Hillbilly Garden Hack

Every year I garden I have a huge horrible problem with cabbage worms (they're really caterpillars). It seemed like a never ending battle. It starts with trying to catch the white cabbage moth butterfly ( yes it is a butterfly). Then checking every cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprout and kale plant leaf for teeny tiny white eggs or cabbage worms. Those cabbage worms are REALLY good at hide and seek. It would take hours every other day to do this. 

This year I wanted to be proactive and keep the cabbage butterflies away from my plants. I came up with window screen. It keeps flies and bugs out of your house, why not away from my plants. 

Now I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollar on this project. I also wanted it to be easy enough for me to do by myself. I went to Walmart and Home Depot looking at screen rolls and pvc pipe. Everything was either to expensive or not quiet what I wanted. I thought what I need is just some old window screens. The light bulb went on. We have a reuse it store just down the road from where we live. So tape measure in hand, off I went. For $15.00 I was able to build my hillbilly screened in garden bed. 

I used oak stripes we had laying around to hold the screens in place. If one screen was a little taller, I just wiggle it down a little farther in the soil. I should mention that I went over every square inch of each leaf to make sure there was no eggs or bad bugs. So far so good.

How do you deal with those leaf devouring worms caterpillars?

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From The Farm
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