On the agenda for today was to do some late-season maintenance.

I broke out the hedge trimmers and gave everyone in front of the house a haircut.

Everything at the mailbox looks great !

This project has been a big success.

And since I was in a trimming mood, I pruned the small branches off of the cherry tree.

This tree is strange in that any part of it that is not underground is capable of sprouting new branches. They appear everywhere on the tree and make the tree look cluttered.

Aside from the Windmill palm tree, everyone else in the backyard seems to be happy at the moment. However, observing everything through this season made me aware of one key glitch in my planting scheme.

I planted the palm trees and Pampas grass back in March. At first, everyone seemed to be ok. But as summer arrived, I began to see some problems arise. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that there wasn't nearly as much sunlight reaching the backyard. This is due to leaves appearing on all of the trees in the spring. In other words, I had a lot of sunlight in March, but not enough in June.

The result of this is that in one season, I've already lost one palm tree, and had to move two ailing Pampas grass plants out front. I'm going to have to keep an eye on everything else going forward. I can't help but wonder if more things will have to be moved in the future. Time will tell.