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TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

This is why my garden has at least a couple sacrificial dill plants. A couple fat caterpillars wreck a dill plant, the little guys love dill and it grows fast enough to satiate them until metamorphosis.

I think a lot of people get really attached to the plants in their garden and have a reflex to attempt to subvert nature by sanitizing it. But there’s an old rhyme that I like to remember when it comes to remembering that we are part of a working ecology, not the masters of it.

Four seeds in a row: One for the mouse, One for the crow, One to rot, And one to grow.

Basically, expect most of your plants to fail before harvest. That has been the expectation since agriculture has been a part of human existence. It’s only in modern times where we actually expect to reap all of which we sow.

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thesystemisdown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

One for the mouse, One for the crow, One to rot, And one to grow. I like the old rhyme, but do they actually let you have one? I like your sacrificial dill. We did that one year, but with fennel instead (just because we have more luck with that). Ultimately, it was Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) which worked the best.

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- TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  but do they actually let you have one?
  
  Haha yeah that tends to be the real problem with the dill strategy. Typically if we actually want a dill for ourselves we’ll plant one in a hanging planter away from the rest of the garden, otherwise the greedy little guys will eat it as well.
  
  We’ve also used fennel in the past as well, dill and fennel seem to be their favorite for some reason.
  
  Ultimately, it was Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) which worked the best.
  
  We’ve tried to step away from any kind of active pesticide, just because we get so many monarch butterflies where we’re at. Usually if they get on a plant we want to try and save we’ve had luck using kaolin clay. Which has a dual purpose as a sun protection during real hot summers.
  
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  - thesystemisdown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    
    we’ve had luck using kaolin clay
    
    Neat, thanks! I just learned about kaolin clay.
    
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    TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Np, there’s companies who sell it as a wettable powder that you just mix in water and apply it with a sprayer. Works like a charm and doesn’t take much, think I bought a 25b bag like 4-5 seasons ago and it’s still at least half full.
    
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