a place or natural habitat that breeds or supports animals
And going on that, my garden is a bit of a nursery just now because there are caterpillars living on my one and only parsley plant that will turn into black swallowtail butterflies! They are called parsley worms, though they'll also live off dill or carrots. I counted six, but didn't move the plant leaves to see if there were any others. You may read more about them here. In all my years of gardening, I've not seen them or heard of them before now.
So cool! I haven't spied any in my dill, but now I'll be on the look out!
ReplyDeleteHope you see some!
DeleteThese are the reason why I planted bronze fennel in my garden. They love it. Obviously they love parsley too. I love to see the Black swallowtail butterflies flying around the garden.
ReplyDeleteWow! I should have known that you are familiar with them! I wonder if we will see them this year. The article said they might overwinter, which seems impossible to me in such cold temps, but we'll see...
DeleteYes, I've had them munching away on my parsley in past years. They really can eat a lot!
ReplyDeleteMary
How have I never known about them??!!
DeleteWe used to have these in our garden in Nebraska and the butterflies were absolutely gorgeous! How wonderful that you have so many. (How interesting about the definition of "nursery.")
ReplyDeleteI can't believe so many of my readers know about them, and I am just learning for the first time! So happy they came.
DeleteHow wonderful to have a nursery in your garden! Sadly, many people would rather have a "clinical" garden without any insect life, and either plant only stuff that is not interesting to them (with nothing but pebbles around each plant so that birds and other animals can not dig up the earth and find food there) or get out the repellant as soon as they spot any type of worm or bug. This worries me, and I am happy to know there are still people around who care for natural gardens and wildlife. Thank you, Nan, for being one of them!
ReplyDeleteNever have used any pesticides in all my years of gardening. We've always been organic gardeners. My gardens are much wilder than "pebbles around each plant." I know just what you mean. Those "gardens" seem sterile to me. Why not just have pebbles!
DeleteWe've had black swallowtails, and yellow and zebra, all over our butterfly bushes and I have two big parsley plants so I hope we'll have the caterpillars on them, will have to be careful with my snipping. I also have dill but had it in a pot and it's pretty much played out but we have a lush dill plant in the ground that sprouted up voluntarily from last year's pot.
ReplyDeleteI will think of my garden as a nursery now!
I love that last sentence! It was the word that popped into my mind when I titled the blog entry, and then I looked it up to be sure I was right! Lucky for you having all those butterflies! We have had quite a few this year, though I don't know what they are. We have a lot of milkweed which the monarchs like.
DeleteWhat cute caterpillars! We have a lot of cabbage whites in our garden this year and I'm hoping my buddleia will do even better next year (it had a hard prune from a friend with a saw that nearly saw it off!) as they do love it. Hope you get some pics of the butterflies when they come!
ReplyDeleteI hope I get to see them!
DeletePlease share the beautiful butterflies with us when they are hatched or I guess I should say "when they have metamorphzized"??
ReplyDeleteI hope I see them!
DeleteSo exciting that you have them? They will crawl away when they're ready to pupate -- but if you put a few tall sticks in the ground near the plants, maybe one of them will choose that location and you can see the chrysalis and keep an eye out for the butterfly to emerge. It's an amazing process.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I'll be in your vicinity pretty soon, so let's have pancakes? (No pressure, just asking.) hotchpotcafe@gmail.com
Thanks for the advice! Email me when you are here, and I hope I can make it!
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