Pretty picture: Petroselinum crispum (parsley) Coriandrum sativum (cilantro) flowers

[EDITED 8 June 2011: The plant I thought was parsley, Petroselinum crispum, turns out to be coriander/cilantro, Coriandrum sativum. Which doesn't make the flowers any less pretty, but it does kind of explain the lack of swallowtail caterpillars. It's still growing in the backyard, more than ever, as of 2011, because I like the look of it and it's not like we're doing anything else with that space. Plus it's self-maintaining.]

Okay. It's time to admit that the vegetable garden is not working. The peppers have flowers here and there, but are small and yellow and clearly unhappy; the whole garden is full of couchgrass and goosefoot, and it turns out, unsurprisingly, that I really don't like weeding. (I know: mulch. But do you know how much mulch costs? Actually, if you're reading this, odds are that you do, I guess. And that's bad logic on my part, because mulching in spring is cheaper than buying corn on the cob in the summer. And weeding is cheaper than both. So I'm just stupid.) I will be surprised if we get any corn out of this at all. Bad experience all around, don't intend to repeat.

However.


I'd planned, before we moved, to plant some parsley at the new place, because swallowtail butterflies like it, and I like swallowtail butterflies. When I actually got here and looked at the garden, there was already parsley planted here, but for some reason I forgot that I wanted it, so I pulled a bunch up, and then realized about 3/4 of the way through that, oh shit, I just pulled up stuff I was going to buy.

Fortunately, the survivors have thrived, and it appears that there were also a number of parsley seeds in there that had just not sprouted yet during the parsley holocaust, so I've gotten a healthy crop anyway. Which have all flowered. I suppose the flowering makes them inedible, or less edible, or something, but I don't like eating parsley anyway, and I'm guessing caterpillars don't care. And the flowers are pretty, and smell nice, which surprises me.


So fuck the corn and the peppers. Next year, I'll just grow parsley. And maybe milkweed. We'll have a parsley-milkweed garden. And I'll throw in some Asclepias tuberosa seeds, 'cause I like them. Just give the whole thing to the butterflies.