Sculpture In The Garden

I am a real lover of sculpture, with no particular preference for media or form.  Whilst I am happy to wander around a gallery, I am more happy viewing sculpture outside in a natual landscape.  Somehow, if placed correctly, sculpture just works really well with nature.  The surrounding planting, or lack of, has huge bearing though it has to be said.

Yesterday, I visited the Beaulieu Estate in Hampshire, which is home to the National Motor Museum, as well as having the house, abbey and gardens open to the public.  The organic kitchen and Victorian flower garden are well worth a walk around, even in the rain! 

Unbeknown to me, the Surrey Sculpture Society were holding an exhibition in the gardens from 25 June to 22 August 2010, with 85 sculptures in a variety of media, from steel and bronze resin to clay.  I'm sure I didn't see all of the sculptures but some of them were really fabulous.

Natural Pest Control

By complete chance, I have found a solution to my caterpillar problem.  I was quite happy to sacrifice the calabrese to the caterpillars as I couldn't kill the furry monsters.  However, I have found a plant they like even more - watercress!

I bought a growing pot of watercress at the supermarket and decided to put it out on the patio next to the pots of cabbage and calabrese.  The caterpillars migrated to the watercress on their own.  One morning when I went outside, I looked over at the watercress and spotted it had been completely stripped of leaves, on closer inspection, I found it heaving with caterpillars.

It actually makes perfect sense, watercress is in the same family at cabbage.  As watercress has a strong, peppery taste, I guess it must have certain chemicals which caterpillars are attracted to in greater quantities than the cabbage and calabrese.  The caterpillars are certainly happy anyway.

I have now relocated the watercress plant to the end of the garden, together with the caterpillars.  The few stragglers still on the calabrese have been rounded up and moved to the watercress with the rest.  I have even bought another plant for the caterpillars to eat, as I can't let them go hungry!

Hungry Caterpillars!

I am growing a whole host of new crops this year, including cabbages and calabrese (like broccoli).  Things were going very well until a cabbage white butterfly tracked my plants down.  I have a vague feeling that the plants give off an odour which the butterflies pick up on.

It's tricky really, every since I was a child, I have loved butterflies.  My Grandad used to have collections of exotic butterflies pinned under glass which I used to like looking at.  When I was four or five, I used to try and add to his collection.  I would catch Red Admirals in my shrimping net and take them around to his house, as he lived two doors down from us.  My Grandad used to carefully take the butterflies out of the net and pop them under an upturned jar.

I have a funny feeling as soon as I was gone he used to let them go again in the garden.  I sincerely hope he did anyway!

When I was a bit older, I collected caterpillars in the garden and kept them in a large jar with holes in the lid.  I fed them up and watched as they became chrysalis.  I remember going down one morning weeks later to find butterflies testing their wings in the jar, the transformation complete.  I had such pleasure releasing them into the garden.

So here I am, years later, still enjoying watching the butterflies in my garden.  But then it struck me, butterflies lay eggs which hatch into caterpillars, which eat my cabbages and calabrese!   Nightmare!  I didn't have the heart to destroy the eggs so carefully laid or the caterpillars happily feasting.

When I thought about it, sometimes you just have to garden for wildlife.  If you want butterflies, you need to grow plants that attract them.  Caterpillars are eaten by the birds who I also want to attract, so I guess sometimes you just need to sacrifice a little to attract much richer rewards.

Who wants to eat cabbage anyway?