rhododendrons, was convinced there was treasure buried under it - maybe there is?? At some point the lots were sold off and the tree ended up on our property. This is the view from the entrance side of the house looking up - this area needs some love but not bad.

There is another amazing tree, a Sequoia between the house and the barn

Not sure how old this tree is but the base is at least 10’ around, pretty impressive. The rest of this front yard, the area from the gate to the house, needs some serious clean up but it does have some nice fruit trees and a sweet little garden lined with a rock wall and boxwoods; It was so over grown we didn’t even know it was there until the guys started loading the first of many dump trailer loads.

The backyard, which is the water side, has an amazing assortment of ornamental evergreens, Asian pear trees, maples, water plants, roses, berries and who knows what else. I’m sure Spring will be full of new things we didn’t even know were there and by then we’ll really be able to see what we have.

I think this post wraps up the “As is” part of this project. Next time I will have some progress for you, and there has been some.