Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Sucha Deal!, 1 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
Cool Shirley thanks for kind words and the info on cigar plant, I want some!! I now know where to find it too.
Herbs~ Well I started growing them from a bunch of seeds for cooking. They were behaving like perenials here, and then I saw all the caterpillars on them (mainly parsley), and realized they were significant host plants for bst's. Well that just changed my whole way of looking at herbs then. I grow them especially as host plants now. Just gotta have so much that there is still some herbage left for me to cook with.

Another idea is to have sections for Cats and for your own use. When eggs are laid, just watch them in a few days they hatch and start crawling around. Gently pick them up and carry them to the designated plants just for them. Rue works really well and gets very full , but I don't see myself using it in any recipes, ...yet. lol so that would be my main choice for raising them to maturity if I can keep the birds and wasps from eating them. That's what the cage over the ground is for now (pic above). So far so good.
They love these 4 herbs as hosts: Curly Parsley, Fennel, Dill, and Ruta Gravolens (Rue).
Here's one laying eggs on a tall Parsley flowerstalk..You can see my coleus there in the background, and in the shade a lot of Sweet Basil seedlings coming up. They dont bother the Basil at all, and I love to cook with that a lot.
Glad ya came over!!
Bless ya!
:oDeb