The wall-box herb garden had parsley planted at both ends. Perennial chives grew in the centre along with a vinca vine. A couple of red geraniums brightened it all up.

One morning, when I saw a green, yellow and black striped caterpillar on the left parsley plant, I called for my husband.

“It’s going to become a yellow swallowtail butterfly,” I said.

“Remember when I took this photo of the swallowtail sipping from the false prairie sunflowers?”

He nodded.

“Whatever shall we do?” I queried.

Lloyd knew how much I loved butterflies. He knew I had purposefully planted the flowerbed by the fence with flowers known to attract them.

“We’ve still got lots of parsley,” I offered hopefully. “The right-hand parsley plant is thriving!”

To my relief, my husband said, “Ah, let him have the parsley.”

But what did I see the next day?

Whenever I checked, the two of them were busy eating, always eating.

I had been using parsley in soups and various recipes all summer, as well as for a garnish, and hadn’t bothered to wash it, thinking it was clean because it was growing high above the ground. I quickly changed my ways.

However, just knowing that our parsley could contribute to increasing the population of these beautiful, winged creatures gave me such a good feeling.

Alas! One morning, the once healthy-looking caterpillars were nowhere to be seen. Carefully checking behind and all around the parsley plants and geraniums . . . turned up nothing. The caterpillars were gone!

Birds in a nearby walnut tree must have spied them . . . and . . . simply being hungry birds . . . had gone to McDonalds’ for lunch!

Maybe next spring I’ll plant additional parsley in the fence row where the colourful swallowtail caterpillars will be less visible.