Sunday, September 25, 2011

Little Garden Visitors

Mom and dad visited today and mom helped me harvest veggies out of the garden.  I went to pull some carrots and I suddenly saw some little visitors.  Can you see them in this photo?  It's a little hard to tell in this photo.
So here is a better look.  See it now?  I took these photos with the crappy camera on my cellphone.  So I couldn't get it to focus.  Sorry for the blurry photo.  This little gal was munching away on the carrot tops.  This is my first time growing a bunch of carrots, I had no idea that it would attract so many butterfly caterpillars.  Interestingly, it seemed like they only were chomping on the carrot tops, and not much else in the garden. That is a relief!
Another view.  I Google searched caterpillars and found that these could be Monarch butterfly caterpllars!  There were so many in the carrot raised bed, I saw at least 10.  They were only eating the tops of the carrots, so I left them undisturbed.  If they didn't turn into something so pretty, I would definitely consider disposing of these monster eaters.  But since I don't eat carrot tops anyway, I really didn't mind my new visitors.  They will consume everything in it's path, but butterflies are such great pollinators so they can gorge themselves in my garden.  I'll forgive them.
Here are some of the carrots I pulled.  These are Purple Haze.  I got these seeds from Greens and Jeans. I have never grown purple carrots before.  These are pretty neat.  They don't look very "purple" to me, more like a chocolate brown.  I grew a lot of different purple veggies this year.  Purple tomatoes, carrots, and bell peppers.  They are fun to grow because they are so unique!
And here is today's harvest!  The garden is finally in full swing production.  I really can't believe I grew all of this!!  Wow!  I'm getting a little bummed that winter is around the corner.  I've got to get me a greenhouse!!  :)

8 comments:

  1. Great visitors (those amazing monarch butterfly caterpillars)! Good grief, that is a great harvest too! Good for you!

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  2. Wonderful harvest! The purple haze carrots are interesting. Most of the monarch caterpillars stick to the milkweed in the woods on my property, but once in a while I will find one on my carrots or parsley. I leave them alone too.

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  3. Very nice harvest Mimi! You don't need a greenhouse. Just have the hubs build you a cold frame top for one of your raised beds....and you will have fresh veggies for the winter!

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  4. Glad you enjoyed the carrots. Monarch caterpillars only feed on milkweed plants. Those are most likely swallowtails since they choose carrot family plants. Still they'll result in beautiful butterflies as long as you don't mind sharing a bit of your carrot greens.

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  5. Nice veggies.

    Your visitors seem to be enjoying themselves.

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  6. I completely understand you comment about a greenhouse. It's so sad that the season is coming to an end and all I grew was tomatoes and herbs. But honestly, my tomatoes were off the charts this year.

    I really want to do a wider variety of carrots one of these years.

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  7. Wow on both counts. Love the butterflies & like carrots. I need to try others.

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  8. I am going to look in my own carrots for critters!
    I noticed the inside of my colored carrots were still orange--are yours?
    -April @ Castle Debauchery

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