Monday, July 21, 2014

The Butterfly Farm

After the baby wrens fledged last week,
I was having "nature" withdrawal.
But it turns out, I get to witness a new story unfolding:
butterflies in the making.

Our lush parsley plant is hosting tiny butterfly caterpillars.
The first day I noticed them, they were very tiny,
only about a half inch long, black with a pale yellow band around their middles:


And the next day, they had already munched their way to a larger size
and were looking much more caterpillar-ish:

Good thing I planted the parsley  
because soon the caterpillar "butterflies" will grow fat and green
and eat the parsley all the way down to the soil. 
So next year, I may plant two pots of parsley
either to farm more butterflies, 
or to have a little parsley of my own to freeze for the winter.
One thing's for sure, the caterpillars aren't going to leave me any parsley this year.
But butterflies ... that's a fair trade.
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