My May Garden is missing a cat

The pumpkins are out (well over 70...), the big bean plot has come out and the garden is looking very bare... This time I didn't feel so much of the loss of the plants as I was clearing up, but more the sadness of my cat. Remembering seeing her in her hiding spots, taking in the sun or napping. I still call out for her to come in - I wonder when it is time to stop trying.

The broccoli bed has been dug over and the little home raised seedlings have gone in. Broccoli is a firm favourite in my house hold, so growing them is always very exciting. This year I an trying a number of different methods to ward off the cabbage butterfly from laying its eggs on my brassicus. I have interplanted my seedlings with lettuce, ruby chard (silverbeet) and herbs including parsley and coriander in an attempt to confuse the butterfly with smell and different shades of green.


I read somewhere that white half egg shells deters the butterfly as it is tricked into thinking that another butterfly is or has laid its eggs there already. White egg shells come from Leghorn chickens and it seems that the freerange chicken eggs that we buy are from a different breed of chicken, so don't have the white shells I require. So the milk bottle butterfly idea was born. Butterfly shapes cut out of milk bottles and stuck on skewers to mimic butterflies. Now to see if it makes any difference!