Garden Visitors

One of the realities of not using pesticides in the garden is unexpected visitors.  Given the abundant rains over the winter, we have had an explosion of flora (as witnessed in the wildflower entries) and the juicy, tempting blossoms have attracted an army of caterpillars.  I love caterpillars among the wildflowers, but I hold my breath when I spot them on a plant I have nurtured from seed to seedling.  These little critters are the ones who have found their way into the garden.

I am finding that identifying the little critters is harder than I thought, but the one just above I think is a Queen caterpillar.  I know it looks like a Monarch, but the yellow spots lead me to believe it is a Queen.

So far I have not spotted this homely fellow, which ventured into the herb garden last year:

Here is the modest guy in another pose:

Judging by the fact that this one and two of his siblings were decimating a rue plant (ah, bitter rue)--a favorite food of the Giant Swallowtail, I tagged this one as, in fact, the Giant Swallowtail.  The Audubon Guide's description of this caterpillar is telling: "mature caterpillar...resembling a large bird dropping."  Indeed!

If it's Not One Thing, it's Another

The other morning I awakened and looked out my bedroom window to look eye-to-eye with this deer, hungrily eyeing the plants on my berm. I really wish I'd had a pellet gun instead of a camera!

Then today I turned the hose on low to soak the herb garden near the house. All of a sudden, the healthy parsley plant was almost gone! We have been having intense heat, but this garden had been getting periodic waterings, so I didn't see how the parsley could have dried up so quickly. And then I spotted the little critter in the second picture! I like monarch butterflies, but I thought they only feasted on milkweed. And, as I looked closer, I saw (no surprise) this little critter had several siblings happily munching away. I guess I'll be buying my parsley at the market for the rest of the summer. If it's not one thing, it's another!