Growing Like a Weed

Our garden (and our neighbor's) is growing! And the boys are still loving being a part of the process of watering, caring for and measuring the plants. They are waiting with bated breath for the day that we have actual fruit to eat, but really enjoyed eating our tomato sauce that we made with our freshly grown basil.

Our neighbor's garden, which they are so sweet to share with us (and which puts ours to shame) suffered a loss of dill due to an infestation of black swallowtail caterpillars. Now, I know nobody wants to lose dill, but honestly, studying these little guys was so much fun that I think it was worth it!

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar as part of our lesson plan a few weeks ago and this little infestation was the perfect carry-over. The boys loved going over each day to study the growth and see if they found any cocoons.

Unfortunately, we never found any... these little guys grew SO quickly and then they got really hungry and ate through all of the dill. I think their appetite blew their cover, as soon as the dill plant was gone, so were the caterpillars. My guess? The birds got very hungry too!

While it was sad that we didn't get to see the process all the way through, we had a full week of fun with these little caterpillars!

So onto our garden....

Our tomato plant has really started to stretch out. We don't have any blooms yet, which kind of worries me, but the plant looks healthy. And, as embarrassed as I am about my Topsy Turvy Tomato planter, it really seems to be keeping the squirrels and bunnies away, so it might be a keeper!

We do have fruit on our blackberry bush! We're so so excited about it!

I think it's going to be a bumper crop and we can't wait! And, if it gets too bumper I have a plan... freezer jam!

if you're looking for some great, frugal gardening tips, check out Smockity Frocks. She is chock full of super great ideas and has a blog hop going right now, which means a whole lot 'o good ideas!

I've also linked this post up to The Homeschool Village's Gardening Challenge... hop on over there to see some more gardening goodness!