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#Small butterfly garden design plans how to
#Small butterfly garden design plans professional
#Small butterfly garden design plans free

To attract butterflies to your puddling station, add a couple of overripe fruits. Place your puddling station in an area with plenty of sunlight –– butterflies love the sun.Ĭheck on your puddling station daily to ensure enough moisture, as the sun may dry it quickly.

The mix should be just wet enough so the butterflies can get their fluids and have a safe spot to perch. You don’t want the water level to get too high so that the butterflies have nowhere to perch. For a good source of minerals, sprinkle in compost or natural sea salt.įill the container with water until the mixture is moist.

#Small butterfly garden design plans free

Ensure the mud and sand are free of fertilizer and pesticides, as the chemicals may harm the butterflies. How do you make a puddling station? It’s simple.įill a shallow container or saucer with mud or sand to the rim. Butterflies seek out moist, muddy areas where they can perch and suck up water with their proboscis.Īs they slurp the fluids from the mud or sand, they’re able to obtain the vital minerals they need to survive and reproduce. What’s puddling? Mud-puddling or puddling is a behavior in butterflies and other insects.

Willows: Eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillars adore the leaves of these woody plants.

Sunflowers: Painted lady caterpillars are easy going and will feast upon many plant varieties, including your yummy yellow sunflowers.

Passionflower vines: Gulf fritillary caterpillars love to munch on these scrummy vines.

Which flowering plants make suitable food for hungry caterpillar larvae? Try a few of these: A butterfly isn’t going to linger in your garden for long if there aren’t any plants its offspring can eat. Your goal is to find host plants that will encourage adult butterflies to lay their eggs and multiply. Some butterfly species will lay eggs on only one type of host plant, like the monarch butterfly, while other butterflies may have a range of host plants. Milkweed attracts monarch butterflies and is the only food monarch caterpillars can eat. Your butterfly garden can feature plants that attract butterflies, plants that feed caterpillars, or plants that do both, such as milkweed. Photo Credit: USFWS Midwest Region from United States / CC BY 2.0 That’s why you want caterpillar-friendly host plants in your butterfly garden, too. We want to make your butterfly garden a permanent home, even for the next butterfly generation. Growing only “butterfly-friendly” flowers won’t be enough to make these pollinators stick around. The butterfly bush only provides nectar for adult butterflies and is an invasive species in most U.S.

Butterfly bushes (Keep in mind that despite having “butterfly” in its name, a butterfly bush is not an appropriate “host plant.” Read more about host plants below.

So, what plants will attract butterflies to your yard? Butterflies love bright colors and nectar plants, including:

This handy tool will provide information on different kinds of butterflies and the food plants they prefer.

Speak with nearby butterfly gardeners.

#Small butterfly garden design plans professional

Visit a nearby butterfly house or butterfly museum and speak with a professional about butterflies in your area.To determine which local butterflies are likely to shop around for a home, you have a few options: You’ll also want to target flowers that will attract the butterflies in your area. The secret here is to find flowers that will get these butterflies to linger, lay their eggs, and multiply. Planting butterfly-friendly flowers in your garden may seem pretty obvious for a butterfly garden.

#Small butterfly garden design plans how to

How to design a butterfly garden Select your butterfly garden plants It’s a suitable, thriving butterfly habitat filled with colorful blooms, bounds of nectar, caterpillar food, puddling stations, shelter, and even scrumptious fruits.

What is a butterfly garden?Ī butterfly garden doesn’t only attract a variety of butterflies –– it gets them to stay, reproduce, and live out their life cycle. Take a look at the guide below on how to design a butterfly garden, and your garden will soon become the most popular butterfly real estate on the market. Think of this as your DIY butterfly garden kit: With the right flowering plants, nectar sources, water supply, and environment, you can get these butterflies to stay and multiply in your garden. Your goal is to get these beautiful pollinators to stick around and settle down in your garden rather than giving them a quick vacation spot they’ll soon want to leave. You love your trips to the butterfly museum, but why not save on tickets and grow a butterfly garden right in your backyard? Watch monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalis and swoon over their magic wings, all from the comfort of your own garden.