“Woodland Garden in Early Spring”
Heatherwood

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day. I took the opportunity to walk around our woodland garden area with my camera. My focus was to try to capture the feeling of various sections of the garden in the early spring before the majority of the trees were in bloom or leafed out. I also was attempting to create a baseline perspective of the garden prior to the additional planned plantings for this year.

When I first moved to Selah in 2016, this area was part of a pasture. The only trees were the birches in the left background. The next year, I added a small grove of October Glory maples next to the birches. The following year I planted the area in grass and added underground irrigation. In 2020, we started converting the area into a woodland garden theme, removing grass and adding red buds, a couple of dogwoods, and a few evergreens. Last year we continued to add standard maples, Japanese maples, several deciduous shrubs, and grasses to the area. This year, our plan is to add more understory deciduous shrubs and ground covers to frame in the pathway through the area. In the fall if we have the energy, we plan to add several more spring bulbs. This area will continue to be a “works in progress.” It will continuously be in a state of change as the trees grow and create more shade. The understory shrubs will transition from sun loving to filtered shade tolerant species. We will patiently enjoy watching it mature and change over time.

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