Time to get this mulch project finished. But first, I took my usual walk around the yard.

The Japanese Maple tree is a beautiful dark red which looks great against the greenery of the Small Anise tree behind it.

The Japanese Maple tree is dark red.

The rest of the blooms on Chinese Snowball are starting to turn white.

All of the snowballs are still green except for the two that appeared in October. Somehow, they're still white.

The Dogwood Cherokee Princess is blooming. I love the color contrast with my neighbor's dark red Japanese Maple.

Both of my dogwood trees are blooming. The smaller Cherokee Princess that I planted back in 2014 blooms in white. For some reason, one branch seems to be either dead or completely inactive and isn't doing anything. The pink dogwood behind it was in place when I moved in, and does its thing every spring.

The Japanese Camellia cluster is blooming. This is actually three separate plants that have grown together. The tall center "tree" section blooms in pink, and looks great. The sides haven't bloomed as much this year.

That's ok, I'll take what I can get.

When I first moved here in 2009, the driveway azaleas were an overgrown mess. Over the last 13 years of me living here, I've tried to trim and shape them with great results.

I've managed to get the first three all pretty close in size.

The rest are all around the same size, but smaller than the others, which is ok.

Two-picture panorama of the driveway azaleas.

The first cluster next to the street looks great.

The pink half always blooms first, then the white half catches up.

The relocated azalea clump is still blooming.

Last year, I found this small azalea clump buried behind the second azalea in line from the street while trying to do some weeding. I decided to move it into a sunnier area in between azaleas one and two. To my surprise, not only did it survive, it actually bloomed !

The second azalea looks great. One branch got confused over the winter and bloomed back in October. It looks like the rest of the shrub is back on track.

The third azalea is another that has benefitted greatly from some pruning and shaping over the years.

Even so, it seems like only half of it bloomed this year. Not sure why, though.

The fourth azalea was originally buried in among the English Ivy on the other side of the yard. After trying a few other locations, it seems happy where it is now. I don't know what variety of azalea this is. But it's apparently a miniature on some kind.

The fifth azalea looks great this year. This is another one that was a mess when I moved in. I had to chop it quite extensively. But it seems to be making a good recovery.

The twig seen in the photo above is another plant that was buried deeper in the area in between me and my neighbor. Since it looks like an azalea, I decided to move it to a sunnier location to see what happens. The fact that it survived the winter and is green is a good sign.

The sixth Delaware Valley White azalea looks great. The white blooms break up the continuous pink color of the other plants.

The seventh azalea looks great. It was in place when I moved in.

And finally, the eighth, very confused Korean azalea looks great as well. It has a tendency to bloom at random times.

After the cherry tree by the back porch finishes blooming, the white petals fall to the ground, which makes for a cool effect. So far, so good for the now-timber-less backyard. I'm not sure what I'm going to do here yet.

The Pieris Snowdrift continues to grow a little larger each year.

Time to get to work making a dent in the mulch mountain ! First, I need to finish spreading the red mulch.

Only the area around the pine tree and camellia cluster remains. I grabbed the wheelbarrow and bucket and started spreading.

I started with the pine tree side and made my way inward.

The area that surrounds the camellia was next.

Soon, I had all of the red mulch spread.

When deciding how much mulch to get this year, I looked at how much I used last year.

I got 80 bags of red mulch last year, and had a small amount left over. So this year, I decided to try 75 bags and see what happens. That turned out to be the magic number.

I noticed this year that as the camellia cluster expands, it's starting to crowd the nearby irises. I'll address this after everything (hopefully) blooms.

With the red mulch spread, it was time to get started with the black mulch.

Just like in years past, everything that isn't an iris will get black mulch.

I started at the area by the front walk and worked my way around the yard.

The Windmill palm got black mulch, as did the crape myrtles, transplanted Javelin Rush ornamental grass, and the pear tree.

The Leyland Cypress got black mulch.

The mulch mountain is steadily decreasing in size.

The cluster of mystery bulbs got black mulch.

The transplanted Mexican Pony Tails Feather grass got black mulch.

The gifted Windmill palm tree got black mulch.

I continued moving around the yard to the Silver European Fan palm tree.

Next was the Star Magnolia, very sad looking rose bushes, and Goldmound Spireas.

The equally sad-looking Coronation Gold Yarrows got black mulch.