What Is A Butterfly Garden (And Why Consider One)?

Have you been wanting to draw more butterflies to your garden, but didn’t know how? You need a butterfly garden! But, what is a butterfly garden, and why should you have one?

What Is A Butterfly Garden?

A butterfly garden is a garden made for butterfly attraction. You can make your entire garden like this or a small portion of it.

A butterfly garden is all about creating a habitat that meets the needs of these beautiful, winged creatures (and be cautious if you choose to interact with them).

These needs include flowering plants that are native, additional food and water, and nesting areas and shelter.

The great part about doing all of this work is that you won’t just be enhancing the habitat for butterflies, you will be creating a fantastic garden!

Why You Should Consider A Butterfly Garden

Pollinator? Yes Butterflies are pollinators and were able to get millions of species of plants reproducing by transporting pollen form one plant to another! And this is certainly not a small feat!

On their own, butterflies are the reason why we are at 100 million in cotton production and were responsible for all plant species reproduction, being the main pollinator for crops like legumes, carrots, mint, and sunflowers.

In short, butterflies do a lot for us and the world, and by creating more butterfly spaces, like butterfly gardens, you are allowing butterflies to thrive and to do their job.

Butterflies are especially important, because butterfly populations have been declining, like the endangered monarch butterfly this is very concerning.

If you are combining an edible garden with your butterfly garden, butterflies can certainly help and also like us attract other beneficial insects like lady bugs, which are great for biological controls for pests like aphids.

To wrap it up, butterflies are important for many reasons and creating butterfly gardens, even small ones can help provide pathways for butterflies!

How Easy Is It To Make A Butterfly Garden?

When I chat with folks about designing a butterfly garden, they often scrunch their noses like it’s an enormous responsibility. But let’s be real! It’s not!

When I say that, I’m talking about creating a very small footprint in your garden for butterflies. It’s not a lot of work and is a very small investment since you’re going to do it with stuff you already have. 

Now, I can also assume that you could create a much larger butterfly garden if you wanted. If you bought a new property and you are now staring at a garden space blank for your imagination, you could turn that into a wild sanctuary for butterflies. Just possibilities! 

Your butterfly garden will depend on your resources and how much time you want to devote to it.

Can You Have A Butterfly Garden And A Regular Garden?

That’s right! One of the great things about establishing a butterfly garden is that you don’t have to give all of your outdoors to butterflies.

Even if you can only get a little carried away, simply filling a few window boxes with flowering plants and a recycled bottle cut in half to hang a butterfly feeder will be sufficient. 

BUT, I would say that if you are going to commit some of your garden into a butterfly paradise, you will need to stop treating all the plants with garden chemicals (but really, you should be doing this anyway). 

Chemicals like pesticides can harm butterflies. If you treat your garden with pesticides, even if you spray the chemical only on a few plants, the rain may wash the chemicals on to plants in your butterfly garden, so you might as well avoid pesticides altogether.

How Do You Make A Butterfly Garden?

Creating a butterfly garden is simple, and most of the things you need to do are not hard! Here are my best tips for creating a lovely butterfly garden.

Plant Native Plants.

One of the most important things to do to attract butterflies (and the other pollinators – nearly all of them) is to plant native flowering plants. In fact, if you are going to do only 1 thing in your backyard for wildlife, it is this!

According to butterfly conservation experts, most butterflies (and moths) have evolved a relationship to certain types of plants. Most of these are going to be native species that butterflies are going to eat and where they lay eggs.

You are not going to provide them much benefit by planting exotic plants, and in addition, native plants are going to grow better in your area, so you will have a more blooming garden. So, it is a win both for you and the butterflies.

There are going to be many different types of plants you can use for butterflies, too; some will be host plants where they lay eggs, and some will give nectar. Some of the more popular species are black-eyed Susans, buddleias (the butterfly bush), zinnias, purple coneflower, and marigolds.

However, if you really want to target certain types of butterflies, it is worth it to research their preferred flowers. For example, the monarch butterfly nearly exclusively feeds on milkweed (and lays their eggs there, too), while the swallowtail butterfly loves verbena.

Have A Water Source

Butterflies need to drink water the same as you. It’s nice to create an area in your garden for them to rehydrate. Also, unlike us, butterflies can take many important nutrients, including sodium, from muddy water (you can even make this).

Butterflies are not good swimmers so make sure to avoid deep puddles. In fact, something as small as a butterfly puddler would be perfect!

Use Butterfly “Baits”

When you think of butterfly attracting foods, most people think of homemade nectar, or sugar loaded water.

But nectar is not the only thing that attracts butterflies. There’s also other food called butterfly bait.

For instance, butterflies love anything yeast-like, and mixing rotting fruit with molasses creates the best treat for them, that’s also good for them. The best fruit to use is plumbs bananas apples and peaches, so if you have any old fruit lying around use it!

Provide Shelter

Now, butterflies obviously have no defense against predators, so they need places to take shelter. The best way to help this is by offering lots of shrubs, particularly around the edges of your garden.

A great idea is to plant shrubs of various heights. This made create a mini forest for the butterflies. Furthermore, planting shrubs of various heights, will better mimic the butterfly’s natural habitat, and will encourage their natural feeding behavior.

Consider purchasing a butterfly house (usually wooden) with slits for the butterflies to enter and exit. They do look aesthetically pleasing, but it is important to keep in mind, that this could bring in unwanted insects as well, and once the unwanted insects like paper wasps establish a home, they may become a deterrent to your butterflies.

Avoid Pesticides

Pesticides, both garden and agricultural are one of the biggest threats to butterflies. When discussing this with other people, they tend to back off immediately from any plans to create a butterfly garden stating this would mean surrendering to garden pests.

This just isn’t true; removing pesticides from your garden means creating a more beneficial environment for ALL wildlife visiting your garden.

This includes natural predators such as ladybugs and lacewings, which can grab any problem bugs such as scale insects or aphids in no time at all.

You can also use other natural options such as using dish soap, water, or neem oil in a spray bottle and spraying directly onto plants, which will kill the pests.

Of course, you can always hand pick pests off your plants, but that could take a little more time (and you’ll need to take care that the pests you remove don’t carry diseases).

There is also the option of companion planting. This is when you plant certain species surrounding others you want to protect, which act like bodyguards for your precious veggie crops.

Typically, either the companion plant has a scent that pests don’t like or the companion plant becomes the targeted plant instead. Pests will devour the companion plant instead and your crops remain untouched. Here are a few great examples of companion plants:

• Strawberries and borage
• Tomatoes and marigolds
• Brassicas and mint or sage
• Leeks or carrots and lavender

Properly Maintain Your Garden

Creating a butterfly garden is one thing, but taking care of it is another thing altogether. Just be sure to take care of it without the use of chemicals.

To round out a butterfly garden, it’s good to be comfortable with a few weeds around. We consider them a nuisance, but they provide a service to butterflies so leave things alone as much as possible.

That being said, you must comply with local regulations about how messy your garden can be. You will want to research this information first, or you might find yourself with a letter of complaint, or worse, a fine.

Lastly, if you live in an area that could lead to frost damaging the roots of your plants, consider doing your butterfly garden with planted potted plants.

Potted plants have less risk of frost damage since their roots are not in the ground. Further, if it gets too cold, you can always bring them inside for the winter!