Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

A highlight of the summer was today's visit by a Giant Swallowtail, rarely seen in our area.  Its wingspan measured 5-6 inches. A female laid 7 eggs on our rue plant which I'm raising indoors.  In 2011 I successfully raised three to adult stage and then released.

Vegetable & Berry Garden Update

For me, today is a perfect day to garden.  It's 68 degrees and cloudy. Yesterday it rained, so the weeds are easy to pull! : )

Since we compost our kitchen scraps and use the compost in the garden, many tomato, eggplant and pepper seeds have sprouted in the garden. Also, seeds from dill and fennel pop up everywhere. I use the tiny seedlings to replace early crops as we use them.  The dill is used for pickles. Swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on dill and fennel and the caterpillars feed on those plants.

Corn in barrel in foreground.  I had to replant it, since the chipmunks dug up all but 2 of my little plants :(  Now, the emerging seedlings are covered with netting. We don't use fertilizer or use pesticides on our lawn, so you can see all the clover in the grass around the garden.  Honey bees love it!

The pea pods are forming.  Peas were seeded April 30th.  They should be ready to eat in about a week.

Two corn plants from the first seeding, little sprouts from second seeding.

Head lettuce in foreground; buttercrunch in background.  As we eat the lettuce, I try to replace the head with a vegetable plant seedling.  In this case, I found bell pepper and eggplant seedings popping up in the garden that I transplanted into the vacant spots.

Beets in foreground seeded May 6th;  Spanish and Red onions in center; Yellow beans in back row seeded May 14th.  Dill, fennel and tomato plants pop up here and there from the compost in the garden. 

Burpee Hybrid II cucumbers climbing between two trellises, seeded May 14th and just beginning to flower.

Green bell peppers in foreground planted May 24th and just starting to form flowers;  Celery in next row planted May 6th.

These are the San Marzano plum tomatoes set in as plants on May 24th and starting to form fruit.

I'm letting a few common milkweed plants grow wild in the garden to attract monarch butterflies that will lay their eggs on the leaves.  The caterpillars will then feed on the leaves.

Black Raspberry bushes full of berries that should ripen in about a week.

Thornless blackberries flowering and forming fruit.  

Zinnias planted from seed on May 24th.

Rhubarb

Concord grape clusters

Sunny Spot on the Porch

There's a corner of our patio that's sunny for a portion of the day where I've tucked a planter with herbs, a pot of mini eggplants,  cherry tomatoes, a lantana "tree" and assorted annuals.  It's near the kitchen door.

Herbs planter,  pots of tomatoes, eggplants, annual flowers, hosta, milkweed, lantana tree, spearmint growing from the foundation in background.

Herb planter (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano)  with annuals in pot above on railing

Lantana tree, in the center with mini eggplants to the right, a pot of milkweed to the left

The Irises are in Bloom

The irises are blooming.

Some of the milkweed leaves have monarch butterfly eggs on them.  I didn't see the monarch in the garden, only the result of her visit! What a nice surprise! 12 eggs total were found.

We've been watching a couple of robins building a nest at the entrance to our perennial path, at the top of the arbor under the wisteria vine.  

Vegetable Garden

After a few days of rain, it was so nice to get into the garden to finish planting the vegetables.  Here's my list of veggies for this year:

"On Deck" sweet corn in the half barrel
Little Marvel peas
Lettuce:  romaine, iceberg, leaf and buttercrunch
celery
Spanish onions
Benny's red onions
Eureka yellow beans
Moulin Rouge Beets & Detroit Dark Red Beets
Danvers Half Long carrot
asparagus (perennial)
rhubarb (perennial)
Marketmore 97 cucumbers
Better Belle peppers
Lady Belle peppers
Fairy Tale eggplant
Patio Baby eggplant
San Marzano tomatoes
Early Girl tomatoes
Better Boy tomatoes
Patio Star summer squash

Vegetable garden tucked into the back of our yard

Raised bed with 4 kinds of lettuce

3 rows of peas with trellis for their tendrils to grab onto 

Bell pepper, celery and an eggplant

Tomatoes in cages

Rhubarb (with milkweed at right to attract monarch butterflies)

Cucumbers that will grow up the trellis to save room

Yellow beans, red and Spanish onions, beets

Concord grape vines

Can you see all the clusters of flower buds?

Corn in half barrel

Herb planter containing parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil and oregano, with pot of patio eggplant and johnny jump-ups to the right.

Spring Things

It's time to hang the oriole feeder.  I always choose April 28th as the date to hang it, since the orioles begin to enter our area about May 1st.  This way, they'll be attracted to the feeder and stick around for the summer.  

The feeder is filled with homemade nectar -- one cup sugar dissolved in 4 cups water.  I've added oranges to the prongs on the top of the feeder and grape jelly in the outer wells.  Gray catbirds also love the grape jelly!

The daffodils, crocus and hyacinths are flowering and the rhubarb that I transplanted last year from another area of the garden is doing well in its new location.

Rhubarb

It's Maple Syrup Time Again

It's a beautiful, sunny late winter day, 39 degrees.  We're boiling maple sap today, having gathered six gallons in the last few days from our four maple trees.  Six GALLONS of sap will amount to about 2-1/2 CUPS of finished syrup.  The ratio of sap to syrup is 40 to 1.  Our setup in the garage consists of an apartment sized gas stove with four burners.  I use a set of four old Revereware pots for boiling the sap and it boils at a rate of about one gallon per hour, costing only about 30 cents per hour.  So it will take about 6 hours to boil the 6 gallons and only cost $1.80 in gas. 

In order for the sap to run, we need below 32 degree temps at night and above freezing during the day.  Ideal temperatures are in the 20s at night and 40s during the day.  As mentioned, we have four maple trees on our property that are large enough to tap -- two sugar maples (Acer sacharum) that are about 50 years old and two red maples (Acer rubrum) that are about 35 years old.  We have two taps in each of the sugar maples and one in each of the red maples.  Our best year was 2012 when we ended up with 1-1/2 gallons of syrup!

A Little Bit of Summer

The tomatoes I seeded in pots under lights in the basement on August 10th began producing in November.  The variety is called "Red Robin".  I'll be using some of them in a salad Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Iris in November!

It's 43 degrees today, November 7th, and I sure wasn't expecting to see this gorgeous yellow iris blooming in the perennial garden.  The temperature's expected to go below freezing tonight, so I brought the whole stalk inside. Hopefully, the buds will continue to open.