Casa de Jardin

One of my favorite things about starting a garden for the first time was the thought that the kids would be able to explore a new side of being outdoors. New bugs, growing plants, picking produce ~ it all sounded like so much fun with them and I was right! I have enjoyed showing the kids neat, new things out there just as much as I have enjoyed growing and tending the garden.

Today Miranda and I picked three whopper tomato worms off a chile plant. The little buggers have eaten almost all the leaves off it, and that wasn't enough because then the three of them ate 4 or 5 red chiles and 2 or 3 baby green chiles. Blargh! When I picked the last tomato worm off the plant, he spit red juice on me and man, his tummy must have been burning because it smelled spicy! That's the guy Miranda is holding here...





Then we found monarch butterfly caterpillars (at least I think so!) on the chives and lavendar...



(Mirand's trying to feed him a stick)

We picked two peppers that are a little green but not eaten by cardinals, which turns out to be a problem in our garden. The cardinals are great ~ fun to watch and beautiful to look at, but it turns out that our cardinals like tomatoes, peppers and tomato worms!