Homeowner notices unexpected visitors after neglecting garden: 'I just let it go'

Sometimes going with the flow can lead to exciting results. One gardener's laid-back approach certainly paid off in the form of some entertaining visitors as they shared in an anti-lawns subreddit.

They showed several pictures of a cohort of caterpillars of all colors on what they described as a "random" plant that they'd let thrive in their vegetable garden.

"This grew in my veg garden (where my veg didn't take off), so I just let it go," the user explained. "It attracted these amazing little friends that will become moths."

They clarified in a follow-up post that the plant was an evening primrose, and the caterpillars were hornworms on their way to becoming white-lined sphinx moths, a common type of hawk moth.

Evening primrose is edible and also has medicinal uses, as a user noted. The hornworms, meanwhile, play a valuable ecological role, though they can be a pain to gardeners due to their voracious appetite for crops like tomatoes and peppers. 

Fortunately, there are natural ways to keep them at bay, like using borage as a companion plant. The OP also unwittingly had a nice solution by providing a haven for them on the evening primrose plant that could keep them away from their crops.

Embracing native plants, as the OP did, offers numerous advantages, including water conservation and reduced garden maintenance costs. Evening primrose adds color and supports wildlife that are critical to the ecosystem.

Once those caterpillars become hawk moths, they morph into valued and prolific pollinators supporting plants far and wide in their area, as Smithsonian Magazine detailed.

Gardeners seeking to transform their spaces and attract beneficial creatures like these can introduce clover, native plants, xeriscaping, and buffalo grass. These alternatives reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides that can cause environmental harm through runoff. 

That all beats a grass lawn that does much less for the local ecosystem, and can require serious amounts of water, upkeep, and chemicals to preserve. 

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As you might expect in an anti-lawn subreddit, users were loving the OP's laissez-faire approach to the evening primrose.

"Exactly we don't know why the birds placed it there but they loved it enough to consume or carry it," a user remarked.

Another Redditor wrote, "Love evening primrose! It's pollinated mainly by night moths, and native bumbles sometimes sleep in the flowers. It's an unruly, sort of weird, wonderful plant."

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