Kitchen Garden Forum

Just had to share with you my new finding.

With my usual distractions when I go online I ran across an article that said you could repel cabbage whites with decoy cabbage whites! Apparently they are territorial - who'd have known? I'm too busy shooing them away generally but I've only ever seen them diligently trying all the surface of netting to get in, not fighting. Anyway I found some decoys on line & as only £1.99 I thought why not!

So many questions came up when I received the lovely paper decoys on a punch out sheet; firstly they will only be a fine weather deterrent unless I laminate them. Anyway thought I'd post this on a FB gardening site to see responses. No one was sure about them being territorial, but had read this, several people have heard about the decoys & tried them & felt they worked well. Some thought it was rubbish & personally I thought I was gullible but £1.99 & a chance to have fun with plot neighbours who no doubt will tell they have got under my netting when they see the decoys in the beds.

Well my personal go to garden guru's what do you think?

The only brassicas I grow now are radish, so I'll risk it without them.

Westi, I'm of the opinion I'd try almost anything once! Good luck with it.

Tiger, I never knew that radishes are brassicas. Never thought about it really. Learn something new every day. Anyway I got some free seeds so I might as well have a go this year.

I never, ever saw a butterfly in several years in Kyiv. One warm day I decided to put an indoor plant (can't remember what it was now - lettuce?) outside on the balcony. It was devoured within a couple of hours! I never saw the culprits but, judging by the holes, they were obviously some kind of insect larvae. I assumed it was a cabbage white or similar - can't think of anything else it might have been.

Dear Westi, are they male or female decoys?

OH, I'm not sure if this is a joke or if I've missed something obvious. I'd have thought that female decoys would be better than males, but there again since presumably it's the females that lay the eggs that turn into larvae... Oh, now I'm all confused.

Did you know that oysters start off life as males and then as they mature they change into females?

Just a joke, Stravaig….

Hens can turn into Cockerels….

Ha ha. My uncle and aunt were tenant farmers so I spent a lot of my childhood on a farm. (Free labour!) Actually I loved it. My favourite job was working with the sheepdogs. That's sheep that turn into dogs. Even I know that hens don't turn into cockerels.

But I'm serious about oysters, they really DO change sex. They are protandric.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster

I do enjoy a joke, though, so thanks.

Seriously, hens can change gender….

Blimey. I thought that was another joke, OH. But you're right. Hens do sometimes change into cockerels.
https://www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-health/lear ... phrodites/

It seems I know nothing about everything.

Seems the in thing at the moment…

Nice to be fashionable at my age.

Maybe time for a new career... as an MP.