Isn’t it wonderful to have butterflies flutter around your garden? A butterfly garden refers to landscape garden design ideas that attract butterflies and accommodates their needs. The key to a successful butterfly garden is to plant flowers that provide foods for them. It is also important to keep the flowers blooming and create shelters for the butterflies.Â
1. Providing the Plants
Picking the right plants is one of the first steps to start a butterfly garden. You can learn which flower attracts a certain species of butterfly. For instance, aster will attract the Pearl Crescent butterfly as much as lavender does to Little Yellow and Least Skipper butterflies.Â
To have the flowers bloom all year, mix perennials and annuals. Some other plants that you can use are honeysuckle, pentas, zinnias, and petunias. Those varieties would give an adequate nectar supply to attract butterflies.
2. Making a Butterfly Shelter
It is not all about flowers and plants, butterflies need a home, too. Though they don’t obviously nest, butterfly sometimes needs shelter to protect themselves from weather and predators. It doesn’t have to be fancy, a natural log pile can work excellently. As landscape garden design ideas, a butterfly garden mixes various height of the plants. It is arranged to give options for the butterflies. They can freely feed on the nectar, mate, take shelter, and even lay eggs around the garden. If you love seeing these beautiful creatures flutter by around your house every day, then a butterfly sanctuary garden is the perfect one for you.
Not only for butterflies, but you should also consider the caterpillars. Many butterflies will lay eggs if they find an appropriate place. Aster is a perfect choice of the plant since it provides nectar for butterflies, and its foliage is a good place for caterpillars to feed and grow. Do not worry about the health of your plants—most of the butterfly caterpillars do not damage it.Â
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