I can see why you read it that way but the point was that the milkweed seeds are better shared with others than left on the plant or, as more frequently happens, put in the yard waste. I should have been clearer about that.

I just wanted to mention though that the alternative reason to grow those plants is to relax and not need to garden (paraphrasing). You missed the point that they are incredibly useful to polinators and bumblebees and other solitary bees are served well by these plants.

One new strategy I’m trying for gardening beneath that Norway maple tree and also the neighbor’s black walnut growing near our boundary is to create raised beds with study bottoms. I used 59″ round heavy duty wading pools of hard plastic near these trees (Ace sells plain blue ones). I cut off the rounded edge and poke a couple of reachable wholes near bottom (so I can cut the tree’s roots that snake up into it). “Ugh!” You may say. “That bright plastic!” Well, I remedied its kiddishness with a bit of spray paint and a brown vinyl lattice work surround. If I could show you a photo of the three gardens I’ve placed near these trees, I think you be impressed with how they look. In them I planted hostas and other perennials and annuals. Figure on a lot of soil transferring to those pools but lots of soil holds lots of water. It helped that I had accumulated a pile of compost over several years. As long as the tree roots don’t puncture that heavy plastic, I can plant raised bed gardens. Laying thick clear plastic beneath them adds extra assurance. Circles do take a bit of design strategy.

Yes, sort of. Remove the affected peppers before the young can hatch this year! Also, you might want to try growing in a different location next year in case any do overwinter in the soil.

I have had the exact same problem for 5 years. After having read ALL the info I could get my hands on, I decided to try and break the life cycle by NOT planting peppers for a year. So I took the summer of 2023 off. Well, that seemed to work. Last year (2024) I had ZERO pepper fly maggots.

I’m just beginning to harvest peppers this year (fall of 2025), and they are back with a vengeance! WHY, HOW??

I will try the row covers next year for sure, but if I understand their life cycle, the maggot eats to its heart’s content, then drops out of the pepper, burrows into the soil, and lives over the winter in its pupal state. Then next summer, it will hatch into a fly and begin the whole process again by mating and laying eggs in the developing pepper, leaving the telltale sting mark. So if this is correct, wouldn’t you be trapping the flies IN with the pepper plants? I’m so confused, and totally ready to give up. It’s heartbreaking to have fully beautiful peppers and when you cut into them, YUCK!!

Thanks for any input!

Hostas didn’t work for me. They were strangled by maple roots

Violets grow well. And a few small bulbs have worked ok. Everything else gets the roots strangled by the maple