Can't Have One Without The Other

  Months ago, the fennel was growing well.  It is one of the herbs that is easy to grow, fun to harvest, smells divine and once the seeds are dried, lasts forever!  Fennel is a must have in my herb stash. Not only is it a great culinary herb, it has numerous medicinal uses.  It calms the stomach, clears the digestive tract and can help cut phlegm from sinuses and colds.  I use it so many ways in my home remedies.   Being as it is easy to grow, I have several nice large clumps in the herb garden.  The bright green leaves and yellow blooms add a bit of loveliness to the yard.

  It is those bright green leaves that also attract egg-laying butterflies.  The black swallowtails seem to be especially fond of the plants so after the eggs hatch into hungry caterpillars, the fennel looks a bit ragged for a few weeks.  I am one who will leave most caterpillars alone to dine upon the herbs.  The butterflies are worth a few munched leaves.  Spraying the fennel would not only kill the caterpillars, it would also poison the plants for my use.  

  This morning, the reward of neglecting the fennel for the past few months had paid off.  A gorgeous black swallowtail flitted about the garden.  Obviously, the swallowtails love the nectar of the chive blooms, too!   Its beauty was well worth a few missing leaves.  It sort of makes me sad that, even though most folks love the beauty of butterflies, they hate the caterpillars.  Sorry to inform you, folks...you cannot have one without the other.

A Danger Free Zone!

  There are some things that I just flat out refuse to do.  One being, I will not under any circumstances spray, douse, dust, powder, or otherwise dump a lot of harmful chemicals on my garden.  It just ain't happenin', folks.  Tomato worms will be handpicked, squash bugs cut out of stems and smashed and most other plant devouring critters will be coated with vinegar.  (For some reason, bugs do not like the stuff and while it may burn the plants a bit, it is otherwise harmless.)  By my figuring, if a chemical kills a critter, it cannot be to all powerfully good for my body.  So, that said, the critters do indeed eat their share of my fruits and vegetables.  That is ok, too, since they have to live as well.  

  Other than the fact that insecticides are terrible for us, they are not species specific.  By this I mean, what I spray on the tomatoes for stinkbugs will also kill honeybees and butterflies.  This is not good, by my standards.  I like critters...for the most part.  In fact, I like them so much that I do allow a good many to just munch away to their hearts' content.  The "Fennel Munchers" fall into that category.  Fennel Munchers is a nickname that I applied to the caterpillars of the black swallowtail butterflies.  They do some major munching on the fennel but it is only temporary damage and the end result is gorgeous butterflies that flit about the garden.

  Before the rain this morning, I watched as dozens of fat caterpillars searched for places to attach themselves for the duration of their morphs into their adult stage.  The caterpillars left the fennel and made their way across the ground to the posts surrounding the small garden.  A few attached themselves to the posts but others kept on their journey until they reached the deutzia bush. These climbed and climbed until they each chose a special spot to cling.  This trek to find the perfect spot to morph had to be the most exercise that any of the caterpillars have gotten since they hatched from their eggs.  Other than moving on the leaves they were eating, their entire life up to this point was spent on one plant.  Soon, however, they will spend the days endlessly flying about hunting nectar and laying the eggs on my fennel. After a few days, a hundred or more baby caterpillars will hatch and start eating again.  It is certainly a good thing that fennel is prolific and fast growing!  And it is a good thing that I like butterflies!