I pulled the lawnmower out of the garage to get the cleanup process started. The simple, yet tedious activity involves mowing the yard with the bag attached. I spread the resulting "homemade" mulch around the various borders within the design.

At this point, I was only concerned with mulching debris in the grass. I'll address the leaves within each plant cluster when I replenish the mulch next month.

This first round of mowing and mulching usually takes a while. I was about halfway through the process when I noticed my neighbor's truck pull into my driveway. She was driving past my house a couple of weeks earlier and stopped to ask me if I wanted another palm tree, specifically, a Windmill Palm tree that had been sitting in a pot in her driveway for a few months. Seeing that I have two palm trees in my front yard, she asked me if I could find a home for a third.

Both of the palm trees in my front yard, a Windmill next to the front walk and a Silver European Fan closer to the street, are still alive and green, but have done nothing that resembles "growing" since I planted them years ago. If anything, both appear to be slowly shrinking. For whatever reason, my skill with palm trees has turned out to be questionable at best. But I was happy to try my luck with another one. But where ?

I decided to carve out another circle away from the main design.

I did this for two reasons. Everything I've read about palm trees suggests that they prefer hot and dry. So I chose an area of the yard that gets a lot of steady afternoon sunlight.

The other reason for this location is that by planting this tree away from everything else, I now have another opportunity to try and connect it to the main design.

Think of it as another opportunity to expand my Random Curved Shape toward the previously mentioned elusive "something" I continue to search for.

Hopefully, this unexpected new resident will be happy.

With the yard's newest resident settled in, the mowing and mulching continued. The yard looked good by the end of the day.

More daffodils appear.

The Star Magnolia is blooming.