Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More on autumn ripening

White butterflies appears out of nowhere to lay minute eggs under the leaves of the curly kale that was doing so well in the garden. I thought I was outwitting these white-winged flutterers when I tossed black netting over the plants. Not so! The next time I returned to the bach, I faced a row of skeleton kale. The few leaves that remained carried many fat green caterpillars, that hadn’t even bothered to hide on the underside.

What had happened? I decided that the netting, while not stopping the butterflies from getting through, had defeated the birds that came to feast on the caterpillars. I’ve whipped it off, removed those fat green feasters, and am hoping to see some new kale leaves on my next visit.

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