Attracting Butterflies To Your Garden

Butterfly Information

When creating a butterfly garden you need to know where it should be located, have a good water source and so much more. You'll find ideas and step by step information here to help get you started. They are designed to stimulate your creative side and get you started on your way to creating a beautiful butterfly garden.

Before you begin a butterfly garden, find out which species of butterflies are in your area. You can simply go outside, walk around in your area and see which butterfly you spy in your area. If you have children, play the "I Spy Game" which is always fun. After you have made a list of your butterfly species, you can plan what you will need for your butterfly garden. Be sure and find out what these particular species of butterflies use for nectar, food plants, water, be their friends and keep them safe while they visit. If you are looking for some beautiful butterfly art you can find it down below.

Encourage your children to do "buggy" things in your backyard. They can learn a lot about nature, just by being outside. Small children love to catch things and then observe them. So this is a great kit for catching butterflies, so your children can observe them. Great lessons to learn.

Gardening Know How

Want beautiful butterflies in your garden? Make your garden butterfly friendly.

Butterfly gardening is growing flowers and plants to attract colorful beautiful butterflies to your garden.The design of your butterfly garden is your personal preference.

First consider the size of your garden and which flowers and plants you want to grow, make sure the butterflies will like them too. It is important to find out which plants and flowers will attract the species of butterflies that live in your area. This information can be found at your local library.

Butterflies will come to your garden if you make sure your garden fills the needs of the butterflies and their larva.

How To Attract Butterflies To Your Garden

Information to attract those beautiful butterflies to your garden!

Sunlight

Put your butterfly garden in a sunny location. This will warm a butterflies wing muscles allowing them to fly. Remember butterflies are cold blooded insects....keep them warm.

Sheltered Areas

Make sure your butterfly garden is in a quiet place, offer some butterfly houses and shelter from strong winds, rain and your cats.

Butterflies and Water

I know that some information you look up about butterflies and water might differ. I have read about bird feeders to supply water to butterflies that is "good enough". Wrong!! I found out a butterfly can't drink from an open water source.

To make sure the butterflies can get water from your garden you must have some kind of wet mud, earth or sand. Find a container you can sink into the ground, fill with mud and add some kind of twig or rocks for them to perch on.

Butterfly Food Plants

For butterfly larva to eat, they need plants that include elm, fennel, blood flower, passion flower, milkweed, senna and wild cherry. So if you want a butterfly garden....make sure the larva survive.

Butterfly Nectar Plants

I learned that there is conflicting information about this also. I will try to clear this up for you. Some research indicates that colors don't matter but they do. Butterflies are attracted to "hot" colors. Include hot colors in your garden like Yellow, orange, red and purple.

Butterfly nectar plants that are best for your butterfly garden will be azaleas, butterfly bushes, Mexican sunflowers, New England aster, verbena and lovely yellow cosmos.

Some butterflies will will eat rotting fruits, stale beer and sugar or honey water.

When providing butterflies with flowers, make sure they have some kind of platform to perch on while they are extracting the nectar with their proboscis. Simple flowers are best for this.

Try to supply, from Spring to Fall, some kind of flowers that have a "succession" of blooms for the entire season.

Keeping the butterflies in your garden, once they get there will be ongoing. Take care of what you are building in your garden and the pay off will be beautiful butterflies!

If you have taken the time to stop by, please leave comments and opinions, I love to hear from you!

Do you love butterflies? Share with us, any ideas or steps that help make our gardens beautiful!