I found a couple of what I identified as swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on one of the herb plants. They are partial to members of the parsley family. In this case, it was on lovage. Again, I had not seen any swallowtail butterflies, so it was another surprise to see them.
I checked on them for a few days, but when I returned after being away for a couple days, they had disappeared.
More mulch delivered. This time a bit nicer type, “walk-on mulch”, to spread around the raised beds. The weed barrier cloth might work by itself in other situations but here the wind was getting under it in some spots and it was a tripping hazard.
The trees in the orchard are finally starting to look like trees instead of sticks with a few leaves. Even the pears are finally getting into the act.
Peas are about ready for picking. Or maybe they already are. An obvious mistake now, but planting shell peas, snap peas and snow peas next to each other seemed like a reasonable idea for care. Unfortunately, it is a bit hard to tell one from the other once they started growing into each other in a tangled mass.
Nasturtiums that were planted between the tomatoes along the edge of the beds are blooming. Supposedly the flowers are edible. It makes the garden a bit prettier to have the additional color.
he bed with the corn now has the fourth planting just emerging.
A small cantaloupe is starting to grow.
While some of the young fruit trees are starting to take off, some of the others like the four pears in the foreground are still sulking.
Some of the plants are starting to put out significant growth. Cages for the tomatoes were made from concrete reinforcing wire. Some of the rest of the 150′ roll was used to create trellises to support vining plants.
The lettuce is just about ready to have leaves picked.
Corn is being planted every two weeks so that we will have a long harvest if it works out.
After several days of shoveling and hauling, the mulch pile has disappeared. Hopefully, it will enrich the soil, keep weeds down, prevent erosion in the winter and reduce the need for water in the summer months.
There was enough mulch to cover the strip between the driveway and the fence. The mulch made a big improvement in how it looks.
Meanwhile a couple of the baby apple trees actually flowered.
I got some benchgraft apple trees late in the planting season. Here you can see the grafted varieties starting to grow — and also some growth on the rootstock that needs to be removed.
The weeds in the orchard area have been removed and the trees and berries along the fence are visible again.
Behind the fence at the bottom of the hill is 20 yards of mulch to use for the orchard area.
And note that weed barrier fabric was placed around the raised beds which been planted. Tomatoes, pumpkin and squash had been started indoors several weeks before.