Monday, October 28, 2013

Harvest Monday - Sacrificial Kale

I've read a bit about gardeners sacrificing certain plants in their garden in the hope of saving others. It's a deliberate strategy of enticing the "bad bugs" to chow down on a plant that you've deliberately grown for the pure purpose of offering it as a sacrifice to the creepy crawlies...all the time you're hoping they'll leave your damn tomatoes (or whatever) alone.

Seems that I've inadvertently done this with my kale...the kale that I don't really know what to do with so I've just ignored it.


Whilst the caterpillars have been gorging themselves on the kale, the kale I don't care about, they don't seem to have noticed the rebirth of my mint (or they just can't see that far away). Normally the mint is CRAWLING with caterpillars that strip it bare within a few weeks but so far so good - the mint is going gangbusters. They also haven't noticed the SIX new tomato plants that have just moved onto the balcony, nor do they seem interested in new basil plants. Suckers.


Happy gardening...

7 comments:

  1. Kale also became my sacrifice plant.........every new leave was stripped overnight but other - better - plants were left alone. I'll be planting some more when I move my gardens around.

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  2. Haha, good to see the caterpillars are getting lots of vitamins and antioxidants from the kale.

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  3. You don't care about kale?? What's wrong with you??!! :)

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  4. Hey Mel, I have just replanted my vege patch. I haven't had any cater-killers yet. I got a little handy tip. After watering spray with pyrethrum every couple of days. It's a low toxicide spray. AND so far so good. Just don't spray them if it's a stinking hot day, burns the leaves.

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    Replies
    1. Just be careful T as pyrethrum kills all the good bugs too - our plants need those to keep them healthy. In the past I've also used White Oil & Dipel -- they are supposed to be OK for good bugs.

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