We made a fennel bed Black Swallowtail Butterfly nursery. I planted parsley and carrots in it because they also like to use it for a nursery too. We put it out near the woods and hopefully far enough from our backporch that the caterpillars will go to the woods to chrysalis.
We’ve anxiously waited for the butterflies to use the fennel bed and we worried that they hadn’t yet.
However Friday I checked the bed and I’m happy to say that there are several Black Swallowtail Butterfly eggs scattered about on the fennel. ~happy dance~
We harvested our first tomato and first bell pepper out of the garden. For us, it’s fun harvesting our veggies. We harvested a dozen yellow squash too.
Our corn is standing strong and silking beautifully. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice harvest of peaches and cream corn this year.
The rains have been a blessing, but I’m glad the forecast is clear for the next few days.
Here’s wishing you all a great rest of the weekend.
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We harvested our bell peppers yesterday. Unfortunately, out of the 50+ plants only about a dozen produced fruit. It’s possible over the next few days some of these green peppers will change ripen to a different color… or not… you never can tell about peppers.
I was surprised to find purple bell peppers that have already turned this season.
I was worried that we may only have one purple pepper plant out of the 50+ plants I started from seeds. I know of 2 plants, so far. Hopefully, they’ll be more.
The asparagus beans have done well so far this year growing/running up the decorative corn and the twine. However, next year we plan to plant the asparagus beans in a row of their own and make a trellis for them to run on. It’s awfully crowded in the corn rows now that both are maturing and fully leafed out.
Our decorative corn stalks are getting their-ears-on. We’re hoping the deer doesn’t decide to sample the ears before they mature and we can harvest some.
We’ve been getting only a few regular green beans 
My 50+ bell pepper plants are beginning to put on fruit. I figure by the end of the month we’ll be covered in colorful bell peppers. I’ll be freezing them for soups, stir fries and other tasty dishes. If most of the plants put on fruit, I’ll probably be giving oodles of them away.
I made a stacked tuna salad and it was so pretty I thought I’d share a photo of it.
The walnut tree is loaded heavy this year. My husband had to cut some of the heavily ladened limbs off. They were hanging low over the driveway and could do damage to our vehicles when they dropped walnuts or if the wind caused them to break.
Just in case the walnut tree is predicting some bad winter weather,
Our squash has started putting on fruit. It’s a shame these first squash won’t mature. They rarely do because the male and female blooms haven’t started blossoming at the same time yet. But none-the-less, at least we’re on our way.
We planted our 58 pepper plants. They’re a bit small and I wonder how many will survive. I’m happy to finally have them in the garden where at least they have a sporting chance of growing into productive plants.
Our carrots are almost big enough for us to safely pull weeds from around them. As I was looking through my photos of our carrot patch I found a rock that looks like a toe sticking up out of the ground. Mother Nature sure has a bizarre sense of humor. 😮
I thought my rosemary was happy in 
I’ve only 58 bell pepper plants now. A bird ate a half of one of the seedlings and the bare stem shriveled and died. One of My favorite bird deterrents is a rubber snake. I placed one across the containers and so far no more birds. 58 bell peppers is still over the top in numbers, hopefully they’ll be colorful and pretty and productive.
Remember my post about 
I’m happy to tell you that we’ve got a few green tomatoes on the vine. The tomatoes in the picture are husky cherry tomatoes. They’re dirty from the rain splashing mud on them, but they look wonderful to me. Now if Mother Nature will play nice, maybe in a month or two we’ll have fresh tomatoes.
And last but not least, the other day I set my camera on our patio table while I was opening the back door for 
May 3rd my husband harvested our first crop. It was a lovley mess of radishes. My husband says they’re really good. I’m not a radish eater, but I like growing them as companion planting to help deter pests.
I re-potted my bell peppers. 59 have survived so far. However, I don’t know how much longer they’re going to last with no sunshine…
Now since it’s storming everyday not so much…
We’ve had a gnome invasion in the rain-chain garden.
While out seed shopping, my husband saw a pack of mixed colors of bell peppers. One of the colors is purple and since we’ve never seen a purple pepper, he bought the pack of peppers. The pepper seeds are all mixed up and we can’t be sure which pepper colors is which, so my husband bought a 72 pellet tray for me to start them in. Almost all the seeds have sprouted. We’re going to have a huge pepper patch (and there’s no guarantee that we’ll have a purple pepper since there’s 30 seeds left over.lol)
I bought a tray of small daffodils to plant for next Spring. I’ve never seen any daffodil blooms so small. I hope they survive and bloom pretty next Spring.
My husband has the garden tilled up and waiting for the right time and weather for planting. We’re supposed to get some rain, so He’ll have to till it again before we plant.
I’ve harvested quite a few peppers this year. My husband has feasted heavily on the baby bells. Fortunately, there was several left to put up along with the big bell peppers.
I wash the peppers, hull and de-seed them and chop them in to small pieces.
I spread the pepper pieces on a tray and put them in the freezer.
It usually takes about a half hour for the peppers to freeze.
Joys Of Creating 