Butterfly Gardens

Did You Know:  Breeding – When two insects mate for the purpose of reproduction, breeding can bring change as two different parents create a new type of baby bug.

One of the most rewarding gardens you can grow is a butterfly garden, a garden that attracts butterflies to come and live there and to raise their butterfly families.  One way to make a butterfly garden is to plant dill, an herb that attracts monarch caterpillars and butterflies.

When the mother monarch butterfly finds good-tasting dill plants, she will lay her eggs there.  When the little caterpillars hatch from the egs, they’ll have plenty of food to eat as they grow to eventually become adult butterflies.  Another plant that will attract monarchs is the milkwee, which sets a good background for butterfly breeding.

Here’s a list of some other things to plant and which bugs like it:

• cabbage – cabbage butterfly
• clover – the wooly bear caterpillar; tiger moth
• parsley – black swallowtail
• dogwood – common blue butterfly
• trumpet vine – plebeian sphinx moth
• cosmos – hummingbird moth
• larkspur – all different types of butterflies

Many of the flowers that you plant for the butterflies will also attract moths.  And although they seem a lot alike, they are different in four ways.

Differences Between Moths and Butterflies

1. Butterflies hold their wings together while at rest; moths lay them falt.
2. Butterfly antennae have bumps on the ends; moth antennae are thick and feathery.
3. Butterflies prefer the daytime; moths come out at night.
4. Butterfly bodies are thin; moth bodies are usually thick.

Here’s a recipe to enjoy from the dill you planted for your butterflies!

Dilly Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon dried dill (finely diced)
• 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1 dash of seasoning salt

Stir and serve with crackers or chips or vegetables.

Variations:  Try adding cream cheese; olives, sandwich spread, or pineapple.

The Small Garden

In the wildlife garden, small-scale attractions can lead to large-scale delights for birds, butterflies and other creatures that fly.

There are lots of ways to attract winged wildlife with simple steps and small projects.

A brushpile is much more than discarded limbs, by taking a little care and building your pile so that it is a place where dragon flies will perch, and birds like wrens can find a natural and ready source of the insects they crave>  The pile will also attract other birds such as sparrows or juncos who will also build their nests within the brush, feeling secure and sheltered. 

Be sure and provide a container or two filled with dust so that you’ll be able to watch birds taking a dust bath.  Also, set out a few stones, and be treated to the sight of butterflies basking in the sun.  These are simple and effective projects that are explained in other blogs on this site.

Sparrows taking a dust bath.

Did You Know Tip:  While one hummingbird can visit hundreds of flowers a day, a hummer’s diet doesn’t just consist of nectar-rich flowers.  They also consume protein-packed spiders and a variety of small insects snatched from a spider’s web, from flowers or from the sky.

 

Butterflies Brighten Our Life!

We need the help of these beautiful creatures so that our flowers and vegetables will be plentiful.  These fluttery babes are so important to our environment.  The Bees also serve us, many of our crops will not survive and bear fruit if we don’t take care of them! 

I will be writing more, here.  Thank you for allowing me to contribute.  Stay tuned for more!

Golden Butterfly