Butterfly Gardening

What is butterfly gardening? Butterfly gardening is a type of gardening that uses many different types of plants to attract butterflies. Delight your family and visitors with beautiful butterflies, but be sure to create a safe habitat for them. If you own cats rethink your plans, because it would be a shame to attract these lovely insects to their death.

The design your butterfly garden is a matter of personal preference. Typical points to consider are the size of your garden and the types of flowers and plants you want to grow. You want to design the type of garden that looks good in your eyes, however it still needs to attract butterflies.

It is important to find out which plants and flowers will attract the species of butterflies. that live in your area. If you want to do some more research you can find many resources online
There must be water to recreate the type of enviroment that butterflies love. A birdbath will look attractive and keep the butterflies up off the ground, away from stray cats or mischievous puppies. A saucer or dish attached to a post or tree will do well also.

As with any garden it is really important to choose the colors of the plants wisely for your butterfly garden. Butterflies do not care what color your garden is, however you do want the colors and textures to blend. Butterflies are attracted to those flowers that have nectar rather than pollen, like honeysuckle, milkweed, summer lilac, Valerian, daisies, Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium), Purple Coneflower, Yellow Sage, day lilies and lavender.

Some people find it helpful to draw and color a layout of their butterfly gardening plan to see what the finished product would look like. Keep in mind that vibrant colors like red, yellow and orange will really stand out and may even seem showy. These colors have a greater impact against a strong green background. Cool colors such as blue and purple are soothing and toned down and would work better with a white contrast to create the look of freshness and brightness.