A very hungry caterpillar slaughtered my cauliflower.

Bones. I am furious that they just left bones.

With that out of my system, on to better gardening news.

You might remember that I planted some basil seeds a while back.

Well, here they are. I think they’re just about old enough to leave their shell.

The advice I’ve read always suggests sowing 2 or more seeds in seedling trays and then culling back the weakest seedlings to make way for the strongest one. I can’t bear to destroy on any of these basil seedlings so I separated the roots out very carefully. Fingers crossed they all make it and I haven’t damaged them all.

That’s right, 10 basil seedlings. If I get a bumper crop, I plan on making pesto with my own basil and with macadamias from our backyard nut tree. Wouldn’t that be freakin’ awesome?!

This sage plant was grown from a cutting. I’ve now taken 3 cuttings from this plant and I’m hoping that they will grow into more plants. I love sage. There’s something very meaty and savoury about it. For the most part, bugs have left this one alone. Maybe it’s the shells and the amethyst this sage plant keeps company with.

A few more experiments. I call them experiments because I really don’t know what I am doing. The back row are a mixture of different beans. The front, left to right are zucchini x 3 and loquat x 2. All of these were planted at the same time. Isn’t it interesting how different they all are?

I grew a few brussels sprouts from seedlings. This plant is the only one that looks like it might make it.

While the top of this plant was ravaged by caterpillars, I’ve lopped off the top now and will keep an eye on what is left.