Another caterpillar, and a tomato lesson

We spotted this guy on a dill plant. I think he's the big brother (or mother, or father) of the one I photographed last week. I took a few good pictures of him but then spotted a foamy egg sack looking thing a little ways below him on the same plant, so I pulled him off and broke off that part of the plant and tossed it. I don't know what kind of caterpillar he is, but I don't want to take any chances.

(Edit: a little bit of research revealed it's the adult larvae of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly.)

Over in pea territory, we've got the first flower. The plants are pushing five feet tall and have outgrown the supports we built. I need to call some engineering friends to figure out how to extend the supports in the most effective manner.

The squashes keep growing. This guy's about 2 and a half inches long now, and has two younger siblings hanging around, trying to look cool by association.

Here's a shot of the entire squash plant.

True to my word, we got some supports for the cucumbers erected. We'll just need to keep an eye on them and make sure they're using the twine to climb and not just sneaking under and spreading out. Up up up, I say!

There's a few tiny little cucumbers starting to form, which means it's not long until we get to make some pickles.

Is it just me or does this pepper, now almost four inches long, resemble Joe Camel?

Also in pepper world, the chili pepper plants have a couple little guys down deep in the center. They'll also go in the pickles, if they redden up in time.

Time to make some major salads with this romaine ...

The carrots are coming along. We thinned them some, which was kind of heart-breaking. In the end, though, I know it'll benefit those that are left.

Here's a shot of the Cherokee Purple tomato plant.

I don't usually go into instructional mode, but this guy needs a little bit of pruning to help encourage stronger and better growth and production of tomatoes. Last year a friend of ours told us how to do it, so I'll share that knowledge here.

Essentially, what you need to do in this case is break off any of the shoots that grow out from where the main stalk meets the larger branches, for lack of a better term. The illustration below (just a close-up of the photo above) shows the ones that need to be broken off on this plant, highlighted in red.

So, break all those guys off and the plant will thrive just a little bit more. Have I done it yet? Nope, but I will, I promise.

The onions and shallots are looking big and strong.

And so is the garlic. Which will also be used in pickles.