A Day Too Late

   Last week, I made a mental note to pick and dehydrate the parsley as it was flourishing.  I put the plant in a hanging basket which seems to be the brightest idea I have had in a while.   The plant was dark green and very lush!  How nice it would be to have a Mason jar full of dehydrated, homegrown parsley!  From the looks of it, I should have gotten nigh on a pint jar full of the dried herb!  From the looks of it last week.  Canning figs got in the way of dealing with the parsley and, now, I am too late!

  Early this morning, I was out picking figs.  This chore has to be done at daybreak before the birds start to feed.  They will clean a fig tree in a matter of minutes!  While I was picking the figs from the small trees on the west side of the house, I checked the herb tower.  This is a large arbor with lots of shelves for pots and lots of space for hanging baskets.  This is where that parsley WAS!  Yep, WAS!  It was gone.  The hanging basket was there but instead of being filled with lovely, curly parsley, it was now filled with caterpillars!  Forty-seven caterpillars to be exact!  

  The black swallowtail butterflies that visit the zinnia bed decided that my parsley was the perfect nursery for their little ones.  In only one day, the critters munched the plant down to little nubs!  Now they are in a fine fix!  There is nothing else to eat!  Even though the critters ate my best plant, I felt sorry for them and tried offering them other herbs.  They are having no part of that and keep wandering around on the stripped parsley.  Thankfully, most are large enough to pupate so perhaps some will survive.  The tiny ones, however, had better get to changing their eating habits and stop being so persnickety!  Yes, it is sad that I did not get to dry my lovely parsley but I am not too upset as I do love my pretty butterflies.

Fennel Eaters!

I was so smart! I found a old, beat-up wheelbarrow and decided that it would be a perfect place to plant a few of the herbs. Here they could grow happily without having to be subjected to nightly pruning by the bunnies. I had Son repair the rusted-out bottom as well as he could and fill it with nice, rich dirt. We added a half sack of cow manure and I set to work planting herb seeds. That was early Spring and I must say that the herbs were doing quite well! The dillweed, parsley and fennel grew to massive size! The stray tomato plant bushed out and set tiny cherry tomatoes. The lonely marigold seemed to flourish with its newfound friends. All was well in Wheelbarrow Land! Until....

Today, I noticed that the dillweed was missing! What? How does and entire plant go missing??? Oh, my! The parsley was on the lam, too! Both had fled the scene! Or something had kidnapped my herbs! Then I spied the culprits..there on the whittled-down fennel plants! My fennel!! Egad! What has this world come to when there are fennel-nappers! Ok..enough..there on what was left to my fennel were the meanies..caterpillars! Lovely striped caterpillars..all green, black and white stripes with yellow polka dots! Pretty little things! They looked like some sort of ornaments dangling on the wispy fronds of fennel leaves. So pretty! Wait..no..not pretty..mean..they ate my herbs!

Now, I have a predicament. What do I do with the caterpillars? Do I leave them to devour the remainder of the fennel and perhaps move on to some other plant? Or do I smish them! I love butterflys, but I also love fennel! And parsley! And dillweed! These particular caterpillars will eventually turn into the Black Swallowtail Butterflies. These butterflies usually lay their eggs on plants in the carrot family and all of these herbs just happen to fill the need of a food source for the hatched out babies. My planting the herbs together in the wheelbarrow did not protect them from critters, it just bunched them all together. By doing this, it was far too easy for the butterfly to lay eggs on a mass of food sources all within a few feet. I made a butterfly nursery!!! But..the Black Swallowtail is an absolutely beautiful butterfly that graces the gardens, bringing smiles to most who see it. It brings smiles to me. I suppose I can do without fennel, parsley and dillweed for a few weeks!