How to Attract Butterflies to the Garden

A garden full of bright, colorful flowers becomes even more beautiful when butterflies are fluttering around. Any garden can attract a few butterflies every now and then, but you can create a butterfly sanctuary in your backyard where they'll get their food, hibernate, lay eggs, crawl around as caterpillars and complete their transformation. You can create a butterfly garden in your backyard in just a few simple steps.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A sunny spot in your yard
• Nectar producing flowers for adult butterflies
• Host plants for caterpillars
• Rocks

1. Prepare a sunny area in your yard for planting by tilling the soil and amending it if necessary. This area should be sheltered from the wind.

2. Plant clusters of nectar-producing flowers such as asters, bee balm, butterfly bush, lilacs, marigolds, sunflowers, sweet pea or verbena. Make sure you have enough variety to have several plants blooming at the same time.

3. Include plants that provide food for caterpillars to increase the variety of butterflies that flock to your garden. Some good choices include milkweed, hollyhock, carrot, fennel, parsley, dill, buckthorns, willows, poplar and citrus.

4. Place a few large rocks in sunny spots around the plants so the butterflies will have a place to bask in the sun.

5. Provide sheltered areas such as low-growing shrubs for the butterflies to pupate.

6. Keep fresh water nearby in a birdbath, bucket, or saucer lined with sand.

7. Maintain a healthy environment for the butterflies by refraining from pesticide use. Even mild pesticides can kill the butterflies and caterpillars.

Tips & Warnings

• Place overripe fruit in the sandy saucer or bucket of water that you leave out for the butterflies—it's a very attractive substance for them.

[pghprincess]

on 4/14/2008 why do you have to keep fresh water nearby lined with sand?? i am a newbie gardener :)