allcreatureswelcome

Gardeners, how do you strike a balance between attracting wildlife and actually having healthy plants left?

This spring, I planted nasturtiums in a pot on our back porch hoping for a crop of nice leaves to eat this summer. No sooner did the big beautiful round leaves appear, then cabbage white butterflies started hanging out by the plant. Soon, little holes appeared in some of the big green leaves. Sure enough, on the underside of each hole was a tiny green caterpillar. No problem, I love wildlife! Did I tell you how much I even love common creatures? No creature too humble. The caterpillars were our little friends.

Everyday they got just a bit bigger. They were so juicy looking they were almost translucent: beings halfway between plant and creature. Soon the nasturtium plant was looking less and less, but I hoped our reward would be a bumper crop of chrysalises. Instead, one day the caterpillars suddenly disappeared, leaving a bunch of leafless vines. Did they ditch us to make chrysalises elsewhere? Or do house finches eat them?

Several months ago, I also planted two different Passiflora species with hopes of attracting fritillary butterflies. One of these was a ubiquitous type, which I dug up from a well tended garden, which would gladly be rid of Passiflora forever. This has proven to be a tough and drought tolerant vine. No regrets. But no butterflies yet.

The other was a very fragile and needy looking Passiflora amalocarpa, which I worked hard to win at a lecture on Passifloras by Jorge Ochoa. Passiflora amalocarpa is associated with Heliconius butterflies in its natural range. But I didn’t know if it would attract anything here in Los Angeles. Its beautiful wing-like leaves convinced me to take it home, despite the fact it is neither drought-tolerant nor particularly edible (the criteria we use for our already overpopulated garden).

I’ve been watching the plant carefully, helping it to get established. Only yesterday did Robert find caterpillars on it. Today the plant is almost already defoliated. Now I feel like I’m being forced to choose between keeping the plant alive, or keeping the caterpillars….