Butterfly Garden - tips on how to create a beautiful butterfly garden plus a creative retirement job

Special retirement gardening and butterfly garden information for

As I did recently with my Motivational Movies section on this website, I also dedicate this butterfly garden page to our daughter Cynthia Ann Marie who’s passion was designing and planting butterfly gardens.

As explained in the previous pages, gardening and landscaping offers thousand of creative retirement job opportunities – designing and planting a garden for butterflies and it’s associated sub topics is just another creative and profitable avenue.

The keyword is –variety.

A wide variety of food plants will bring the greatest assortment of butterflies.
Just like humans, butterflies love variety that’s why it’s best to mix wild and cultivated plants, as well as blooming times of the day and year. Groups of the same plants will be easier for butterflies to see than singly planted flowers.

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.

Once you work out this decision and decide which types of butterflies you want flying around and visiting your home, then simply create your butterfly gardening plan around those species.

When possible plan your garden in an open area so the butterflies can sun themselves.
All insects are cold-blooded and cannot internally regulate their body temperature – butterflies love to sun themselves.
However, when it’s very warm, butterflies also like to cool off at times, so again, if possible, have a shady area near by to they can cool off - this will keep them in your area for longer stays.

Stephanie Bailey, Extension Specialist at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture offers these tips to help you design and plant your garden.

• Another way to attract adult butterflies to your yard is to offer places (food plants) for females to lay their eggs.

  The larvae can also be very noteworthy. Some caterpillars have hairs or forked spines, which may be or may not sting (often the hairs are just for show). It's better to be safe than sorry, so wear gloves when handling these larvae.

  Certain swallowtail caterpillars imitate snakes or bird droppings. Other caterpillars, like sulphers, are camouflaged, or blend into their surroundings very well.
  If caterpillars are eating excessive foliage from a prominent or desirable part of a plant, try moving them (with gloves on if they're hairy) to the backside or another less noticeable portion of the plant.

• Butterflies also like puddles. Males of several species congregate at small rain pools, forming puddle clubs.

  Permanent puddles are very easy to make by burying a bucket to the rim, filling it with gravel or sand, and then pouring in liquids such as stale beer, sweet drinks or water. Overripe fruit, allowed to sit for a few days is a very attractive substance (to them!) as well.

Research is vital in producing a beautiful butterfly garden – one that will host a community of various types of butterflies. Example – by simply Goggling – Monarch butterfly – I learned it’s Larval food plant is milkweed and for nectar -milkweed, butterfly bush, goldenrod, thistle and ironweed.

Here’s a brief list of plants and flowers that you can look into when designing your gardening plan - honeysuckle, sunflower, milkweed, summer lilac, Valerian, daisies, Purple Coneflower, Yellow Sage, day lilies and lavender.

Check for the butterflies that populate your area and match with he flower and plants and you will have, as did our daughter, a spectacular butterfly garden.

From the Butterfly Garden - back to the Retirement Garden