good news: after a difficult start, i finally got a few red russian kale plants growing healthily.
bad news: cabbage butterfly caterpillars love kale. 
they’ve swiss-cheesed the bejeezus out of every leaf. i thought about covering the plants with a fine mesh so the butterflies can’t get in to lay their eggs--i might still do that. otherwise i’m hoping the kale will live longer than the butterflies and will keep producing throughout the fall.yay more fail!
gone feral in idaho
4 comments:
I think what you hope for will happen. In fact, I used to plant a fall crop (in Wis.) to avoid the cabbage moths. The holes don't bother me as much as finding tiny white eggs and green worms on the leaf undersides.
Our Swiss card here looks the same but the new leaves look great.
that's encouraging. my swiss chard hasn't been touched by the cabbage eaters, but they do have an on-again off-again leafminer problem.
Hang in there - the kale may come good. My garden fail is non-flowering cosmos. I've grown lots of tall, healthy plants from seed, but no flowers to brighten up these late summer days... lucky the feathery foliage adds some nice texture...
thanks, camilla, it's looking a lot better now. maybe your cosmos will still bloom? it took mine a while. the foliage is beautiful though, i agree.
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