Greengirls » Blog Archive » Cukes and caterpillars

Cukes and caterpillars

Posted on June 14th, 2007 – 7:42 AM
By Jaime Chismar

I transplanted my cukes less than two weeks ago. They happily sprouted yellow flowers — and now, a teeny tiny cucumber! Whee!

About two weeks ago, I also transplanted my parsley. At first, it was a little leggy but after a few days in the sunshine, it grew tall and tasty, but I wasn’t the only one making a meal of this herb. A swallowtail caterpillar was happily munching on the nutrient rich leaves. I’m a sucker for butterflies, so I was rather excited for my uninvited guest.

“Help yourself, good buddy.”

Unfortunately, this green guy became a party of three. The hungry hungry caterpillars quickly devoured both plants. Now, all I have are parsley stems. And there’s not a cocoon insight.

Happily, the monarch catepillars are eating the butterfly weed. It was a volunteer from last year (Ooops, I should’ve included it in last week’s post about volunteer plants…). I fell in love the pink flowers and silky seed pods and let it reseed itself on the side of the house.

So what’s coming up in your garden? When planning your beds, do you include plants to attract butterflies and other beneficial insets to your garden? Have your good intentions ever gone awry like my parsley pal?

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 7:42 am and is filed under Critters + vermin, Cucumbers + Melons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

10 Responses to "Cukes and caterpillars"

Matilda444 says:

June 14th, 2007 at 10:48 am

Peas, beans, tomato plants, cucumbers, pumpkins, cantalope, LOTS of lettuce, peppers, brussels sprouts, tea herbs (what am I going to do with those?), onions, edible flowers, basil. Pictures in the Garden set of MyFlickr. Link on my webpage.

Tracy says:

June 14th, 2007 at 11:36 am

I did the same thing last fall. I found three swallowtail caterpillars in my carrots and, same as you, left them be. Two days later they had to go - they must eat 10x their body weight in foliage!

Jaime Chismar says:

June 14th, 2007 at 2:52 pm

Matilda, I *heart* your site. It is adorable! Mind if I add you to our other garden reads?

Tracy, I hate to ask you this but… How did you get rid of your carrot caterpillars? Was it a relocation or merciful extinction? After mine ate their fill, they disappeared.

Surprisingly, my parsely is bouncing back. It will be a few weeks before I can add it to my salads. I guess I’ll have to get my tabouli fix from the Holy Land.

Judybusy says:

June 14th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

That has got to be the cutest cucumber ever, Jaime! I am one of those selfish gardeners who plant just for me, me, me! Yeah, it’d be great if the hummingbirds visited the columbine. I wish nothing but a long vacation very far away for the critters who ate half my peppers. That said, I do love to watch all the pollinating insects at play among the flowers. There’s nothing quite like the big buzz of a bumblebee for company as I weed….

Eden says:

June 14th, 2007 at 8:32 pm

This isn’t about cukes or vermin, but our tomato plants seem to be having a problem. They are heirlooms that we got at the Friends sale. Two days ago, one of them became wilty and now the one next to it is getting that way too. The leaves on the first one have curled and are drying out. We’ve been watering well and I wouldn’t think that is the problem. Could it be verticillium or some other kind of wilt already? Should we rip them out and start over? Is the soil now bad? Are our other tomatoes near them in danger? Help! Please!

Jaime Chismar says:

June 14th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

Oh, dear. Hold on Eden! We’ll get you an answer first thing in the morning. If you could email me a photo (jchismar@startribune.com), that would certainly help us pin point the problem.

Tracy says:

June 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am

Jaime: I’m a big softy with caterpillars, especially when they turn into such beautiful butterflies (I love swallowtails). I just pulled the carrots carefully (and enjoyed some steamed baby carrots later), pulled off the greens, and then put them in a corner, outside the garden fence. Hopefully they got enough to eat before making their cocoons.

Beth B says:

June 18th, 2007 at 10:17 am

On parsley - can anyone find the good old curly-leaf parsley anywhere? I’d like to plant it, but only find the flat-leaf kind, and that just won’t do in grandma’s recipe for creamed potatoes…

Bob says:

July 9th, 2007 at 5:28 pm

tram-1978

Rick says:

July 9th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

tram-1978