Oh I LOVE that courtyard. Beautiful stones and the trees are so pretty ! c

Beautiful! I love the evergreen with the bulbs around it. The serviceberry is wonderful. They are native here and I am sadly lacking any in the yard. Yours looks like a great speciman.

Did you all build the courtyard! It looks so natural in that setting.

Ohhhhhh, very pretty. I love the stone work and plantings. Looks like a garden you might see in France. What is the vine(?) growing on the back of the building on the left?
Vikki

Yes, I dug up the ground, poured sand and laid that stone by myself almost 27yrs. ago - when I was young and thought I could do anything. It all came from the bottom of a ravine in the woods on property my parents owned. My brother has the cabin now, and I'm still hauling stone out of there for projects -except smaller projects.

The evergreen is an Irish Juniper.

The vine on the garage wall is Virginia Creeper, also very old. Japanese Beetles have attacked it terribly the last several years,eating the foliage from top to bottom if I let them.

I have a single stem Service Berry I planted over 5 years ago. At that time it's height was about 12 feet. Since then it has grown only about 1 foot and hasn't spread much at all. , nor has the trunk gotten any thicker. I'm worried about it. The only thing I can see on this tree vs other types in my yard is the trunk is turning black. Is this normal? Is the tree sick? Thanks very much to whoever can answer me. ps ALL other trees in my yard (large) are doing well.

Your courtyard is great. I love Serviceberries too. Just love when they are all in bloom in the spring.

Not sure about the black trunk, but the trunks on both of mine have stayed small as well. Now the large multi-stemmed serviceberry in the sunken garden has dark grey/black trunks with a couple as thick as a person's leg; but that one is very old - over 20yrs.

You make a good point about the single trunk specimens being slow growers. I've observed this,too. I think it will be interesting to see down the road how long lived these "trees" really are, and how strong the trunks remain.

I forgot to add that perhaps 12' is the mature height. Serviceberry shrubs probably grow not much more than that, at least on my property. Did you get blooms this Spring and does it have berries now?