Brussels

Three brussels sprouts plants are left in A. They seemed to be lengthening, so I looked closely and saw that at each leaf joint a little ball is growing. This is about a month longer than I estimated from the stake that came with them. Well, more than that, as they are still not ready to harvest!

June 24, 2005

A follow-up to the caterpillar story. When I got home yesterday, the caterpillar in the jar had made a cocoon. It is greenish with some yellow spots down the back, and it is hanging from the parsley stem by a V-shaped web. When I checked on the garden I found only one well-fattened caterpillar left, so I fixed him up with a jar lest he become bird food.
As I couldn't find such detailed info in any of our books, I looked up caterpillars on the internet, and quickly found our particular spotted-striped-smooth type. They are black swallowtails! So exciting. They are described as eating only parsley or dill. How wonderfully discriminating.
I couldn't find how long they spend in the cocoon. I guess we will find that out by observation.

June 23, 2005

The garden has settled into a summer plateau already. I fed it almost 2 weeks ago with fish emulsion, and maybe a week or two before that I worked some compost into the soil. I've decided the soil is lacking, though I have added compost with every planting. When I saw Jimmy and April's tomatoes 3 weeks ago, they were huge. Every one has probably as much space as half of one of my gardens. The cherry tomato from Home Depot, the gourmet plant, has done the best, with good-sized tomatoes ripening often. The 2 plants in A have grown bigger suddenly, no tomatoes yet though. I think I have allowed the brussels to take up too much of their space. The brussels never did much, though they grew big and leafy and attracted many worms. Speaking of worms, the prettiest caterpillars have been eating the parsley. I don't mind, as the parsley is blossoming madly, and they're just chewing the stalks. They have white stripes interspersed with orange-dotted black stripes. At one point there were 7 of them. I took off one and put it in a jar to see if it would make a cocoon for me, but it hasn't yet. Yesterday only 2 caterpillars remained, still eating. I don't know if birds lunched off the others. I wonder if it is too late to plant basil. I keep forgetting. Plot A has become the volunteer garden, with, at this time, a collard, several marigolds, a leaf lettuce, and several cilantros that came up without my effort. The anaheim peppers are doing nicely. So is the arugula--the only lettuce that made from my massing plantings. Actually there are some light green leaf lettuces, but they seem a bit too bitter.