Forest succession

The replanting of the courtyard has commenced, and it's beautiful. Here the view down from my office window two weeks ago and today.

The exposed soil will be planted with green ground cover (as when the courtyard was first laid out), making for a quite different feel. (Vines have been promised, too!) Also: the courtyard we knew was a space of monocultures - red maples here, a stand of bamboo opposite, later replaced by one and then another kind of tree. The new look is mixed. You can't quite see from above but among the evergreen shrub with fragrant yellow flowers (Japanese mahonia, I think) are some new young trees. They appear to be the same kind as some new ones planted across the courtyard, which still bore ID as American hophornbeam, together with two other kinds of trees. Diversity on both ends, and some commonality of trees - a whole new concept!