A beautiful and fun way to do that is to plant a butterfly garden. For people, like you, who are interested in butterflies, a butterfly garden is an easy way both to see more butterflies and to contribute towards their conservation. And if you plant a garden, you'll be able to watch monarchs and many other butterfly species right in your backyard.

A butterfly gardener reaps many rewards. People usually enjoy the same colorful flowers butterflies prefer, so a butterfly garden can win compliments from you and your neighbors. If you plant a butterfly garden where there used to be lawn, there is also less grass to mow, which means less work with the lawn mower as well as less air and noise pollution if your mower runs on gas. Butterflies like lots of different plants, so creating a garden adds biological diversity to your yard. Diversity can reduce populations of pest insects by making it harder for them to find their host plants. Butterflies also often like native plants. Including those species in your garden usually means less maintenance, since those plants are used to the natural weather conditions in your area. Butterflies themselves are an important part of the ecosystem, and  can pollinate many plants. 

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar Photo by Catherine A Khalar

To get the most out of your garden, be sure to include both caterpillar food plants and butterfly nectar plants. Having caterpillar plants in your garden means butterflies are more likely to linger and explore possible sites to lay eggs. It will also increase your chances of observing both mating and egg-laying behaviors, as well as the complete butterfly life cycle from egg to adult.

Your butterfly garden can be any size, from a window box to a portion of your landscaped yard to a wild untended area on your lot. You can include native plants, cultivated species, or both.

Butterfly Garden Fun!  Look What Happens!

Catching in Grandma's Butterfly Garden Photo: Linda Sills

Rowan with Painted Lady Photo: Amy Atwood

Monarch Eggs on Milkweed Photo: Linda Rogers

In the Garden: Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar Photo: Linda Rogers

Butterfly Chrysalis Photo: Linda Rogers

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar Photo: Nigel Venters

Creating Your Butterfly Garden

A Beautiful Butterfly Garden
Photo: Utterback Farms

The first step in creating a butterfly garden involves a little scouting and research. The goal is to find out what butterflies live around you so you can include the plants they need for food. The best way to start is to look for butterflies around your proposed garden. Look at who visits your neighbors' yards, or watch in nearby parks, natural areas, roadsides, or gardens and write down the species you see.   To use a butterfly database by zip code, see this website.  http://www.gardenswithwings.com/what-is-a-butterfly-garden.html.

Butterflies feed on nectar, and good sources of this food will attract them to your garden. Include flowers that bloom at different times so that your garden provides nectar from spring through autumn. Garden shops, county extension offices, and books can help you figure out when a plant blooms, its color and size, and which butterflies like it (to help with planning, it is often useful to make a table of this information). When you plan your garden, place short species in front and tall ones in back, and clump them by species and color. As butterflies search for food, they will see large splashes of color more easily than the small points of individual flowers. Butterflies are particularly attracted to red, orange, yellow, and purple flowers. Avoid big showy flowers bred for their size; they are often poor nectar sources. Don't be disappointed if butterflies ignore some highly recommended plants. Watch the butterflies, record their preferences, and plant more of the popular species next year.

Butterflies require very specific plants as larvae, and females will lay their eggs only on these plants. For example, you will only get monarch larvae if your garden contains milkweed. Use information in books about butterflies to help you choose plants for butterfly larvae. But remember, the purpose of these plants is to serve as a food source for the caterpillars. You are planting them to be eaten by the caterpillars, and eaten leaves are good signs of your garden's health.

As you maintain your garden, DO NOT USE ANY PESTICIDES OR INSECTICIDES on or near your garden.  Insecticides kill butterflies too. If you spray nearby areas, the insecticide may drift into your butterfly garden. Planting a diversity of species will keep pest levels down, but sometimes it's best just to tolerate a few pests. Avoiding insecticides also allows the populations of natural predators to increase, and these hunters will help reduce the number of unwanted pests.

Enjoy your garden. Butterflies pay less attention to people than do birds, so you can sit nearby and watch without disturbing them. If you wear bright colors, they may even mistake you for a nectar source and visit you up close!

Butterfly Garden Nectar Plants

Butterfly Garden – Butterflies and Their Host Plants

 (Used with kind permission by Chip Taylor, Monarch Watch)

Monarch Butterflies Photo: Utterback Farms

Vitex Bush Photo: Linda Rogers