Butterfly gardening involves planning your garden to
attract, retain, and encourage butterfly populations. Butterfly gardening
can be easy.
Butterfly garden require several basic thing in order
to be successful:
•
Lots of Full Sun and Shelter from Wind,
•
Good Soil Condition,
•
Plantings in Groups by Height, and
•
Plenty of Water.
•
Lots of Full Sun:
Select a garden site that provides a minimum of 5-6
hours of sunshine every day. The site you select in your garden
should be protected from the wind and also have water readily available.
Shelter is important to butterflies for a number of reasons. Butterflies prefer
to feed and lay eggs in sheltered areas, where they will not be cooled by or
have to fight wind gusts. A row of shrubs or trees can make a dual purpose
windbreak if plants that also provide food for moths or butterflies are
selected.
If you don't have a garden site, you can plant and grow
your butterfly garden in containers. The great thing about containers is that they can be moved around to
accommodate the butterflies!
•
Good Soil Condition:
Good butterfly gardening starts with good soil.
To help plants grow faster, become stronger, and become quickly established, it
is important to improve the soil. The best way to improve the soil
condition is to add organic material such as straw, grass clippings and leaves.
It may be necessary to add a fertilizer with more nitrogen, as these
non-compostable materials will take nitrogen from the soil as they break down.
Ideally, already composted material should be added to
the soil for improvement. These organic materials should be tilled into
the soil . For proper root development, approximately 16 inches of the
soil should be loosened and all large clumps be broken up.
If you're not sure what kind of
soil you have in your garden, it's a good idea to have it tested at a
reliable
garden center to make sure your flowers will thrive after you plant them.
Containers should NOT be filled with soil from your garden, but instead purchase
a high quality potting soil from your local garden center for your containers.
•
Planting in Groups by Height:
It can be as simple as providing the appropriate
variety of host plants for larval growth and adult feeding. You should select a
variety of nectar-producing plants with the aim of providing flowers in bloom
throughout the season. It is especially important to have flowers in mid to
late summer, when most butterflies are active. Plants used in butterfly
gardening include native plants as well as horticultural cultivars of annuals
and perennials. By choosing certain plants for adult and larval feeding, we
encourage the establishment of butterfly populations which return year after
year.
Butterflies survive on nectar, so you need to plant
flowers that have a high nectar content. Without nectar, butterflies can't
survive. Fortunately for an aspiring butterfly gardener, there are a host of
flowers that attract butterflies AND their larvae. Let's not forget the
caterpillars!
Depending on where you live and which butterflies you
can attract in your area will depend on which plants you will need to feed their
caterpillars. These plants are called "host plants." One of the most popular
butterflies is the Monarch, and their caterpillars will only eat milkweed. Other
butterflies will be attracted to the leaves of parsley, fennel, dill, hollyhock,
or Virginia creeper, depending on which butterflies frequent your area. Some
supposedly good butterfly plants might not attract butterflies in your garden.
It may be that a particular plant is not the preferred larval food of local
butterflies
Place tall plants at the back and the sides of the
butterfly garden, plant in groups of 3 or more of the same kind of plant.
The greater density of plants will draw butterflies to them quicker than a
single plant.
Some of the best butterfly attracting
flowers to consider for your garden and which butterflies are attracted to them:
Butterflies like to land on flowers whose blossoms are flat, so keep that
in mind when choosing your plants. Most of these flowers will also do very well
when planted in containers.
Remember to plant taller plants at the back of the
flower bed and the shorter plants to the front. With planting the taller
plants at the back, it allows you to see the shorter plants as well as provides
a screen from the wind.
• Plenty of Water.
A butterfly garden needs to have a water supply
available at all times throughout spring and summer. Not only will your
plants need to be watered regularly, but butterflies also like to drink water.
If you've ever watched butterflies in the spring or summer, you may have noticed
that they like to congregate around or in puddles of water following a rain
storm. This is called "puddling." You might say they are just like
little boys and puddles!
You can create puddles for them by setting a shallow pan or
dish somewhere in your garden, keeping it filled with clean water. Place a
few rocks in the dish or pan so the butterflies can bask in the sun.
Butterflies are cold-blooded and need to warm up a bit before they can fly on a
cold day, and the only way they can do this is by "basking" in the sun.
