kinderGARDENS Week 14 Update: Caterpillars, Butterflies & Uncles!

The green roof had a few plants that appear to be surviving in triple digit heat & humidity!

I think it's the mini-pumpkins!

Other things interesting the kids lately are the caterpillars! Several photos showing different branches of the same fennel plant. And there are 5 more fennel plants that I didn't even photograph! Get the kids and see how many they can count!

The main plants in our butterfly garden are Parsley, Dill & Fennel... plant some and you will see why! And don't forget Butterfly Weed & Milkweed for the adults, among other flowering herbs, they love it!

Here's a video tour of the dill & fennel wildlife:

Other exciting things this past week include the arrival of the kids' uncle, one of my brothers flies with the Air Force, and occasionally we get a surprise visit when he arrives for an overnight stay at our local base!

We made it in time for the kids to watch him park it! They were so excited, they really need that male bonding while daddy's away in the Middle East. We had a great dinner with him, then he was off again!

The kids with one of their favorite uncles... they are all favorites! One's job is flying airplanes (cool), another works for Caterpillar (cool again!) and uncle that lives in AZ drives for FedEx (way cool guy that drives the trucks with presents on them LOL!) !!

As for me.... I'm out the door in 5 minutes - dropping the kids off at 4-H Camp for the weekend, yay for me! Although I kind of wish I was headed to camp! I have to drive almost 2 hours to get there, so you know I must really want some time to myself, is that selfish? Oh, well!

As always, check out The Inadvertent Farmer for a link to other kinderGARDENS participants' updates!

Twilight, Anyone?

Wow, I am really bad about blogging lately! You all have been on my mind, and I have been reading your blogs religiously, but I am ashamed to admit... I have been consumed with reading the 'Twilight' Saga! (you can let out a big collective groan now!) Up until 2 weeks ago, I was one of the people that made fun of adults reading teen literature! I was discussing with my neighbor and friend how much I miss getting lost in a good book and the subject of the 'Twilight Series' came up and the fact that she just finished them. Well, she's my age so I made fun of her but at the same time told her that I just couldn't find time lately to get to the library and stock up on some good fall reading. She then told me that I should give the saga a try, to which I responded that I didn't think I would like them, and I really prefer long reads that will take me more than an hour. "Hang on" she replied, and ran into her house and came back with a beautiful set of 4 thick hardcovers! Needless to say, I didn't realize teen literature had expanded to include more than a hundred pages, lol, and eagerly dove in! I have been reading since then whenever I get more than 5 minutes of a chance, and am now into the 4th and last book. I must admit, vampires are pretty cool guilty pleasure reads, and a little more gripping than my Master Gardener manual, although that's pretty gripping stuff too sometimes! So go ahead, let the comments roll on that one!

My Celosia is looking quite "Vampire-ish" and I hope it lasts until my party Saturday evening!

Other than reading and shuttling kids around, I have been busy doing general cleanup and the occasional bean picking. The bell peppers are now finished, and the beans are on their 3rd "pick" and looking good. We had our 1st light frost last night, it got down to 39 degrees, but up to 70 for the high and supposed to be 80 tomorrow! I am just so glad to see the sun after the last 5 days of gray, cold and rain. I know many of you were dealing with the same nor'easters that moved through my area so I won't complain too much.

I planted some garlic last week that was from last year's box of sets and it sprouted yesterday! I was pretty worried since they have been sitting in a cardboard box for the past year on my desk, but they popped their heads up during the cold rainy spell. They were the only residents of my garden that appreciated the dreary weather.

This is the last of the Bell Peppers, 3.5 lbs

Today's harvest of pole beans, 3.15 lbs was added to last week's pick of 2.14 lbs.

This should say something about my children's eating habits - I have a family of 4 yet these are my "serving size" bags! Pretty much just my husband & I and a few extras just in case the kids decide to surprise me one day. I have exhausted every possible means of bribing them, taking things away, point systems with rewards, even force feeding at one particularly awful "bad Mommy" moment! Any other ideas?

How very cool is THIS GUY?!! This photo was from my Master Gardener class last week on Entomology. Yes, he is as big as he looks compared to the other insects! Not a very focused picture though, took it with the iphone. I need to start bringing a real camera to school I think!

I never imagined I would have a second flush of toddlers in the Black Swallowtail Daycare! I was looking at my fennel the other day and there were at least 20 on there ranging in age from the 1st instar stage all the way to full-on caterpillar action! I have recently found a bunch more on the dill in my raised bed garden, but since that is the last of their food reserves out there I am leaving them to it, there is gobs of dill so they should leave all my other stuff alone.

The next few days will be spent doing fun stuff in anticipation of our Harvest Party Saturday. You know, the usual... flinging blood on tablecloths, stabbing scarecrows with knives, calculating how much booze needs to go into the bloody punch bowl... good times! I hope to get some pics when when we do our "trial run" Friday night, just in case The Ghostess with the Mostess has a little too much punch and forgets to take pics during the party, lol!

When Freezers Attack!

I spent the day defrosting my chest freezer. This means that I had to stuff everything in it into my side-by-side in the interim. The 3rd time I opened the side by side and was attacked by chuck roasts, bags of hamburger and even a pack of short ribs that landed on my big toe, I thought it was funny enough to snap a picture of! In the future, I will remember to defrost the freezer before I go pick up a share of beef, lamb etc - even if it doesn't need it! Kind of like when I demand the kids go to the bathroom before we leave the house...even if they don't think they need to! I had to stuff an entire share of beef along with other meats and all my garden produce into that side-by-side, so I guess I can say "it can be done"...although to prevent injury, I wouldn't recommend it!

Today's harvest: 4 lbs Eggplant, 14 oz beans, 2 lbs cherry tomatoes, 13 oz bell peppers, 6.1 lbs Heirloom tomatoes, 2 lbs Edamame, and 4.6 oz raspberries. I am amazed at how much more the raspberry bushes produce compared to the blackberries! Next year we should actually have enough to do something with besides snack on. I have been letting the suckers grow into new plants since the kids aren't big on veggies I think we could use more as Finn is happy to eat a bowlful of berries every night with dinner! I harvested all the remaining edamame and pulled the plants, so I really can't wait for the next crop! Into the empty bed went broccoli starts, some lettuce, and chives that I bought at the nursery, since they weren't pathetic looking like the chives I started from seed!

In the non-edible category I got my front yard shaped up finally. I pulled weeds, pruned a bit, finally took down the dead hanging baskets that the birds destroyed and even pulled all the weeds growing in the cracks of the driveway and sidewalk. I hope it inspires my neighbors to do the same! I finally stopped when I got an odd look from a driver passing by and realized that I and my stool had moved out into the street and was pulling weeds growing in the street! What's up with those damn birds anyways? It seems us gardeners love the birds and will do anything for them, including leaving up dead hanging baskets with nests & eggs inside. Nothing says "A Gardener Lives Here" like a bunch of dead plants hanging on the front porch, lol!

And finally, the Swallowtail Daycare pic of the day:

The pupa is still intact, no butterfly yet, but these guys of different ages were having a busy day filled with the parsley buffet!

Of Soybeans & Swallowtails

Apparently I have found that there is a limit to how much fresh edamame one can snack on - mine happens to be 8 oz! Over the past 2 weeks, my appetite every evening for fresh steamed edamame pods has been gaining steam until I reached critical mass last night as I sat down to snack on 1/2 lb of these yummy healthy snacks! I usually feel pretty energetic when I eat these, not so this time...I was stuffed to the brim and felt as if I had just finished a Thanksgiving dinner! As of tonight I am backing it down to 4-5 oz which was my harvest the first time. Who knew? Things like that I always thought you could eat for hours and not get full!

On the same front, my second crop of Beer Friend Edamame from Territorial Seed Co. just sprouted today. I was worried because of the extreme temps we have been having, but up they came anyways, along with some heirloom black radish, carrots, Heatwave Lettuce, pole beans, and a "mystery crop"! See photo below:

Not sure if you can see it very well, but all along the right side are hundreds of seedlings! I planted herbs in the spring that never grew, but just pulled out some dill a week ago that had gone to seed. I'm thinking dill, but you never know, lol!! I will let them stay until I figure out what they are at least!

On to the weather: wow! After 2 solid weeks of heat indexes in the 100's, last night our area got twice the amount of rain we usually get in a hurricane! Downtown received 7.25 inches in one hour!!!!! Unbelievable! What makes this even more crazy is that everything flooded and came to a standstill. Really makes me nervous to think of what will happen when, not if, we get 'the big one'...hurricane that is. Tidewater, VA is a group of 7 cities pretty much surrounded by water - the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries. The only way out if evacuated is through one of our many bridge-tunnels that take us under the water and points west and north of here. Last night they were all closed since the tunnels filled up with rainwater. Looks like investing in a good johnboat is a better preparation to take than planning on getting out by car, lol! We try and chuckle about it around here cuz, well...what else can we do?!

And this is just plain fun for all ages:

remember one of the residents of my Black Swallowtail Daycare?

Below is a Black Swallowtail in late pupa stage! There are about 15 in the 1st instar stage, a few full grown caterpillars, and this is the only pupa that I can see in the plant, but we have 10-15 adult butterflies cruising about the garden too. This is all going on in a large deck pot of peppers and parsley right outside my back door. I can see the pupa from my computer, so I am hoping I can catch a video of it emerging if I am really lucky! This plant combination seems to work well since they feed on the parsley and simply hang their "pupa strings" (lol) from the thicker pepper stems. The pic is a bit dark, but if you look closely, you can see it's markings through the case, this one is very, very ready to make an entrance soon!

I found the below images at http://www.pbase.com/rcm1840/lifecycleofblsw--- these pictures are a beautifully simple display of the lifecycle of the Black Swallowtail!

First Instar Stage	Second Instar Stage	Third Instar Stage
Full Grown Caterpillar	Pre-Pupa Stage	Early Pupa Stage
Late Pupa Stage	Recently Emerged Butterfly	Adult Butterfly with Chrysalis Shell
Black Swallowtail-Male	Black Swallowtail-Female

Note to Self : Buy more gloves!

I spent the day canning pickled jalapenos. I set out all my stuff and started scorching my pepper skins and realized I only have one glove left! Like a dummy I continued with only one glove for 4 lbs of jalapenos. This is by far the most labor intensive preserving that I do, and it is also the last batch I will do this year! The rest will have to be frozen or flung at passing cars. I can't even feel the keyboard my hands are burning so bad, 4 hours after finishing! Maybe I should have re-read my lessons learned post last month, lol! Oh well, it's done now, and I finally have enough to last for a winter of nachos at night after the kids go to bed. I let about half go to red and half green just for variety:

While watering this morning, I spotted several Black Swallowtail Caterpillars happily munching away on parsley and dill in the garden. No problems here, I plant oodles of these plus fennel and milkweed especially for them!

I had 100 bottles of beer on the wall...literally - last night! The brew wasn't quite ready to be bottled when Sailor/Husband left Sunday, so I had to do this myself. This is definitely a 2-person job, but then again, so is raising kids, lol..."Honey, where aaaarrrreeee yoooouuuuu???" When I was almost finished, I put the kids to work wrapping things up while I enjoyed a Belgian Ale from the last batch. Is this even legal, lol ???

I am hoping to post a little more frequently these days. It seems whenever Charlie's away, I get more done (no offense, dear!)! The kids and I get into a groove and I'm not busy trying to fill our days with plans just because "he's leaving again soon". Yesterday, I even got my desk cleaned up. I am usually meticulous with organization, etc. but lately I have been joking that my desk was "our mudroom"! I have had a piece of paper tacked to my fridge keeping track of my harvest and even finally got around to putting up a "harvest counter" on the blog! I see many of you have them and it seems like a great idea to have a constant reminder of my progress in the sustainability dept. Also on the "to do" list - a homebrew status for Sailor/Husband/Farmer: check! Soon I am hoping to get my slideshows to look a little better on the page. I haven't really had time to mess with that since the day I put them up. Seems I am finding all sorts of ways to avoid going outside in the garden, as this week we are actually having "normal" temps of 90+ and humidity.

I'll take the MN summer we have been having any day, I just want to know ahead of time so I can more appropriately select & date my plantings!