Apr 16 2010
Butterfly Garden Design
Your butterfly garden design is a matter of personal taste as long as it contains the elements that butterflies are looking for, it makes no difference to the butterflies how the garden is laid out.
The elements for a good butterfly garden design are these:
1) The butterfly garden design should be laid out in a full sun location. It needs to receive 6 to 8 hours of sun each day. Most butterfly flowers need full sun, and the butterflies must have the sun’s warmth to be able to fly.
2) Your design for the butterfly garden should be in a sheltered location. Butterflies are such delicate creatures that strong winds could literally tear their wings off.
3) Another important element of a butterfly garden design is to plant your butterfly flowers in large groups of the same kind of flower. I plant all of my butterfly flowers in large groups so the butterflies can find them more easily.
4) Your butterfly garden design should incorporate both butterfly nectar plants and the butterfly host plants. I use parsley in my butterfly garden to attract the black swallowtail butterfly and milkweed to attract the Monarch butterfly.
5) Your butterfly garden design should also include some form of a watering system that doesn’t splash water everywhere, a drip irrigation system or soaker hoses would be ideal.
6) You may want to add a mud puddle to your butterfly garden design. Male butterflies especially like to gather around mud puddles for the minerals that they provide.
There is one thing that you should never ever have in your butterfly garden design, and that is pesticides! Any pesticides will kill butterflies, the chemicals can’t distinguish between butterfly caterpillars and japanese beetle grubs. So please don’t use them.
My final tip for an enjoyable butterfly garden design is to keep it simple, and make it easy to maintain so that you can spend time in your butterfly garden just contemplating the many butterflies that will be visiting your new butterfly garden.
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