I wasn't born a gardener. Neither of my thumbs were green. But when I discovered my love for creating art from flowers and nature, I had no choice but to plant a garden. I didn't know a pansy from a petunia back then. I am still learning. I have come to love my garden, with all of it's faults. One of the things I enjoy most are finding things I am not looking for.
Today was finally the perfect day to do some garden clean up. While I was ripping out unwanted weeds, and thinning through over grown wild things I spotted first, just one Black Swallowtail caterpillar (larva).
While in past years I have had one, maybe two of the interesting caterpillars on my fennel plant, I had never seen one this young. I have only seen them when they are green. At first I wasn't sure it was a swallowtail, but knew I would research it later.Then while my ripping out of unwanted things continued, I reached down to pull some fennel that was sprouting but instead found two more of these caterpillars.
I went in to the computer to clarify that these were indeed swallowtail larvae, some, maybe just a few days old. Then I thought of all of the Queen Anne's Lace and Fennel I had discarded. Sure enough after an hour of carefully inspecting it all I rescued three more larvae.
This is also a Black Swallowtail larva, in an older stage than the small black ones.
My garden was a fun place to be on this cloudy day. I had so many visitors.
She wouldn't stay still long enough for a good picture, perhaps it was the dog and camera that were chasing her.
He's hiding there, knowing he is not allowed in the garden!