Who needs to go to the "Y" to exercise when you've got the fall clean up to do? We got quite a bit of the backyard finished yesterday. By the time the side yard and front yard are done I'll be ready for a marathon!
The girls didn't have school yesterday or today because of a teacher work day and Veterans Day, so we went out early before the rain returned and got right to work.

This side of the pond area has had a major overhaul in the last couple of months. I've been doing a lot of rearranging of plants. I moved over this baby Dogwood (
Cornus florida) from where it was planted too close to the apple tree. As my daughter Sweet Pea said, "this area needed some height." The neighbors on the other side of the fence limbed and thinned their Cedar trees way up and now there is finally space for a tree. I'm not done planting yet, but off to a good start.

Earlier this summer I found this very sad fuchsia 'Aurea' under overgrown hostas, it had one tiny withered stem left. I nursed it in a container all summer and finally put it back in the ground where it has room to grow. If you notice, it's even got a flower bud on it now.

Try to ignore the horrible fence that needs to be replaced, that is one of the first things on our to do list for spring. I've been adding and rearranging plants here too. One small tree that is new here is Juniper 'Gold Cone' which I'll show more in a later post.

Looking down the path was a solid sea of leaves and needles. I love seeing it all clean again. On the right side of the arbor I moved over Clematis 'Nelly Moser'. She never really liked her old spot and I only had one bloom this summer. I hope she likes it better here.

Another change was moving this birdhouse to this corner of the yard. The hellebores in this area are putting out a lot of new growth.

The entrance to the side yard which still needs more cleaning, but at least it's clean on this side of the gate. The Corsican hellebore on the left was a seedling from a friend years ago, now it's got seedlings popping up around it.

Heading back down the path to the area where nothing grows under the big Pine tree. I've read a lot about Epimediums and have decided they just might grow here. I've planted lots of Crocus bulbs and will be sprinkling more Columbine seeds here soon.

Looking back through the arbor towards the pond. The raccoons made a mess of it again, they tore up the lily pads and Water Hawthorne. They seem to get a little worse this time of year, but so far the fish are smarter than them.
Hopefully I'll get to the rest of the yard this week and then I can enjoy watching all the birds that have been in the yard from inside with a cup of hot chocolate!
I also want to add a big Thank You to the Veterans that have served our country!