Finally!  One solitary E black swallowtail caterpillar on the dill and parsley.  Normally there’d be at least half a dozen by now.  I did see one pipevine swallowtail butterfly on the Dutchman’s pipe vines.  And one E tiger swallowtail in the veg garden.  I’m not seeing any more monarchs around the milkweed.  And there are very few bees and pollinators on the usual flowers.  It’s scary sad.  I did see a hummer or two, though.

Aside from that, it’s like one big bouquet out there.  There are lots of green tomatoes.  All the giant squash, melon, and cucumber plants have lots of yellow flowers, but not much else happening.  The 3 sisters is filled with tall corn, beans, and squash plants, but no veg action yet.  Fellow gardeners across the country are reporting the same phenomenon.

If this is happening for native and heirloom growers, you know it’s a barren desert for pollinators and wildlife in conventional gardens and farms.  It may not be a onetime aberration, either, but rather a trend toward the breakdown of the natural network system we all depend upon for food and life.

All the more reason to keep at what we’re doing for the survival of our environment, so if human systems fail, maybe some plants and animals will perpetuate our planet until if and when humans can evolve to get their act together.

It’s still f—in’ hot out there, but I got a few things done here.