Spider Solution

I am happy to report that I saw a honeybee in the flowerbed this morning. The spider who had taken up residence on one of the dead poppies wasn't there. I guess the spider was really hungry yesterday. I watched it capture two bees yesterday.

Pressed Flowers

Yesterday I popped into Hobby Lobby to purchase a journal I have had my eye on for a while.  It has blank pages that are perfect for pressing flowers. 

I bought with the idea of keeping Tony apprised of all the going ons with the garden.  I also figured that this way, he would get to see the flowers even when he's not home to see them bloom.

I suppose an added bonus to this would be the fact that the meaning of my name is "pretty summer flower," so that way he'd always have a piece of me and a piece of home when he is far from home...

To Kill a Mockingbird

I finally found our what has been happening to my cherry tomatoes.  It seems a certain cheeky chap has been snacking on them. 

He has been treating my porch like his own private salad bar.  In front of me, he helped himself to the  reddest tomatoes on the vine!

Later, my son told me that he saw the mockingbird perched on some of my strawberries.  The nerve of that bird!

Rest easy readers; despite the title of this post, I have no intention of killing him.  I just hope he leaves me and my family some fruit to enjoy.

Assembly Required

Today was an interesting day.  My neighbors cut their yards yesterday.  My yard was looking scraggly, so I decided it to mow it.  Before I could do that, I would have to unpack and assemble the lawnmower that lay forlornly in its box in the garage.

After some initial problems, I set up the lawnmower and proceeded to mow my lawn.  My compost bin is now full to capacity, and I will be purchasing a Mason Bee kit soon.  Mason bees are special in that they don't produce honey, so they tend to sting less.

I am also looking into a special composing system made exclusively to safely compost dog waste.  This system utilizes vermicomposting to turn the waste into worm casts.  The worm casts are an exceptionally rich soil amendment.

This means that the hard work will eventually give way to the garden of my dreams!