Spring in our courtyard

Virginia had a neat post yesterday with some pictures of what's blooming around her house, and I enjoyed it so much I thought I'd do the same.  When we bought our house, it was an L-shaped ranch, and about 20 years ago, we added on to it, and in so doing, enclosed the center into a little open-to-the-sky courtyard, only about 12 feet on a side,  There are windows or a sliding door on 3 of those sides, so we have a little garden planted out there.  Here are some pictures from past years showing what it looks like at this time of year. The hostas are just unfolding - some of them will be huge by the end of summer!  If you'd like a closer look, just click on any of the pictures.

We have a beautiful little Japanese Maple on one side.  On the other side we have a water fountain, surrounded by hostas, a Lenten rose that never blooms, but provides lots of green, and some painted ferns, just starting to show now.

   

The last 3 pictures show our little patch of trillium, a wildflower so named because it has 3 of everything, leaves and petals! They grow native to the woods just down the street.

Sadly, we just had to take out that hemlock in the corner of the second picture.  It just doesn't get enough light there, and it got very leggy.  We will be putting up some lattice in its place, to hide the drainpipe in that corner, hopefully training up some ivy or shade-loving vine, and adding some decorative birdhouses here and there along the lattice. 

Hope you enjoyed this little spring tour! 

I've also changed up my blog background and header again.  The lilacs are fading, so it's time to move on!  I love robin's egg blue so this background really spoke to me, and I chose a picture of some lilies-of-the-valley for my header, as they mean Mother's Day to me.......hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day this weekend!