Here in Virginia, the weather has been crazy random so far this year. One day, it was 71 degrees outside, the next it plummeted to 38 degrees. Through all the craziness, it seems that Spring has finally sprung and is springing. We thought it would be fun to show you guys what Spring is looking like around here and familiarize everyone with the outside of our house since we’ve been mostly talking about the inside. Just bear in mind that we haven’t really concentrated on the exterior quite yet – aside from painting the front door and the shutters. Luckily, we inherited a few photo-worthy plants/trees from the previous owner.
Let’s start in the front yard with one of our two Dogwood trees. They’re one of my favorite trees/plants and we’re really glad our house came with not one, but two! Fun fact: Dogwoods are Virginia’s state flower and tree. The street where we live must be considered patriotic because there are a lot of Dogwoods – at least one per house, if not more.
Fortunately, the picturesque Dogwood draws your attention away from the naked-looking bushes lining the house. We’ve nicknamed them “the Little Bushes That Could”. Last year, we cut them back because they were taking over the house. We were told they would “grow back better” but so far, they haven’t budged. We might end up replacing them at some point, or we might just accept the fact that it’s going to take a while for them to grow back. We should probably do some research about pruning before we cut our plants back next time…
Close to the house, right outside Ashley’s office window, is some sort of flowering bush accompanied by a few Boxwoods. The bush doesn’t have that many blooms, probably due to the sporadic weather and lack of light, but it still has plenty of visual appeal. We’re definitely not horticulturists, so we aren’t quite sure what this is. Anybody have any clues?
Even though there aren’t many blooms and the dark tips make it look like the petals aren’t going to be around for long, they are still nice to look at.
As you go down the driveway, you’ll find our second Dogwood tree. We like how it hovers slightly over the driveway — but not so much that we would have to cut it back.
While the Dogwood in the front yard is white, this one is white with barely-there pink tips.
Around the back (on the left side when facing the back of the house) is another little area of bushes. We weren’t expecting them to do much, but when Spring hit, they really started looking great! We think the red “bush” is actually a baby Japanese Maple tree. (Like I said… not a horticulturist–anybody know the technical name for this little guy?) We aren’t sure what the other three bushes are either but their color has definitely amped up over the past few days.
On the back side of our yard, right up against our neighbor’s fence, we have yet another bush with red/pink flowers. It’s just like the one in the front yard, but this one is much larger and has more blossoms. This area of the yard tends to get more sunlight than the front of the house, so that may have something to do with it.
The flowers on this bush are just as bright as the other. Again, color enhancement brought to you by Mother Nature. No Photoshop required!
That wraps up our outdoor Spring tour. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out there and enhance what we already have and maybe add some much needed landscaping before Spring passes by. Fingers crossed! Do you have any outdoor projects planned for the Spring? Tell us about them in the comments section…
