The colors in this photo are beautiful, your place reminds me of Tasha Tudor. Very nice, Annie.

Annie- Is this the side where you want to add the deck? Your fruit trees are gorgeous! What a beautiful view :)

Just lovely Annie!!!

Great spring color! It reminds me so much of those beautiful pics in English Garden Magazine with the sweet little cottage in the background.

Is your veggie garden on the East side of your house?
CMK

Annie, you're such a tease, more please :o). Beautiful spring color, it all looks so inviting I'd love to be able to wander your garden with you.

Annette

tasha tudor style indeed.

Oh Annie ~ What a delightful home and gardens. Your place really does have the Tasha Tudor look. I'm with Annette, more pictures please.

FlowerLady

schoolhouse:
Tasha Tudor? Thank you! What a nice thing to say! It's as dark inside the house as Tasha's too. Not enough windows and the rooms are too small, but it's ours, free and clear.

lavender_lass:

Yes, this is the side where we want to bump out the house, add lots of windows and the deck to look out in this garden area. There are fruit trees in the picture, but the blooms in this photo are Spirea 'Bridle's Wreath' (the white), and Oklahoma Redbud trees (the pinky-red). The two Pear trees, one apple, and several peach trees are to the right out of view. There is one peach tree in the center, sticking up next to the bigger chimney. It has finished blooming now.

CMK:
Yes, the cottage garden flowers (roses, hollyhocks, etc) and the veggie garden, henhouse and greenhouse are on the east side, to the left, which is the back of the house.
Someone asked about my "greenhouse" - well, it isn't actually a greenhouse per se. We added large picture windows to the south side of our lawnmower tractor shed. The mower is parked in one of the bays of our carport now.
I keep my gardening tools in there too. Crowded, but it works okay. Certainly nothing fancy and not exactly picture worthy. The chicks are in there right now because there is a heater.

Thank you Annette, ianna and flowerlady:
I love the garden in spring, especially when we get plenty of snows in the winter and rains in the spring. Everything really blooms and does well. The weather has been more stable this year too and that helps a great deal. Composting and mulching has greatly improved the soil as well. The soil on this place was only 4-8 inches deep when we bought it. Below that was hard sandstone rock. It was VERY sandy soil and leached out faster than I could water. I immediately began adding amendments, but I had to chop and dig out two feet of that rock before I could build the soil - glad I did that 14 years ago when I was younger and stronger. Couldn't do that now.
There was nothing but a few aging and dying elm trees, a cottonwood out on the road front and a few cedar trees up on the hill when we bought it. Everything else is what I have planted. DH cuts down trees and burns. I did and still do all the rest, including the heavy work. My parents say that is why I am so broken down and crippled up now. Dad says I work like ten men. (he he he) Probably, but it was worth it to me. I'm feeling it though. So it is with a glad and happy heart to have all of you to share it with me. I have no one else, to tell you the truth.

Funny you say it is like Tasha's place. I yearned to have gardens and a farm like hers. I got my first Hollyhocks and a start of "pinks" from her farm before she passed away. She loved her Pinks and made a fuss over them every spring. I never met her in person. Wish I had. We both share a love for Corgies. When my big dogs pass away, that is what I shall have - one fixed, female Corgi. :)

Thanks you all so very much.

~Annie

Annie, I love that view and agree it makes us want to see more.

I am feeling my age more this
Spring than in the past too; I hope it passes quickly as I build up my work endurance.

You sent me seeds from Tasha's pink hollyhock, but I cant' remember where I planted them! There are three hollyhocks growing by the potting bench I don't remember being there before, hopefully one is the pink.

I love that Annie! I know what you are talking about when you say brick, not brick veneer. I had a house that was an English brick (so called) the walls were all brick, a foot thick.

The door had a rounded top, and had a porthole window with decorative iron strap hinges and knocker. Needless to say, the door was constructed of solid wooden boards 2 inches thick.

From what I can see your house reminds me of it. I loved that house, and would love to see more of yours.
kay

This path leads to the northeast side of the house.
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Chairs and spool table located on the north side of the house under my biggest weeping willow. I planted it 6 years ago. The tree cutters butchered it when they were trimming back limbs from the power lines. I was not happy, but it will grow back. To the left is where the fishpond is situated - on the other side of the white flowering Spirea. The rose & iris garden (formerly my Potager) and one peach tree are above the willow tree. There is another peach tree on the left just beyond the white-flowering spirea. You can just make out the gray metal of the greenhouse-tool shed in the background. At the top, left, you can see one of the large plum tree which obscures the henhouse and shades it in the hot summer, and one of the cherry trees now in bloom. Pale lilac/white Violets and native blue violets bloom under the willow tree - you can see them behind one of the chairs. I have four varieties of violets. Sweet! I love sitting out here under my willow.
{{gwi:654505}}

My Mum in her favorite garden pose. She looks a lot like actress, Elizabeth Smith, if you know who she is. Mother has a great sense of humour.
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I will have to upload more images. The ones I took two weeks ago from the orchard (northwest of house) and in back yard are nice views of my cottage gardens. There are some good shots from the driveway too. I will look for some good ones to share.
~Annie

How lush and green everything is...except Mum, that is. It is very inviting.
kay

She was just getting over a bad cold, so was wearing a crew cap that evening.

I had just mowed it the day before Easter. It needs mowing again. I just came in from the garden. I was out there weeding under the grape vines that Edna sent to me last year and mulching around them. Found a little gray gopher snake in the mulch. That means the bad kind will be out and about now too. Ugh. I got hot and felt weak, so thought I better come inside and chill for a bit.
Will get to those other pics later.

OT-
Tomorrow my FIL and his older bro are driving in for a visit. They will meet up with DH & his son and etc in town. That will be my cue: Exit-stage right! Have to find something else to do away from the old hacienda. It will be a good day to go to the family cemetery to put out flowers for my son and weed-eat around all the stones. It is only an acre in size, but there are a lot of stones and monuments and trees to go around. Mother will likely go with and we shall take a picnic and sit under the old cedars to rest. We can take her dog Tracey for protection. JK. Tracey is a Havanese - a Cuban Silky dog. They are related to Bichon dog family but really small by comparison. He he he. He will bark at anything, so will keep us alert of unwelcome guests, four legged or two legged.

Now, what will I do on Sunday???? Hmmmm...

~Annie

I would never have guessed you lived in Oklahoma from those photos. Looks like an enchanting place! Who is Tasha Tudor? Is that someone here?

I saw your first photo and thought "MORE, MORE, MORE!!!!"
I was so happy to read down the posts and then see more beautiful pictures! What a nice yard you have.

Really nice, Annie. Are those white bloomers spirea? I ask because my spireas don't bloom with my forsythia. That is just so pretty!

Natal, Oklahoma isn't a desert. :) Half of OK. is called "Green Country" because of the lakes, Ozarks and the Kiamichi mountains.

Annie, beautiful orchard. We have a similar one, grapes, pear, peach, plums (not sand plums) apricots which are my favorite for jams! The blooms have been so pretty!

Where I live is called the Cross-Timbers geographic region. That is where the tall Prairie grasslands and the Wooded lands are mixed. It is rolling hills, rivers, lakes and lowlands. There are Red Oaks, White Oaks, Post Oaks, Junipers (cedars), Hackberry, Willows, Elms, Winged & White Ash, Redbuds, Black Walnuts, Pecans, and many, many other hardwood trees. Lots of wildflowers i the spring. Beautiful and colorful swaths across the landscape. The creeks and low areas are abloom right now with Redbuds and Wild Plums. It is beautiful.
There are ten distinct Geographical regions in Oklahoma, tying with California and Texas only for having the most geographical regions within a state. We have four mountain regions: Kiamichi, Wichitas, Granite Mts. and the Arbuckles, with the Ozark Mts on our northeastern border. They are ancient mountains so are worn down. The Arbuckles are said to be the oldest mountains in the world.

However, I took some photos of the land around our property to show what it looks like naturally, compared to our place. Quite a contrast.

Enough of the geography lesson.
~Annie

Annie, that's nothing short of amazing! For some reason I thought OK was flat like most of LA. Thanks for the geography info.

Oakley, desert? That didn't come from me.

We also have Loblolly pines all along the eastern side of the state. That is something many people don't know about too.

We have Cottonwoods, Sycamores and Plane & Gum trees too. Up around Tulsa there are native River Birch.

Movies and the news only ever show the flat plains areas of Oklahoma and oil derricks.

The Panhandle area is considered a desert. There is the Oklahoma Great Salt Plains, which is a state park in North Central Oklahoma where you can dig salt crystals and there is also the Alabaster Caverns at Alabaster Caverns State Park, the only gypsum cavern in the USA that is open to the public. There are ancient Indian Mounds in several locations.

It is a very geologically diverse state.