Cabbage fights

In England they are known as Cabbage Whites: here they are called Cabbage Butterflies, but their effects are the same. Not all the brassicas have been nobbled - here's a healthy one:



But this one was less lucky. The little culprits are perfectly camouflaged, but just visible against the veins of the leaves on the left.



So now picking caterpillars off my brassica plants has been added to my nightly weeding duties.

The narrator of the 'Dig for Victory' film I mentioned on Tuesday blithely assured his audience that a 10 [square] rod allotment (an area of roughly 100 by 30 feet) would take only one or two hours a week to maintain. The space I've got dedicated to vegetables here is probably roughly equal to a UK allotment and there is simply no way I could keep the weeds under control (let alone the caterpillars) in just two hours a week. Maybe the Ministry of Information wonks were worried that if they were honest about it, no one would take up the challenge of growing their own veg. Or maybe the weeds here are just more beefy and prolific than UK ones. Yes, that'll be it. I find myself muttering "Two hours a week ... TWO HOURS A WEEK!" as I toil away every evening.