If You Want The Butterflies…
(The chicken wire ‘domes’ over these marigolds stop the squirrels from happily digging up the plants. The Mafia Squirrels do that for ‘funsies’, taking out entire rows in one session and leaving the dying plants beside their trenches so I can see their handiwork. – eye roll)
I often repeat the saying, “If you want the butterflies, you have to feed the caterpillars.”
This is true for bees also, all types of bees, and other beneficial insects.
We have to create homes and supply food sources for them.
We do a few easy things in the Sax household to help facilitate this.
We leave some leaves on the ground for bees and other insects to overwinter in.
We have some perennial plants we try not to disturb very much. This allows bees to create safe homes around these plants.
(The yellow jackets, for example, build homes around the raspberry bushes.)
We also don’t plant or dig close to fences and other structures as these are great homes for bees also.
We don’t use herbicides or pesticides (these are outlawed in Toronto).
We plant extra vegetables and allow the caterpillars to eat some of those plants (or bits of the rose bushes).
We allow the dandelions to bloom. In our part of the universe, these are usually the first flowers to appear and the bumblebees LOVE them.
We also plant a lot of other bee and butterfly-friendly flowers like marigolds, zinnias and clover.
We’re having our best bee year ever in our neighborhood and I like to think all these actions contributed a little bit toward that.
(smiles)
Topics: Gardening | Comments Off on If You Want The Butterflies…
If You Want The Butterflies…
This massive caterpillar munched his way through half of a taller-than-me mini tomato plant. I hope to see more Laurel Sphinx moths this year due to our hosting of him.
(smiles)
One of the things I often say to fellow gardeners is “If you want the butterflies, you have to feed the caterpillars.”
Caterpillars nibble on the leaves of our plants. They make the roses in our front yard, for example, look a bit ragged. They don’t kill the rose plants (the birds and yellowjackets ensure their population doesn’t become large enough to do that) but the plants aren’t the prettiest.
And the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I are okay with that.
Because we love butterflies. And hosting caterpillars is the best way to ensure we have butterflies.
This is true of many things in life. To achieve a wonderful result, we have to deal with the ugly, the hard, the strenuous.
To have a published book, we need to write every single word. To have friends, we have to interact with people. Often. To be have a trash-free neighborhood, we have to pick up the trash.
Dream of the world you want.
Then do that hard work, the ugly work to make that dream a reality.
You can do this!
Topics: Cyn-Sights, Gardening | Comments Off on If You Want The Butterflies…
