Gardening

I have an aunt and uncle that live about 10 minutes away. They have a house "in the country" that is currently surrounded by corn and soybeans. They have flower beds full of common milkweed, coneflowers, butterfly bushes, and other things I don't easily recognize. They have purple martin condos in their side yard and hummingbirds zipping from feeder to feeder. And they have gardens. Not A garden. GardenS. They grow a little bit of everything - tomatoes, beans, cabbage, onions, potatoes, beets, cauliflower, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, green peppers, rhubarb, melons, strawberries...I'm sure I'm missing something. My aunt does a lot of canning. Tyler has decided their house is the one we're heading for in the event of an apocalypse.

When they went on vacation earlier this month, they asked me to take care of their kitties and pick some of their veggies so things wouldn't go to waste. I am not a gardener. I love home grown tomatoes and fresh sweet corn, but that's about as much gardening as I've tried...and I gave up after 2 seasons of pathetic tomatoes. I went over one evening so my uncle could show me what to pick. I took notes but still couldn't tell the tops of the beets from the weeds. We decided I would focus on a few main items - tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and zucchini. Later my aunt mentioned something about picking the cauliflower, but I couldn't even find it! So, for 2 weeks I collected the mail, cared for the kitties, and attempted to keep up with the gardening. I don't know how my uncle does it all by himself. That is a lot of work and I was only picking a small fraction of produce!

I brought the kids once. They loved exploring the yard and playing with the neighbor's dogs, who apparently have no boundaries. When we left Danielle said, "That was a lot of fun. Except for the picking part." We enjoyed having fresh tomatoes every day for 2 weeks. I brought home a green pepper one day, too, but Tyler didn't share. My neighbor and coworkers appreciated all the green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes. I enjoyed the random wildlife and bugs. I'm glad I don't have to do it all the time, but it was an interesting experience.

Here are some random cell phone pictures I took while there.

These are milkweed tussock moths. There is also a monarch egg about 2 ribs above the top caterpillar. I thought it was interesting how the caterpillars grouped together.

The "picking part". Tyler didn't mind it.

Caterpillar mustache

Just a small sampling...

One of the neighbor's dogs.

The "main" garden

Monarch chrysalis hanging under a leaf.

We easily picked 3 baskets this size.

She was laying eggs on the milkweed but flew to the butterfly bush when I walked up the sidewalk.