Gotta Garden

Friday, August 04, 2006

How's Your Parsley (or why you plant more than you need)?



No, these are not "Parsley Bugs"! Lol! I heard that at a Butterfly Gardening lecture I attended (which reminds me....I didn't post about that, did I? Something else for the 'to do' list.). If you are interested in butterflies, these little guys are signs of success. In fact, if you look above the bottom one, you'll see parsley totally eaten. They gotta eat, you know.

These will turn into, hopefully, beautiful swallowtail butterflies. I don't really garden for butterflies, but I've always found if you plant parsely...they will come! Which is one reason I have lots of parsley....plenty for sharing. Parsley seems to reseed pretty easily. Right now I have scores of it in with my iris (that's where this one is, actually). I probably need to eliminate some of it...but when I saw these guys, I didn't have the heart.

While I'm on the subject, I really grow parsley for the beneficial insects it brings to my garden (and to eat, natch). I let it go to seed because those tiny flowers bring out the garden warriors...they fight the bad bug battles so I don't have to. You should try it!

2 comments:

Naturegirl said...

I unfortunately picked off one of these beauties and threw into the garden waste! I realized the next day after much thought that it could be a butterfly!! You have identified what butterfly I may have had! Oh but there is another on same parsley plant and I am caring for it! Thank you for identifying for me and I prayed that the butterfly fairy forgives me! :(

Gotta Garden said...

Of course she will! If it hadn't been you, it could have been something in nature that got it...it's a war out there! I hope, by the way, you have parsley plants (plural) so that you can enjoy your bounty as well.

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