Concord Village EarthLab

Caterpillars on June 27, 2013

Our caterpillars have molted and are getting much bigger — we saw about seven, maybe eight (I can’t remember), when we looked last night.

Jaydon, Warner, Sadie, Rachel, and Audrey and I also planted some winter squash in the garlic bed.  We planted 4 “hills” of 3-5 squash seeds each.  The plan is to thin to the two strongest plants in each hill after they start growing.  We planted one hill each of Waltham Butternut (organic), Burgess Buttercup (Hudson Valley Seed Library), Howden Pumpkin (Seeds of Change and organic), Zepplin Delicata Squash (organic).

We planted mostly where we’d already harvested the garlic, but one we did plant one of our four squash “hills” up at the top end of the bed in a place that I thought would be safe and would allow us to harvest the remaining garlic (I marked the space where we planted with one of the vegetable supports).

The pumpkin seed packet (the oldest seeds we tried) said the seeds should germinate within 3-7 days, so I’m hoping we’ll start seeing squash seedlings soon!

Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar on Carrot Greens

Audrey and I saw our first Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly of the season last week out in the garden.  We noticed it hovering around the carrots and I was hopeful.  (I also saw a beautiful Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly last week walking down Clinton, just past the corner with Tillary and Court — I guess it’s that time!)  Two days ago, I saw what I thought might be eggs on the carrot leaves . . . and then this morning, THERE THEY WERE.

Carrots, dill, fennel, parsley and other members of the plant family Apiaceae are host plants for swallowtail butterflies.  Last year we kept buying dill from the farmers’ market to keep our caterpillars in food.  I’m thinking maybe next year we could just plant a bunch of carrots; by the time there were about ready to harvest, the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars would be around to eat all the greens.  When the greens were gone, we could harvest and eat the carrots!

Interestingly, none of the specific host plants mentioned above are native species . . . so the gardener at this website started a search for plants the caterpillars must have eaten before we brought all these non-natives into our gardens . . .  Planting native swallowtail butterfly host plants could be an interesting project for next year, too!

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A few snapshots of the season so far.  Coming soon squash, more tomato and basil transplants, and soon after that . . . bush beans!

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