Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I proudly showed my grandma a wee sweet caterpillar. Instead of oohing and aahing over my find, Grandma snatched the wooly thing out of my hand and smashed it under foot. To her, it was simply a garden pest, but I was crushed. I like to think that I’d never do such a thing in front of a child, but I can and do handpick pests in the privacy of my own garden. Cabbage whites – more specifically, their caterpillars – are wreaking havoc on my kale and Brussels sprouts. The other day when a moth flew by, I did the logical thing and snatched it out of the air. There were no witnesses to my cruelty or to the fact that I’d snatched a moth right out of the air. I have turned into my Grandma, albeit a ninja version of my grandma. Cabbage whites are drawn to brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, kale…). Getting these plants established in a garden can be difficult when a single caterpillar can decimate a young plant. While they’re small, consider covering the plants with some sort of mesh to keep the moths off...
