Crook, County Durham: Keeping our garden breeding colony going for almost 40 years is painstaking, and not entirely altruistic
My hands reek of garlic. I’ve been pulling up invasive Alliaria petiolata, alias garlic mustard. Our resident population of orange tip butterflies lay eggs on it, so we always leave some in one corner of the garden, but if it was all allowed to set seed it would run riot.
Making certain that we only cull plants that haven’t been used by ovipositing butterflies is a slow process. Each needs to be checked for tiny orange eggs or green caterpillars that align themselves along the pods, camouflaged by an almost perfect colour match. Last year, I nearly consigned one to the compost heap, rescuing it in the nick of time.
