My Garden

I don't know about everyone else, but currently, I am not pleased with the progress in my garden. Fortunately, I know every gardener out there feels like this until July or August. Right now my problems are very fixable: weeds will take work, slugs can be drowned in beer, and soon the caterpillars will metamorphosize into butterflies. My greens seedlings didn't take and I still need to put the rest of the marigolds (they provide nitrogen for the tomatoes) and the annual border in the ground. But on the positive side, my corn, which I'm growing for the first time this year is doing wonderfully, my hot pepper already has some unripe fruit on it, as does one of my tomatoes, my mums have come back to life (predictable in VA perhaps, but I'm used to New England), my Nastergiums have unexpectedly seeded themselves and are already doing better than last year, my Malabar Spinach, also a first this year, has climbed as high as my head up its trellis. Also, I'm continuing to start seeds of carrots and beets for the first time, and in another month will be starting the seedling for my autumn crop. Overall, I'm optimistic.
This may seem silly, but about a week ago I was ecstatic to see a butterfly on my butterfly weed. Saturday I discovered small caterpillars all over it. I was still extremely happy.

Yesterday, I discovered those fat little bastards had gotten much bigger, by eating half of my butterfly weed. I was actually considering sacrificing the plant for the bugs, because 10+ caterpillars (future butterflies) is better than one plant. Then I found them on my corn, tomato, and a mystery squash (I labeled the peat container, than buried it in the dirt). The caterpillars had to go. I briefly considered going and picking some milkweed for them, but instead settled on gathering them up and carrying them to the front yard instead. Hopefully, they'll come back when they turn into butterflies.
I looked it up online, and discovered that they are Monarchs. I must admit, I have a softness for Monarchs, no doubt a result of studying them in kindergarten. It was so much fun watching them grow, and spin crysallis, and emercge as butterflies. Heres some basic info I found on them.

This is some sock yarn I bought from Grasshopper Handmade. I love it. Its a pure merino sock yarn called "Boat Drinks." Its so soft, and a 475 yds is more than enough for an average pair of socks. I'm currently working o a pair of socks made with it, that I love. So expect some pics of anothe FO in a few weeks.

How about you? I'd love to see some of your garden pics, so send me a link in the comments, or add me as a contact on flickr.
PS: The reorganization of my studio is going well. I've gotten rid of quite a bit and the office is "clean" but I need to bring everything I temporarily displaced to the living room back into my studio. Fortunately, although I do miss him, my boyfriend has been gone this week, so the clutter wasn't an issue.