Homeowner shares photo of unexpected visitors after neglecting vegetable garden: ‘I would have missed out on this if I had a traditional lawn’

When wild plants started growing in this Redditor’s vegetable garden, they decided to embrace it. In return, the plants attracted beautiful caterpillars that later turned into moths.

In a post on the thread r/f***lawns, the Redditor describes that her backyard is mostly a garden, and that when a small portion of her vegetable patch didn’t “take off,” she decided to “neglect” it and, instead, just let nature do its thing.

Comments suggest that what grew naturally there was evening primrose — a plant that’s edible, has medicinal qualities, and apparently, makes a great home for caterpillars.

The photos included in the post show a bunch of large, vibrant green and blue caterpillars all over the stems of the plant.

“This is exactly the reason I like to let things grow. I would have missed out on this if I had a traditional ‘lawn,’” the Redditor explained.

By letting native plants grow in place of the vegetables instead of weeding them out, they were surprised with a useful plant that could provide a safe habitat for the local wildlife.

Now, to be fair, you might not always get the perfect native plant to grow, and some farmers aren’t huge caterpillar fans because of how much they can eat.

However, this article suggests some caterpillar-friendly solutions to get them to stop eating your vegetables if it becomes an issue.

This Redditor’s method of maintaining her property falls in line with the no-lawn trend, in which gardeners plant alternatives to grass, like native plants or mulch. This eliminates the need for mowing and also drastically cuts the need for fertilizers and pesticides, as native plants are much more likely to do well because they’re in their natural habitat.

While you could argue that turf gets the same result, it comes with health concerns, causes pollution, and even raises temperatures in the immediate area by 80% to 90%. Plus, natural plants work to clean the air, taking in carbon pollution and releasing it as oxygen.

Comments on the thread were happy to see that the choice to let nature run free in the Redditor’s yard had such a gorgeous and positive impact.

“So pretty,” said one user. Another added, “[The caterpillars] are going to town,” to which the original poster responded, “[I’m] glad they could get the nutrients they needed, though!”

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