Butterflies, Caterpillars And Me

Yesterday we finally got some real rain.  This morning the weather was cool and the idea of being anywhere but the garden seemed silly.  When I headed out the door I was greeted by the sight of a white admiral butterfly on the bronze fennel flowers that grow just outside my kitchen door.  He stayed put while I went back inside for the camera.  My day was off to a great start.

I love weeding the garden on a cool day and there are plenty of weeds waiting for me there.  I was working on the area around the Big Bird daylily.  The purslane and wood sorrel were slated for the compost, but first I snapped a picture of this interesting caterpillar.  I tucked the camera back in my pocket and focused on my weeding.  It was only after I finished that I realized that I had stepped on the caterpillar.  Getting caught between my garden clogs and the stone path had turned him into a smear of green slime.  I hoped that this caterpillar would turn out to be some ugly moth or destructive type, but a quick check in my caterpillar book confirmed that it was variegated fritillary.  One of the food plants for this lovely caterpillar is purslane.  We have lots more of it if another caterpillar shows up.  I'll try to watch my step!

There were monarch butterflies flitting around the garden today.  It didn't take Ed too long to get a great shot of a monarch caterpillar on some milkweed.  He's a real eating machine.

I was almost finished making dinner.  All I needed was a little fresh dill.  I had my eye on a plant that had self seeded in the allium bed, but on closer inspection I realized that three black swallowtail caterpillars had beaten me to it.  Unwilling to interrupt their dinner, I found another plant in the bed in front of the house.  There were no caterpillars in evidence here, so they have their dill plant and I got mine.  It's a pleasure to share and dinner was delicious!

End of the July Garden, Photos by Amy

Ed's 'Salmon Star' lilies are stealing the show both in sight and scent categories.

The bright yellow 'London'  lilies light up the garden.

The 'Simplon ' lilies are almost six feet tall. Pure white petals , fragrance and  thick sturdy stems  make them a favorite of Ed. Since we are not interested in seed production, he talks about removing the anthers as soon as the flowers opens to preserve the pristine white flower. I on the other hand don't like to disappoint those pollinators besides Ed looks so cute with that orange pollen on the end of his nose.

Purslane is coming up everywhere. It's yellow flowers are soon to be followed by seeds. We are doing very best to get these weeded out. Apparently this July's weather  was perfect for growing purslane.

This  little guy is a ' Sugar Baby' watermelon. I was not surprised to see the hairy stems, but until I saw Amy's photograph, I never knew tiny watermelons had hair. All the watermelons I've seen have been bald!

Tiny little hens and chicks are hairy too. These little guys are lined up in a crevice of Ed's stone wall like peas in a pod.The tiny plants came up from seed self sown by the larger clumps that reside on the wall. As they grow things are going to get a bit tight!

Perfect Purslane Pulling

Late last night we had thunder storms complete with a brief loss of electricity. This morning things were very wet indeed. Ed started his morning by picking the last of the snow peas and pulling the vines. I decided to weed the Walla Wallas. The ground beneath the onions was covered with purslane. Usually when you pull on purslane it snaps off, leaving bits and pieces behind to grow again. Today it was not like that. If you got a good grip on even one branch of the plant, the whole plant came out , roots and all. I've never had so much fun weeding out purslane in my life. I filled my trug with those soon to flower purslane plants. The succulent weeds were pretty heavy so Ed emptyed my trug for me, taking the purslane to the rough compost pile. There was still plenty of purslane to pull in the red onions, but the sun was getting hot, so I searched for a spot with partial shade where I could work in comfort.



The bee balm is tall enough to make a shady spot in the morning. I placed my little cart in that shady spot and went after the purslane in the asparagus bed. I spent my break time drinking water and watching tiger swallowtail butterflies , bumblebees, honey bees and hummingbird moths buzzing around those gorgeous flowers.



When I ran out of shade and purslane, I moved over to the shade garden. Ed and I worked together to weed the shade garden. I do the edge sitting on the wall reaching as far as I can. He uses stepping stones to weed the center. It could not have been a more perfect morning spent in the garden .

Pull It, Pull It NOW !

Here we have purslane in flower. I've tried to learn to eat this weed. One of "Wildman" Steve Brill's favorites, it is supposed to be so good for you. The sad truth is I don't like it. It's too bad because it self seeds and every little piece of the plant can make a new plant. It grows so well here. So I keep pulling purslane, confident that I'll never get rid of it all. If I wake up some morning and think"You know I'm really hungry for purslane", I know I'll be able to find some. Maybe I should taste it again. Maybe I'll like it this time. Yuck, no way... Pull it!