Take a walk with me around our property. I think spring is holding her breath right now! We are finally free from snow piles, but the grass is just waiting to see if it’s safe to turn green. I walked up the hill to see if the forsythia was starting to bud out. From a distance, the plants have a slightly yellow cast, but the buds are still pretty tight.
The garden on the hill is also waiting…no new green shoots yet for the echinacea or the lavender. They are my bookends for the garden.
From the hill, I wanted to document the two Butternut trees. From this view, the tree on the right is the one that is dying. Last year it barely had leaves. Every time we have a windstorm limbs come down. It really looks pretty sad in the summer. In the next month or so, when it isn’t so muddy, Bert will cut it down and use the wood in the shop stove. When he does that, I’ll try to document the process.
You can see the various planters near the patio just waiting for spring planting!
The back of the shop has our compost tumblers. One is in active use and the other just gets tumbled. Bert will add that compost to some of the garden soil. It’s amazing how much stuff we put in there and at the end of the season there’s hardly anything in it but black ‘gold.’
The space to the left of the shop under the spouting is ready and waiting for Bert to set up the rain barrels. He waits until we stop having freezing weather…frozen water in the plastic barrels could crack the plastic. Without plants in the garden, we don’t need that water yet anyway.
Here’s another view of the Butternut trees. You can see the one on the left looks pretty straggly.
And finally, our group of Red Bud trees struggle every year but Bert keeps trimming the dead limbs. I’m sure the birds would not be happy if we lost those trees…it houses our bird feeders and bird bath that the deer also visit every night.
Not much to see yet, but plan to follow along with my posts about our Garden of 2026. We are ready!
If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.