What's better than watching some of my home grown caterpillars fly away?
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Last year I only had 3 caterpillars and although I found all three chrysalises I never saw a single butterfly. This year I've had more caterpillars than I care to count and there are at least 2 Monarchs in some sort of nasty territorial dispute at all times. They chase each other, they chase the Painted Ladies, Cloudless Sulfurs and hey(!!!), I haven't seen too many Cabbage Whites at all...this might be a good thing! If not for these two the others would still be at each other for the same patch of flowers and don't get me started on the hummingbirds! It's a snack shack. It's a doll house. No, silly! It's a craftsman inspired Californian bungalow pigeon hut for my little birds! A balcony with a pool provides an area to lounge and tan... Inside my doof-balls get a sheltered place to lounge some more. A small slot in the back of their enclosure is where I scrape their grade-A garden fertilizer. It falls in the bucket. I may decide to give them more space. I may decide to use that space for other feathered creatures...haven't decided yet! For you builder types, here is a slide show of the making of the Palace: Pigeons weigh a little less than a pound. They are fairly lightweight creatures, being birds and all that prefer travel by air. I have two birds. Somewhere in his math I think Greg's off by a factor of 10...or he's just showing off!
Despite having to paintbrush-pollinate my two blueberry plants which pooped out more blooms then I thought was healthy... ...and having to free a pillaging scrubjay from my berry net while his comrades squawked bird profanities at me... This year's crop was AWESOME!!! Fresh picked, perfectly ripened home grown berries puts the store bought stuff to shame! As much as I wish I had 10 bushes, hand pollinating 10 would be cumbersome. I'm thinking of keeping orchard mason bees next season. Exciting stuff!
This is what broccoli has after it's all said and done: We spent 45 minutes in front of the TV hand harvesting the seeds and got a good shot-glass-full! So.....from here you can stick them in an envelope to later grow a quarter acre of broccoli because you have a farm or are obviously a green smoothie health nut...or you can immediately soak them to make...
The milkweed is for the Monarchs. Lately while I wait for Monarchs it seems that the milkweed is here for Oleander aphids...those crazy yellow and black little critters sucking the life out of my milkweed. Recently I found a green caterpillar on the plant: !!!!!!!! A Monarch?!?!?! Nope. Bitty Monas have black, white and yellow stripes no matter how young. This tiny thing was a lean, green, not eating machine. Seriously. Perplexed at a worm that never munched on leaves and never went anywhere and seemed happy blending in (not so well) with the yellow aphids, I googled all sorts of things that host on the milkweed plant. No hits. Well, dangit, if you aren't hurting my plant I'll leave you alone strange one! Tonight while watching the legions of ladybugs in various life stages munch away at the aphids (Go Team Lady Bug!! Eat. The. Aphids!!!) one of the little greenies flipped out, viciously grabbed an aphid and ate it. Holy. Freakin. Moly. You're a carnivore!!!! I immediately went inside to google "caterpillar that eats aphids" and got my answer: Syrphid larvae. The adults look like little hovering bees. They are super beneficial in all stages of life.
In the picture above, please take note of my new best garden friend, the syrphid larvae, a menacing looking lady bug larvae above it and their ever predominate food source, the yellow oleander aphids. The aphids that are brown have the larvae of a parasitic wasp (Lysiphlebus testaceipes) injected in them and will soon die as they are eaten from the inside out. It's a deadly, deadly world out there on my milkweed bush! Ah spring...and Swiss Chard leaves the size of my torso. I have an undersized torso but it is still nice to have an abundance of healthy greens to eat. In my shadow is Lacinto Kale, also ready to eat, but with all this chard I have no idea what I want to do with it yet! Since I am in this picture, it means that I gave Greg the camera...always a dicey thing to do. He tends to find very odd ways to frame the shot. I assure you, good people of the internets, that I am indeed wearing shorts. What else is going on? Let's see... All the gardening books will tell you to grow broccoli as a winter crop and pull the spent plants for the compost pile to make way for the summer crops. So what happens if you don't do that? I give you 1.25 year old broccoli. No big crown like you see in the supermarket, but the little (and vastly abundant) buds are tender and very, very tasty! I've been harvesting the amount you see in the top photo once every week. So what else is going on? Our pickles from last July are being thoroughly enjoyed by friends and family. I told myself I'd not grow any more cukes after last year's overwhelming harvest, but if everyone likes pickles, hey I've now got a reason to grow them!!
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I'm Peech
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January 2014
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