Greetings from the Trusty Garden!
How to Attract Swallowtail Butterflies (August 31, 2010)
This morning I saw a swallowtail butterfly larva munching on my carrots. Every year, I find these fellows chomping away on parsley, carrot, or fennel foliage.
As butterfly gardeners know, to get the lovely butterflies to visit your flowers for the nectar, you must put up with the larval, or caterpillar stage of the butterfly lifecycle.
I usually don't appreciate caterpillars masticating my plant leaves. Don't get me started on a rant about tomato hornworms or cabbage loopers, which I pick off immediately upon detection! But I love the colorful swallowtail caterpillars and just let them be. I plant extra of the crops they like to eat. The reward is the beautiful swallowtail butterfly . . .
This is a combination website and blog where I can share with you everything that I find interesting and informative about gardening in the greater Cincinnati area and Midwest USDA zones 5 and 6. My students are continually asking me what to do when, and how to do it. In my blog, I’ll tell you all that. They want to see what my garden looks like, and I’ll oblige there, too.
I am a horticulturist, teacher, garden writer, and plant lover. I believe in sharing research-based information about gardening. I’m a mostly organic gardener. I love growing and testing annuals and perennials, flowering trees and shrubs, and anything edible. . . and I hope to get others excited about landscaping and gardening!
Thank you for joining me here, and Happy Gardening!
Sue Trusty, the Trusty Gardener
email Sue