Make Your Own Butterfly Habitat

Most people who like to garden also tend to appreciate observing butterflies flitting about. After all, butterflies are just as appealing to look at as the flowers that they visit. Gardeners can lure even more butterflies to explore their yards by making a habitatparticularly for butterflies.

It’s quite easy to develop a butterfly habitat. You may just find that you currently grow some flowers that lure butterflies. With just a tiny bit of effort you can bring into existence a captivating retreat for these captivating winged creatures, and the butterflies will appreciate your endeavors.

If you’re beginning from scratch and will be forming a new planting bed for your butterfly habitat, you’ll first want to learn how to correctly construct a planting bed for your plants. If you will be creating a new butterfly garden from the ground up, it is important to find out how to amend the soil and find the appropriate flowers.

When making a decision on where to establish your butterfly habitat, opt for a site that is not isolated from other plants. Butterflies will be more likely to arrive at your garden if there are other plants nearby to guidethem to your butterfly habitat. But if your butterfly habitat is the only patch of flowers in a large sea of grass, butterflies won’t have much justification to be in the area. If you have a area of flowering shrubs and other butterfly-enticing blooms that are spread out around your yard, the butterflies are much more likely to take time in your butterfly habitat.

The butterfly habitat should always include a diversity of blooms that lure butterflies, and those flowers should be in a wide assortment of colors and heights.~ You should plant a number of different kinds of flowers in a wide range of sizes and colors. Think about planting rododendrons,azaleas, and lilacs for height. Fragrant ‘James McFarland’ lilacs seem to be especially attractive to butterflies.Weigela, with its blooms like dainty bell-shaped flowers, is another good shrub for attracting butterflies.

Every butterfly habitat needs Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Not only will the sunny orange flowers attract many butterflies, but the plant will also offer food for caterpillars. Without the caterpillars there would be no butterflies. Dill and Parsley also provide food for butterfly caterpillars. If you’re fortunate, you may even have Monarch butterflies laying their eggs on the milkweed and you can watch the entire life cycle, from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.

A great deal of other commonly grown flowers will attract butterflies, including Hollyhocks, Cosmos, Black-Eyed Susans, Purple Conefower, Zinnias, Pentas, Bee Balm, and Cleome. Buddleia, also known as butterfly bush, is a must in any butterfly garden. If you have room for this large plant, Mexican sunflower (tithonia) will pull in countless hummingbirds and butterflies with its sunny orange flowers.

Layout your butterfly habitat so there are blooms all season long. The lilacs, azaleas, and rhododendrons will provide a spring snack for butterflies, followed by summer-blooming plants such as the buddleia and asclepias. In the fall, butterflies will sip nectar from ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum and Asters.

As well as supplying food for butterflies, your butterfly habitat should also offer them a resting place together with shelter from the wind and cold. Put flat rocks in your garden where the butterflies can warm themselves. It’s even more effective if the rocks have shallow depressions where water will puddle and provide a place for butterflies to assemble for a drink.

A small log pile will furnish shelter from the weather for butterflies in your habitat. You can also purchase butterfly shelters that appear to be tall, narrow birdhouses with a couple of slots for entrances. These may attract butterflies, but in my experience bees are likely to move in, and stops any butterflies from entering.

One final thing that every butterfly habitat should include is a comfy bench arranged where you can relax and admire the beautiful butterflies. After all, you’ve constructed this butterfly habitat not only for the butterflies but also for your own pleasure as well.