Butterfly Garden

Butterfly gardening is the process of attaching wildlife such as butterflies and hummingbirds to a prepared area. This area is sometimes well thought out and designed to attract and keep butterflies in the garden area. there are many issues to take into account when thinking about designing a butterfly garden. Sunlight, rainfall, types of plants are just some of the items you will need to consider when building a butterfly garden. Sunlight, rainfall, types of plants are just some of the items you will need to consider when building a butterfly garden. The first item you want to think about is sunlight. Depending on what plants you chose for your butterfly garden, you will need to consider the sun's path and the amount of sun your garden will get. Some plants such as the Mexican sunflower takes full sun. Others like the Passion vine like the shade. Placing all your plants in the correct area will help them grow well to produce nectar or host leaves for your butterflies.

There are two types of plants you will want to plant into your garden. Host plants and Nectar plants. Host plants are plants that the female butterflies will lay there eggs on. Nectar plants are plants that the butterflies will sip nectar from for energy. By placing these plants within a short distance of each other you can attract and hopefully keep the butterflies around. The butterflies will sip nectar and the females will lay thee eggs on the close by host plants. then you get the added bonus of watching the caterpillars grow. Be careful though as they will eat your host plants quickly.

Each female butterfly is very picky about host plants. To add to this each butterfly species is different as to which plant they will use to lay eggs on. For instance the Pipevine Swallowtail will only lay eggs on pipevine plants. Monarchs will only lay eggs on Milkweeds. So do your research as to which butterfly you are wanting to attract and keep around. Below i will put a list of plants for different butterflies. Never spray your plants with insecticide. This will kill all insects including your butterfly caterpillars.

After you have started your garden and your plants are doing well, you will sooner or later start to have other insects make your garden their home. Aphids, spider mites, ants, wasps, spiders and more are willing predators of your butterflies. As i said before be careful what you use to fight these pests. Use organic products as a starting point.

Enjoy your new butterfly garden. Sit back and watch butterflies in various colors and wing shapes visit your nectar plants. See Monarchs as the male courts the females, Zebra long wings flutter about looking for just the right place to lay its eggs. Butterfly gardening can bring much enjoyment in these crazy times.