metro farming: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Friday, August 20, 2010

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

This beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is missing one of his tails. Probably had a close call with a bird, but he seems to be doing just fine without it. The flower here is called Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana), and it's one of my favorite late season perennial flowers.

1 comment:

Marie said...: Gorgeous pictures...I have yet to photograph the male.; September 3, 2010 at 12:54 PM

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Welcome to Metro Farming! A blog devoted to the joys and rewards of growing, eating, and sharing high quality organic produce.

"The time is past to think of this as a hobby for enthusiasts; it is a fundamental part of human life."

Those words were written 30 years ago by Christopher Alexander in his book A Pattern Language in the chapter on vegetable gardening. Alexander warned of the disconnection that people have from their food sources, and the resulting insecurities and imbalances that follow. I firmly believe that we are now almost past the point of no return for most of American society in the loss of connection to the soil and our food sources. We make ourselves feel warm and fuzzy by buying organic foods at the Supermarket, and yet we have no idea where these foods were grown or how they were processed and packaged.

It is only by growing at least some of our own foods in soils that we have dug and prepared with our own hands, and in sharing that produce with our friends and neighbors, can we truly get back to the fundamental organic security that we all need as humans.

This blog is a diary of the journey back...