Needs for a Butterfly Garden
Submitted by tired_gardener on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 11:32.Butterflies are beautiful. I want to have more of them in my yard, so I'm creating a butterfly garden. The space is not a mess of weeds with a couple of azaleas. It will soon be a much prettier and with any luck will be full of butterflies and birds sweeping through to get food. To make this garden, I first had to ask, what do butterflies need? After all, they are the visitors I most want to attract, so their needs are what I should think about.
I know that all animals need some things to live. They need food, water, air, space, heat and shelter. The question though, is what types and amounts of each of these things do the butterflies need? I've collected information from several sources and will discuss each one.
Food
Butterflies eat nectar. Young butterflies, also known as caterpillars, eat leaves. Providing the right plants for them to eat is a big decision. Different species eat different plants. For a complete butterfly garden, we need to supply foods that are good for the caterpillars as well as the adult butterflies. If there is food for the caterpillars, the adults will stick around long enough to lay eggs, then your garden will be doing really well. Be sure to pick some plants that are right for the butterflies that are common in your neck of the woods. I'll stick to common butterflies in Oregon. It would be silly for me to try to attract butterflies that are common in Maryland.
Butterfly feeders, such as the one pictured here from Shop.com can also provide good food, if they are regularly filled with nectar.
Water
Like every other creature, water is important for butterflies. A simple dish with some water in it will suffice. Place it in among the plants, in the shade, so that it does not evaporate too quickly. If you are creative, you can create a fancy dish. The dish does not need to be in a location where it is seen, so you can just use a lid from your old butter tub, placed in an out of the way location.
Air
This may seem obvious. Of course they need air. But you should consider the quality of the air as well. Butterflies do not like strong winds. If your garden gets a lot of wind, be sure to build a wind block. You can use some higher bushes for this, or a bamboo fence, or some other simple wind block.
You also might want to consider air pollution. Does your cars exhaust pipe blow on the garden as you start up? If your car is our of tune, this could be rather annoying, or even deadly to your visitors.
Space
Think about the space you will be using. The larger space you use, the more plants your can plant, attracting more species. You need to make sure that the space is big enough that your frieds can enjoy themselves. Do you want to be able to put a chair in among the flowers, to enjoy the sight?
Heat
Butterflies like to sunbathe. As they are cold blooded creatures, they need the sun to warm them up. Make sure your garden has some rocks or other places to sun themselves.
Shelter
The plants your put in the garden can provide shelter. This shelter is particularly important for the young caterpillars who are easy pray for birds and other insectivores. You can also get one of these lovely butterfly houses from Yardiac, pictured to the right.
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oh butterflies have houses
Yes, I didn't know about
Butterflies, I think, prefer to live among the plants, but don't tell ;)
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