We now have eleven chrysalises in our butterfly tank and the first butterfly emerged today. I’m posting this photo in a large size so you can see the amazing beauty and detail of the wing scales. Isn’t God’s gift of creation amazing? Buttercup is fascinated! We put some butterfly bush blossoms and a couple of […]
We’re raising caterpillars we found on the parsley in the garden. We did the same two years ago. It’s fascinating to watch them grow and change, molting as they get larger. We use a large fish tank to house them, and a piece of window screen with an elastic band to top the tank. To […]
I watched this little guy for forty minutes early Friday morning, waiting for him to molt from a caterpillar into a chrysalis. I had my camera on the tripod, ready to take a video of the quick transformation. I waited and waited and waited… Then I turned my back for ten minutes, while I checked […]
While I mowed the yard today, I was struck by how “fall” everything felt. The low temps, the smell in the air, the crisping leaves, the autumn flowers… Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ The cabbage white butterflies were hard to get a picture of. They can’t sit still for long. The Buckeye butterflies seem to prefer the […]
It seems every time we pick more parsley for the caterpillars, we also bring in a caterpillar or two. Or three. We’re up to 15 or 16. So some of the cats in the fish tank are very small and some are getting very large! I think we have every instar represented in the tank. […]
We found butterfly eggs on the parsley in the garden and brought in a few sprigs of parsley to hatch the eggs. Today we have six little caterpillars on the parsley. In a few days I’ll post the set up of the fish tank we use for raising caterpillars. ~~Rhonda
Little plants, called proliferations, sometimes grow from the daylily flower stem. When the stem starts to turn brown, we cut them off and pot them. Here’s a closeup of one. A week ago last Wednesday, DH potted 27 daylily proliferations. ‘Little Fat Dazzler’ had 17. It was loaded with them last year, too. The other […]
Yesterday, DH and I worked in the garden a bit. We pulled grass and weeds from the lettuce beds and prepared them for a fall crop. I took a few pictures around the yard. The garlic chives are beginning to bloom. The flower stalks are pretty in a large group, making a striking picture. I […]
Seems that fall is trying to inch its way in. The garden has that look…kind of tired. Parts are overrun with weeds, parts have plants that are just beginning their trip into dormancy with leaves starting to turn yellow. The dogwood tree has a few red leaves on it, and the elm trees along the […]