{Lily's Garden} A Leafy Visitor

Do you see him? 

Doug was out in Lily's Garden tackling the over grown grass (more on that in a minute) and spotted this little guy (a Praying Mantis). It was the first time we've ever had one in our garden and he had to have Lily see it. So of course, I grabbed my camera and I actually used my nice camera, not just my iPhone! He was about 4-5" long and did not like to be bothered but was fun to watch. It was around 95 degrees outside so a few brief photos and off we went back inside the house. 

As for the over grown grass, we're in an odd spot in our garden makeover because I've put enough flower beds in to make it hard to mow (sorry Doug!) but we haven't removed the grass entirely to replace it all with rocks. That's our plan - to remove all grass, lay down some barrier to prevent grass and weeds from coming up, and then put rocks and maybe some sort of stepping stones (or a mix of stepping stones) in between the flower beds. I do have plans on two more beds inside of the garden and two more on the outside once the rest of the fence it put in and we figure out where the arbor is going. I'm thinking these plans will wait until a nice, fall, cooler day.