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Welcome to my zone 9a habitat garden near Houston, Texas.

Friday, April 13, 2012

This week in the garden - #10

It's been an up and down week for the gardener. First the ups.

I've been delighted to see how well my vegetable garden is coming along. It promises a lot of good eating this summer. Moreover, blooms are bustin' out all over, painting the garden with bright spring colors. And, if all of that weren't enough, I have a nice crop of butterfly caterpillars growing on their host plants.

Here's one of the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars that are devastating my poor little spicebush. Truly, I must purchase at least one more plant - maybe two - because I do have a lot of Spicebush Swallowtails in my garden in spring and summer.

I've already shown you some of the Monarch caterpillars that are munching my milkweed. I've been expecting to find Giant Swallowtail and Black Swallowtail caterpillars as well, but I haven't seen any of them yet.

On the down side, I wrenched my right knee, and I've been (literally) down for a couple of days with that, but I'm happy to report that it is better and I should be back to normal, or as close to normal as I get with my arthritic knees, in a couple of days.

The amaryllises have been especially beautiful this year and they were still gracing the garden this week.

I forget the variety name of this one but it has been putting on a really big show this week.

In a hanging basket next to the fish pond, the calibrachoa has been full of blooms.

In a pot in the pond, the pretty little blossoms of the blue-eyed grass are opening.

And in the pond itself, the fishes play.

Soon, knee permitting, I hope I'll be playing in the garden again, as well.

2 comments:

  1. That caterpillar is amazing. I don't think I've ever seen one of those. I've been scanning all my milkweed and don't see any cats on it yet either :-(

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    1. Those caterpillars are sneaky and can hide themselves. They may well be there and you just haven't found them yet, Jayne. Or, if not, the Monarchs are still passing through. Surely, one of them will leave you a "present."

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