When I saw this larva in the garden on a cultivated Malva sylvestris (common mallow / apotekerkattost), I didn’t imagine this was a painted lady / tistelsommerfugl (Vanessa cardui), but it turns out that mallows (Malva spp.), other members of the Asteraceae and comfrey (Symphytum) can all feed the larvae!
It’s been a long wait, but I can finally taste a few mulberries….both my bushes which are about the same age started producing after about 15 years, although neither tree had been looked after and had been more or less left to themselves. Both are in shady parts of the garden. I hadn’t really believed that they would produce berries, hence the neglect! I think they are both white mulberry / hvitmorbær (Morus alba), but one has red berries. I did have a purple-berried white mulberry at one stage so it could be this!
At the weekend at the Permalin Farm summer festival I met an English-German couple Johnny and Anna who were on a long campervan holiday in Norway, doing some wwoofing along the way. They had heard about the festival when they were in Balestrand (Sognefjord) and were recommended that they should try to visit me. They found my web site and discovered I was giving a course at the weekend and signed up!
They asked on Sunday if they could come and see my garden yesterday and said they were happy to help a bit too. We were planning to pick berries, so after the garden tour, we picked saskatoons / søtmispel (Amelanchier spp.).
The berries are now being dried!
For lunch we made an multispecies salad with Linbakst bread (100% linseed bread from the farm where we had the course). More pictures at the bottom.
…and the salad
Happy trails, guys!