I cut a few leaves of parsley for our salad the other day, and look who came in on it: a Black Swallowtail caterpillar.

 

I didn’t notice it when I first brought it in, but as it gets bigger, it is more noticeable.

 

When I was teaching at Sunnybrook, we had a 55 gallon aquarium in the classroom.  I brought in caterpillars as I found them on my fennel at home.  I put fennel leaves in little vases for the caterpillars to eat.  And when they were big enough they would quit eating and make their cocoons.  We got to watch the process through all the stages.  Fascinating for the children and for me!!!  

 

Here’s the funny thing…the caterpillars of Black Swallowtails will eat all members of the carrot family:  carrot, dill, fennel, parsley, Queen Anne’s lace, but only the plant on which they start life as a tiny caterpillar.  I tried one time to feed parsley to caterpillars that had been parked on fennel, and they died.  They chose NOT to eat the parsley;  they wanted fennel.  

 

So this little guy will get parsley until it is big enough to cocoon.  I love watching the process still.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

They are doing it again!!!  This time they are BLUE!!!

 

Last June they should have bloomed, but the deer ate all the buds and most of the leaves. 

 

Since that happened, Jim has been diligent about keeping that stinky deer spray on the Hydrangeas, and they are responding with gorgeous leaves and flowers.  This bush is about 6 feet wide by 6 feet tall, and as you can see loaded with flowers and buds.  

 

I love that Hydrangeas bloom a couple times a year.  They are so pretty.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look at this beautiful Begonia. My friend went on an extended road trip, and gave me her Begonia.  I offered to babysit it for her til she got back, but she asked me to adopt it.  So I brought it home and tucked it into a safe spot where it gets some sun in the morning, and shade in the afternoon.  This fall I will cut it way back, and overwinter it in the basement.  

 

I don’t usually raise flowers:  I like to grow edible stuff.  But this little beauty makes me smile every time I see her.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

You may know this as Baker fern or Leatherleaf.  It is the fern that florists sell.  This one is growing in my garden.  Momma brought it to me when she and Betsy came to visit the first year we were here.  

 

I had never seen it actually growing, only cut in florist shops.  Well, it likes growing here.  It has been in the same spot for 19 years, and every year it gives me about ten to twenty nice leaves.  You can even see a few fiddleheads in the picture.  That is a happy plant.  

 

And, apparently the deer don’t like it, because they have eaten the Hostas right next to it, and left the fern alone.  GOOD!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

This is a flat of microgreens.  These are seedlings from last year’s curly kale and pak choy.  I planted seeds in this flat last week, and what we are looking at right now are just the seed leaves.  When they grow two sets of true leaves I can start harvesting.  I just hold the leaves in my fingers and cut just above the soil line.  

 

What a great way to get fresh greens in winter.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Not one of my prettiest pictures, but interesting.

 

This is curly green mustard gone to seed.  Each one of these seed pods holds about 30 seeds.  So we will save the seeds and plant them in the spring.  And have more mustard than we know what to do with.  

 

Maybe I will plant them this winter in a flat, and harvest as microgreens.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The garden is always changing.  The tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchinis are finished, and now the eggplants are taking off.  We have already harvested 55, and you can see that the bushes are loaded.  

 

These eggplants come from the country of Taiwan.  They grow 2 inches in diameter and up to 14 inches long.  I like these best, because I don’t leave them on the plants too long.  I’ve tried growing the kind that you see in the grocery store, but I always left them on the plants waiting for them to get as big as the store ones.  By then they were all seedy.  Not these, they are supposed to be picked small.  

 

The good thing about eggplants, besides their deliciousness, is that they don’t all come at once.  We have 10 bushes, and we can pick 4 or 5 at a time, enough to make something like lasagna or Parmesan, and then next week we can pick more.  

 

We love them cooked on the grill with lots of spices.  Then we freeze the pieces, and use them in the winter, really stretching our harvest.  It’s also nice in the winter to remember how beautiful the garden was in the summer.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Good grief!!!  We did some pruning on this house plant, and dumped a bunch of the vines into the compost bin.  

 

It is still growing!!!  The winter will kill it, but for now it’s kinda pretty peeking out of the dry leaves.  

 

Let me know if you are interested in maintaining a compost bin.  It is real soil science, but not at all difficult.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Another beautiful, edible plant that the deer don’t bother:   this is lemon grass.  

 

Lemon grass is an annual, so we have to get a new one every year, but it is a fabulous plant.  It’s pretty, the deer leave it alone, and we use the stems as a rack under our chicken when cooking on the grill.  It imparts a yummy lemon flavor to the chicken and accompanying gravy.

 

Lemon grass is also effective as an insect repellent.  That’s why it gets this spot near the front door.   

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Flowers from my friend’s garden.  I told her that today is your birthday, and you need flowers.  

 

She said I could pick them for you. 

 

I was going to post that picture of “girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,” but I figured we have grown up since then.  Well, a little.  

 

I hope your birthday is happy and healthy and full of love.  

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIE!!!