The other day, Todd was out watering my herb garden and he came into the house and said, "There's a caterpillar on one of your plants. Should I kill it?"
"NO!"
I ran outside to see what he was talking about and saw the caterpillar chomping away on a dill plant. When you see a caterpillar on dill in your garden—or other plants—you may be startled, grossed out, or annoyed that your plant is being systematically decimated. I was excited. Because I know it’s a black swallowtail caterpillar that’s going to turn into a beautiful butterfly. And that butterfly is going to become one of many valuable pollinators in my garden.
It would be good to have a separate caterpillar garden but they would need a sign to tell them to only eat those plants and leave the rest alone!
ReplyDeleteIn a perfect world...
DeleteFresh dill, I started a crock of pickles this morning.
ReplyDeleteYum...something to look forward to.
DeleteWonderful!
ReplyDeleteIt is exciting to see the cycle of life in motion.
DeleteWhat goes around comes around. On another blog today I saw a quote from George Carlin: "The caterpillar does all the work and the butterfly gets all the credit."
ReplyDeleteHow true that is.
DeleteHow exciting! The caterpillar is quite beautiful, too.
ReplyDeleteIt was fascinating watching it nibble away.
Delete