Garden Bear's World - The Big Green Caterpillar

As you might have read in some of our earlier posts, we bears have been paying special attention to the bees and other insects in our garden this year, but we got a great surprise last week.

Polar and Grizzly were about to set of to check up on Uppie the narrowboat when Grizzly spotted a huge green caterpillar crawling across the drive right by the car.  In fact, it was lucky for the caterpillar that the car's battery was flat and Polar and Grizzly hadn't been able to drive away, or it might have been flat too!

Polar found a big glass jar to put it in while we checked to see what type of moth or butterfly it would turn into.  We also wanted to find out what it liked to eat, so we could get it some leaves.

Polar found that it was a Privet Hawk Moth caterpillar.  Its scientific name is really cool, because it's Sphinx ligustri!  

We bears ran to the bottom of the garden to pick some privet leaves, and some ash and lilac, because these caterpillars are supposed to eat those as well.

'Wouldn't it be brilliant if we could find an even bigger jar for it to live in, so we could look after it until it turned into a chrysalis and then a moth,' said Hanley, looking forward to a new science project.  

But Polar's research about the Privet Moth meant we found out that it 'pupates' (turns into a moth) underground, so wouldn't be happy at all in a big jar, even if we brought it lots of fresh leaves to eat every day.

'Where can we let it go where it will be safe from the birds?' Endon wondered, as we watched it crawling about on the old table at the end of the garden and eating some of our leaves.

'It's exactly the same colour as the lilac leaves,' said Hanley.  'Let's put it on those.'

So we suggested that idea to Polar, and she agreed - even it would mean some of her lilac bushes got munched by a very big, very hungry caterpillar. 

After we had all said goodbye to the big caterpillar, we had a good look around at the end of the garden, where Polar had been busy adding some plants to our wild flower garden.  There are foxgloves and forget-me-nots growing underneath the lilacs now, although the first plants to flower here next year should be some snowdrops.

On our way back up the garden, we checked on the vegetable plot.  There are still some nice salads growing and the huge runner bean plants but some of the winter vegetables, like leeks and cabbages, are starting to get quite big now.  You can also see where Polar has started planting out her new herb bed - although she has squeezed some spare cabbage plants in as well, underneath the nets.

We helped Polar pick some rosemary for drying, and then a couple of cucumbers from plants growing in pots outdoors.  We have had a very good crop of cucumbers this year so, as well as eating them in salads, Polar has pickled some and even made some into soup.

Finally, when it was evening and all the wasps had gone away, we helped to pick the last of the Victoria plums, which Polar has cooked and frozen for us to enjoy in the winter.

We love harvest time!