Creating a Butterfly Garden

You've landscaped a beautiful garden, with rich color, neat paving stones and vibrant foliage. However, things seem a little too quiet and still. It's time to go further, and introduce beneficial wildlife to your yard. Birds and bees will naturally visit, but to add another dimension to your garden, it's time to attract the colorful, fluttering shapes of butterflies.

To create a butterfly destination in your yard, you will need to learn what attracts butterflies. Fortunately, like any other life form, you simply need a source of food, warmth and shelter. If you wish them to stay, you will also need the right types of plants for their young to feed on. As urbanization has destroyed so many habitats for butterflies, creating an oasis in your yard will help increase the local population of these beautiful insects.

Butterfly Food - Nectar

If you have designed your garden to attract wildlife such as hummingbirds, you will also attract butterflies. Both species feed on the nectar of various flowers and bushes. A great multi-purpose bush is the serviceberry. The flowers will attract bees, hummingbirds and butterflies, and the red berries are a great food source for birds in midsummer.

When choosing nectar-producing plants, look for plant species that flower at different times throughout the season. This way, butterflies will visit your garden all season, as there will be an ample supply of food from early spring to late frost.

Different butterfly species feed on different flowers, so check your local area to see what types of butterflies are most common. Your local garden center or a guidebook will help you with this. The upper Midwest is filled with different species of butterflies, as well as part of the migration route of the monarch.

Be aware that many butterflies do not only feed on nectar. In fact, some species' preferred food source is fruit, such as watermelon and soft pieces of banana.

Warmth and Shelter

Butterflies love the warmth of sunlight, so place your butterfly garden in a sunny area of your yard. Make sure it is also sheltered from the wind. Having a fence or shrubs nearby will help block the wind, and give them a place to perch on. Add a few rocks for them to sunbathe, some rough soil or scrub to hold small puddles after a rainfall, and keep a couple weeds like dandelions and clover (this usually isn't a problem!)

A Nursery For the Next Generation

Most butterfly species are limited to certain plants to feed their young. For instance, the monarch caterpillar can only feed on milkweed. Female butterflies will only lay their eggs on the right plant, grass or bush.

Of course, if you wish to create a nursery, be prepared to see your plants getting chewed up! Caterpillars are voracious eaters, so have several plants handy for them to feed on. The bonus of an insect-eaten garden is witnessing the wonder of the chrysalis, and the metamorphosis from caterpillar to beautiful butterfly!

Pointers to Designing a Butterfly Garden

To design a butterfly garden, you have to think like a butterfly. Don't worry, scientists and nature-lovers have already studied this! Butterflies love the following features:

• A sunny area, with stones for butterflies to perch on and warm up in the morning - their wings are like rechargeable solar panels!
• Masses of single-colored flowers, preferably pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and purples.
• Easy landing areas to feast on the nectar. Look for either trumpet-like flowers or flowers with broad, flat petals.
• Bunches of the same plant, both to create clumps of single colors, and as food for the young.
• Remember that butterflies are insects. If you use insecticides, you will kill or seriously harm both the caterpillar and the butterfly. Try localized insecticidal soaps or oils in problem areas for specific pest problems instead of a broad-spectrum chemical.

By Chris Molnar, editor of Goorganicgardening.com, a blog devoted to organic garden tips.