On the schedule for today was more unintentional work on the newly enacted side yard project thanks to a UGA Hort Club plant sale, (more on that in a minute). But as usual, I took a stroll around the yard to check things out.

So far, so good for the single Chinese Snowball fall bloom.

The Shell ginger looks quite happy, which is good. We've had a mild fall so far.

The October Glory Maple tree is still red.

This is the best it's looked since I planted it a decade ago.

The flowers are gone from the Anthony Waterer spirea. But it still looks good.

I've been adding to the homemade mulch border around the Illicium Pink Frosts and Pieris Snowdrift.

So far, so good for the Mine No Yuke camellias.

The Cleyera Bigfoot shrubs seem to be happy in their new home. I discovered yesterday that I would going to give them some company today.

I noticed while I was driving to work this past Thursday that the UGA Horticulture Club was setting up for a plant sale. Not only does the Hort Club host a large plant sale in the spring, it also hosts a smaller fall sale every October that features plants for fall planting. I headed to the sale this morning with my newly enacted side yard project in mind.

Ideally, I was hoping to find Cleyera Bigfoots on sale even though, realistically, I figured the Hort Club wouldn't have any, which turned out to be the case. I asked one of the plant sale staff what he recommended for my situation, (i.e. privacy shrub that grows large and is happy in the shade). His response of, "How about a camellia," was something I had completely overlooked even though it's been right in front of me for the last 13 years.

The large camellia cluster in my front yard not only has grown to be quite large, it also flowers beautifully and seems to be pretty hardy. Planting a bunch of them in the side yard would provide plenty of privacy and look very nice. I started looking at the camellias available at the sale and found several varieties that fit my criteria. Ultimately, I settled on a Camellia Sasanqua Pink Snow, and brought five of them home.

With five more new residents now needing homes, I realized that I was going to be spending a majority of my Saturday removing more English Ivy. And as seen in the photo above, there is still a lot of it in place.

I grabbed my shovel and a pair of gloves and got to work.

The photo above shows just how thick the covering of individual vines can become. All of those vines seen in the photo had to be pulled. It took a few hours. But eventually I had the space I was looking for.

Like I did with the Cleyera Bigfoots, I staggered the plants hoping to provide better overall coverage.

Since the smaller trees that were already in place have survived in the thick of the English Ivy, I decided to leave them in place. Maybe they will be happier and grow better with all of the ivy gone.

Eventually, I had everyone moved into their new home.

Normally, I would finish this job by adding a layer of mulch. But I was running out of energy by this point, and decided to tackle that later.

According to the tag on the camellias, they can possibly grow to 20 feet tall and more than 10 feet wide, which will provide great coverage when they start to grow.

This pile is getting very large ! But judging by how much ivy I still have to pull, (some can be seen in the photo above), it will probably get much larger.