In the Garden

 Hi everyone. Happy weekend! 

I thought I'd start the  weekend with a page for Wendy's vintage challenge at Art Journal Journey and some photos from my garden also. 

I  quite like today's page from my garden journal.  Everything on it has been cleaned off my work table except for the crow, that I stamped on white paper before fussy cutting it out, and the big paper  sunflower, that I had in my stash.  And I should add the quote is also out of an Art by Marlene sticker quote set. Everything else was a left over from some other project.

On my work table I had a scrap of book paper, a piece of white cloth tape that I inked up, a scrap of wavy cardboard that came in some package at some time, and some clear acetate clouds that I had traced and cut out to use as stencils on a journal page back in August. Plus a reproduction ticket that I took out for another project and never used. 

I thought this page  would work nicely with my garden photos, since after a great summer, there aren't a lot of flowers left blooming. That and I have seen a lot of crows around lately too. (Of course the fact that I had a pair nesting this summer along my driveway might be why.)

My visiting black bear has been through several nights lately, hoping the bird feeder is still out. (My fault, I forgot the suet feeder one night and now it is gone, and it must have been a nice treat for the bear.) The dogs have been keeping us up as they start to bark aggressively when he/she arrives. Maddie is spooked though, and she even freaked out when a squirrel was out by the bird feeder the other day. Poor Mad.

I've  also seen bobcats twice lately too. I'm grateful for them ( if they were 2 different ones but perhaps they were just one seen twice) as they've definitely done a number on the chipmunk and squirrel population. 

The big project going on at my house is my husband is replacing our back deck railing and floor boards. You can see he had only started when I took these photos last weekend.

Railings down.

The  biggest issue is that this  deck is one of main egresses out of the house, and the one we use the most.  It's either that or go through the basement and the garage to get into and out of the house. We still (after 32 years) don't have steps to our front door, and truthfully, we have never missed them.

My husband, being the engineer, is trying to work on the deck in stages so that we don't totally lose that egress. I image this weekend things will look  more worked on, as deck work is his plan. 

Pete has been out on the bear look out, and he would miss the deck if it was just ripped apart.

There's not too much blooming any more either, except in my deck pots and my roses, which after summer dead headings, are giving me a nice second bloom.

One of my 2 hydrangeas is blooming nicely also.

I've been working on cleaning out a space between my veggie garden and the bees. 

I put a few perennials in here  (above photo) when I separated plants in my garden back in early summer, and I'm going to add to it with some spring bulbs I picked up and with some more blooms next spring. I want to keep it more wildflower field looking, if that is possible. That way there the bees will have some very close food sources. Right now, it doesn't look like much more than a mess, does it? This photo was taken after 9 crammed full bins were removed to the compost pile.

I have more to do but I am waiting for some of wild plants to have their fall die back so I can dig them out easier. I probably should just use the rototiller on the whole space.

I've started feeding the bees sugar water and  also pollen patties. I'm a little concerned with their late arrival (the first of June due to a cold spring down south where they came from) they haven't built up enough honey for the possibly long winter. They say the bees need 80-90 pounds of honey stored up to make it through a New Hampshire winter, which I don't have. My number of bees look good though, so hopefully with some fall feeding  they can be in better shape for winter. Before closing up the hive and wrapping it come late October or early November, I will give them some pollen patties and some bee fondant so they will have some food for the winter.

This milk weed with pods is growing in my veggie garden, and I would love to use its seeds in my new flower area. What I don't know is if I should remove pods now or wait until the break open. Anyone know about seeding milkweeds?

My big flower garden is looking tired.  I definitely have a couple of ideas for my husband's workshop wall behind it for next year, There are just a  few last blooms until my late blooming perennial chrysanthemums open. Those usually bloom in October.

Anyone know what this plant is? My friend Deb gave me a piece last fall when she separated some in her garden. 

This year I  also left some self seeded goldenrod growing for the bees. I do plan on pulling that out once all flowers are gone.

And lastly, my veggie garden is about done. I did plant some lettuce, spinach and kale, hoping for one more crop now that it is cooler. I am excited about this beautiful eggplant I pulled out of my garden. It's the best one all summer.

 And although the deer ate the most of the leaves off my brussel sprouts recently (grumble grumble), I was thrilled to see the sprouts  actually  starting. 

That's all for me. During this week coming up,  I'm hoping to have more garden cleaning time, as well as a few other projects.  This weekend my daughter is coming home, and she wants to go on a shopping trip, as she's been talking about this for a few weeks now. Not sure that's what I'd chose to do, but I'm a good mom. Smile. 

Have a great start to the new week!

And thanks for visiting.