companion plants

Anne Kilmer viceroy at GATE.NET
Sat May 4 08:09:30 EDT 2002


Trevor Boyd wrote:

> Dear Anne,
> 
> I think I remember seeing your compost/nettle patch a couple of years ago
> when we visited.  A valuable asset indeed for all sorts of wildlife.  I hear
> that there is a move in England to allow garden composting only under
> licence.  Lucky you are in Ireland.  The English can be odd - they have
> locked up in prison someone who recovered lost golf balls and sold them on.
> Can you beat it?


As long as I don't compost entire rusting cars, I think I'm all right.


> 
> Back to your nettle patch and what to plant in it.  My first suggestion is
> Buckthorn, the foodplant of the Brimstone butterfly larvae, either Purging
> Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) which is thorny, or Alder Buckthorn (Frangula
> alnus) which is not thorny.  Both are native plants and the fruits may be
> used for dyeing or as a purgative.


 

But, Trevor, wouldn't my Brimstones just perish when winter comes, 
leaving no forwarding address? I mean yes, a short life is better than 
no life at all, but why raise a bunch of caterpillars with no future?
My soil isn't limy at all at all, anyway.

 Other suggestions are the Spindle Tree
> (Euonymous europaeus), Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus) and Mountain Ash
> (Sorbus acuparia), all native plants.  By all means plant some Hollyhocks as
> well, but they will need support in the Irish winds.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> Trevor Boyd (Butterfly Conservation)
> 

These are all nice ideas (I already have a Mountain Ash, of course; 
that's the Rowan) but I have been seduced by Nigel Venters, he who 
allowed me to name two butterflies long ago.
Buddleja, he says, and he's quite right. He recommends B. fallowiana 
rather than davidii; more compact. Buddleja is an invasive pest plant, 
but so are most of the plants in my garden, and so am I, and it will 
certainly improve the looks of the nettle bed and cheerfully endure 
being cut back.
So will the Valerian officinalis he suggests. That is thriving in my 
cracked concrete courtyard, where it comes up in the cracks, in the rock 
wall, wherever it fancies, and disdains my garden bed. So I don't know 
whether it will really be pleased when I offer it that rich soil, but 
I'm heading out with a table knife to ask it. And clippers to collect 
Buddleja cuttings from the turf-block planter where it is fighting  a 
losing battle with the ferns.

I may even thrust in a couple of willow switches, from the clump I see 
down the hill, and a couple across the path. These, I can weave into an 
archway over the path, and let my climbing rose wander over it. There's 
a nice one, right there handy.

Willow is kind to walls, and weaves among them rather than prying them 
out, I think. Or maybe not. As a Viceroy, I like willows, even if I 
don't expect a butterfly to come and enjoy them as I do.

These are happy thoughts, and I thank you.
Anne Kilmer
Mayo, Ireland


 
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