Our garden has been teeming with butterflies, but we’ve discovered that butterflies and kale (all brassicas in fact) are not a perfect match because the butterflies have laid larvae on our kale and the caterpillars that have emerged are having an all you can eat kale buffet, which we’re not hugely pleased about.
We do not use pesticides, so we reached out to avid gardeners and they informed us that the simplest way to get rid of these caterpillars was to simply pick them off the kale, which we have done and it’s been a success
Other useful advice was to cover the plants with a fleece.
One of the other tips we received was to make a nettle tea and use it around brassicas (and other plants that like nitrogen boosts). This is a lengthy process, which takes about two weeks, and I’ll be looking into it because have no shortage of nettles at the bottom of our field.
We’ll let you know how we come along with the nettle tea, but at least we’ve saved our kale for the time being, and our kale and butternut curry will remain on the menu.