We've been experiencing some cool weather here lately, with daytime temperatures in the 70s, and at night it gets down in the 50s. I've been able to keep the sliding glass door open pretty much all day. Today I decided to do some work in the herb garden. I've been reading
The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour, where I learned that Parsley is bi-annual. No wonder I've been disappointed with it this year! I was getting ready to pull it up. It looks like someone else is happy with it at the moment. There are at least 8 caterpillars hanging out, eating the sections that I've let go to seed. I looked them up, and they'll turn into
Black Swallowtail Butterflies, although I think it's a bit late in the season, and they might just end up as bird food.
I cut down the Chive, and brought some in for drying. I love the food dehydrator! I've made a lot of really awesome goodies with it, such as dried fruit and beef jerky, and it's great for drying herbs. A bottle of Chives can run upwards of $4.00 an ounce, so two trays of garden chives are a really great way to save money. It's a relatively low maintenance plant. My eyes watered quite a bit during chopping, and it was much worse than onions.
I'm still getting a lot of peppers from the garden. I think there's another canning session in the making. The Jalapeno bush looks like it's grown 2 feet since the last big harvest, and the Bell Pepper plant is still producing.
Comma likes the way the peppers smell, but he wasn't feeling particularly photogenic.
Now that the swallowtail caterpillars have come, expect the parsley to almost completely vanish... and then come back more beautiful than ever! These are my all time favorite caterpillars, and and they do marvelous things for the garden. It's pretty late in the season, but these look healthy. I think they'll do well. Great photos! I hadn't realized how much I've missed the black swallowtails, but seeing your photos brought a huge smile to my face. Thank you so much for that!!!
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