The previous owners of our house deferred quite a bit of maintenance inside the home (to put it generously), but they put a ton of energy, love and no small amount of money into maintaining the yard. It’s a sight to behold, particularly the huge old apple tree:
It’s 30 feet tall, I’d guess, and the canopy spans most of the width of the yard, 40 or 50 feet. We knew it was a great tree before we put in our offer, but it hadn’t exploded into bloom yet. It’s far and away the best looking thing on the property!
We learned there’s a ton more in the yard, too: a peach tree, a plum tree, a fig tree, a bunch of blueberry bushes, a raspberry patch, and some Concord grape vines, all of which bear fruit. Plus a little starter garden with herbs and some lettuce that’s already happily growing.
The front half of things was a little more bare when we saw it originally, but now that spring has arrived, the street side of the house is pretty well covered up.
We’ll have to formulate some kind of a plan to clean that part of the landscape up eventually. For starters, though, Dina bought me an awesome folding saw for my birthday, and I put it to good use today, cutting all of that blackberry bush out, filling up our yard waste cart. (For those who live elsewhere: this species of blackberry is an invasive species in Seattle, and for all intents and purposes is a weed. It grows everywhere and anywhere, and it’s thorny as all get-out.) I also managed to resurrect the lawn mower that the former owner’s left behind, so we are no longer front runners for ugliest front lawn on the block. Progress.