I've got a planting project on the agenda for this weekend. But first, it's time to see how the yard is doing.

The first thing I noticed today is that I've got a couple of straggler mystery bulbs to move from the area by the garage. This is where all of the mystery bulbs first resided when I planted them a few years ago. I've tried to move them to different areas of the yard since then, but still have a couple of stragglers remaining.

One thing I haven't mentioned a whole lot this year is the Joro spider invasion. While I do have several webs in the yard, like the one seen in the photos above and below, I have nowhere near as many in the yard this year compared to last year.

I'm not sure of the reason why. But aside from a handful of webs in the front yard, I haven't seen very many spiders this year.

I can't tell if the Mood Ring Podocarpus has grown any since I planted it earlier this year. But it is green, and appears to be alive.

My single Chinese Snowball fall bloom is going strong. I also see that I have some kind of straggler growing at the base of the Frostproof gardenia.

A single Chinese Snowball bloom.

All of the Red Fountain grass plants are doing well. I'm going to do something about the planters today. More on that later.

It's going to take a while for the side yard to fill in. And I see I need to do some more weeding.

The Silver European Fan Palm looks great, and seems to be very happy in the front yard.

The Pampas grass plumes look great this year.

I know that Pampas grass should be cut back every so often. I haven't done that since I planted them in the front yard. And now that I think about it, I'm not really sure how to go about cutting it back. This grass is not only very thick, it is also very sharp and will break the skin.

Until then, I get to enjoy the beautiful white plumes.

I think the backyard looks much better without the rotted landscape timbers in place. I'm still not sure what to do with this area yet. But I'm gathering ideas.

This is interesting. I appear to have a drooping branch on one of the hardwood trees in the backyard.

It doesn't look dead. But it looks like it's no longer an upright branch on the tree. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

Today's planting project involves filling in some of the bare spots behind the patio where the landscape timbers used to be.

Back in 2015, I tried to plant some Blue Arrows Rush ornamental grass plants here with mixed results. The tag on the plants said they would work in "Part Sun," which is what I have in the backyard. Everything seemed to grow at first. But just like other experiments I have tried in the backyard, our definitions of "Part Sun" seem to differ quite a bit.

Today, I decided to try another experiment and headed to Lowe's to see what I could find. The three Mine No Yuki camellias seen in the photo above call for "Part Sun" with emphasis on morning sun. Right or wrong, I'm going to trust the tag and see how they work in the backyard.

I've also got an idea for the planters on the front porch. The Monkey grass clump by my front walk grows very well and actually flowers in the fall. I picked up some more of it today. The tags say these Big Blue Liriope grass plants also like "Part Sun," and can reach 1 - 2 feet in height.

The photo above shows that this area does get some sun, but not a full afternoon's worth. So everyone should be happy here.

In the ground they went next to the newly repaired and renovated patio.

A layer of black mulch finished the job.

I'll surround the edge of the patio and black mulch with homemade mulch as I grind up leaves throughout the fall.

I then headed out front to the front porch planters.

Two of the Monkey grass plants went in the planters that were previously occupied by a pair of Tiny Dessert Asiatic lilies. In what appears to be a recurring theme in my yard, the lilies seemed to grow and bloom well at first, but faded away as time progressed.

With two in the porch planters, I have four Monkey grass plants left. Originally, I was thinking about planting them somewhere within all of the transplanted grass in the photo above.

But after some consideration, I decided to put one at each corner of the paver stones that lead into the front yard.

We'll see how this works.