Nature’s bountiful gifts
The Catlins’ population has just increased by 2 million – insects that is.
It’s all because one of the district’s more unusual attractions has expanded to attract all manner of winged creatures this spring and summer.
Earthlore insect park owners Janine and Gordon Thompson, of Owaka, are buzzing with enthusiasm about the venture, which has grown from a passion for creepy crawlies into a full-blown business in their home garden.
The insect-loving couple have turned their rural property into an insect haven and a teaching resource for the public to learn what to plant to bring in birds and bees.
It has been estimated that a square metre of garden can be home to as many as 10,000 insects, so that means the Thompson’s 200sqm pottager-style teaching and display garden is capable of sustaining several million.
Plantswoman Janine is oldfashioned when it comes to flowers.
‘‘Bees and butterflies love the old fashioned flowers, not the hybrids. The older varieties have pollen and nectar that’s easy to get at. The hybrids tend to be bred for the petals. Often the bees can’t get in there because there’s too many petals.’’
She said some sunflowers were bred to be pollen-less so that they didn’t shed.
‘‘It’s really hard to find sunflowers that have pollen.’’
The older flowers, like honeywort, were the right colour for bees, Gordon said. ‘‘Bees like anything purple or blue – anything on the ultraviolet spectrum.’’
Their mission is to bring back rarely seen insect breeds, such as the yellow and red admiral butterfly, and they have a secret weapon – a whole greenhouse full of stinging nettles.
Painful for humans if stung, not many people would grow nettles on purpose, but they are a paradise for caterpillars who feed on them.
The whole concept behind the park was to create awareness of insects.
Insect-watching has a less serious side in their garden. They have developed a food forest with a meandering path for people to learn about edible plants, complete with an insect-themed mini frisbee golf course.
‘‘When we first got the idea no-one had heard of it. Now lots are doing it, but we are probably the first to do it in a garden like this,’’ Janine said.
Gordon was looking forward to showing people the garden in the evening.
‘‘We want to bring back the butterflies by day and the much underappreciated moth by night.’’