Articles
Butterfly Gardening
What is butterfly gardening? Simply put butterfly
gardening is the art of growing flowers and plants that
will attract these colorful and dainty creatures to your
garden. 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.
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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. Pick a style of garden that appeals to you, but
ensure it also contains the plants and flowers that
appeal to the butterflies you wish to attract.
It is important to find out which plants and flowers
will attract the species of butterflies that live in
your area. This information can be found at the local
library and some nurseries.
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To create the kind of environment that they find
attractive, you will also need water of some kind. A
birdbath will look attractive and keep the butterflies
up off the ground, away from stray cats or mischievous
puppies. A shallow dish on a post or hung in a tree will
do just as well.
When planting your butterfly garden, be careful how you
coordinate the colors you choose for your flowerbeds.
Although butterflies do not care about your choice of
color, you don't want your garden to be a hodgepodge of
unrelated colors and textures. Butterflies are attracted
to those flowers that have nectar rather than pollen,
like honeysuckle, milkweed, summer lilac, Valerian,
daisies, 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 warm
colors like red and orange are flashy and 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.
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