Anyone have a planned butterfly garden or wild area?

I was thinking of planting an area of wildflowers or a butterfly garden in a corner of my yard. Anyone have an area like that? How big? Does it need full sun? Pics?

I don't know about a butterfly or wildflower garden.. I am think about an insectary garden to get some beneficial bugs to my yard... Actually someone on another thread gave me that idea. And I think it's great way to avoid pesticide...

We have a butterfly garden - it's actually my wife's project. It is about 10x25. She is trying to get it certified as a Monarch waystation - which has some size and no pesticide rules etc.

That is great Al....the picture is very pretty too! Good luck to your wife.

We have a bog type wet area that will be a pond all winter and dry up in August. DH wants to dig it out down to where the water is flowing and make it a permanent pond. I would like to just thin out and clean out the woods on the back and far end sides of the new pond. Let the local wild ferns fill in as we have done in other areas. Deer don't like ferns, they don't like to walk through ferns very far. Like feathers on their legs I guess, freaks them out. Anyway, on the near side towards the house it will be cleared and sunny so I would like to have a wildflower meadow, maybe a self seed/ perennial garden would be more accurate description. Black Eyed Susans, Poppies, Russian Sage, Queen Ann's Lace, Cosmos etc. Wether this actually happens of course will depend on DH getting the chain saw working and the pond dug out. The landscaping will not be a problem. :)

Certainly looks like my entire garden is a butterfly (and bee and hummingbird) garden. Lots of activity here these days. Why doesn't 95 degrees bother them??!

I helped my garden club install a butterfly garden at our local reservation. We have been working on it for the last three years. It has been a lot of fun and the reservation workers were a great help.
Martha

That's very nice Martha. Most people plants the nectar plants but forget the host plants. Sometimes they just don't want 'sacrificial' plants that will have eaten foliage visible.

Well, we have the nectar plants featured in the part of the garden that is visible from the rear deck of the visitor center. This building also houses a library of bird, bug and plant guidebooks as well for the public to use. I recognized several host plant species nearby {goldenrod, milkweed, etc.} and I made them leave them alone. I plan to put in seasonal pots of parsley and dill next spring that I have sprouted from seed myself and to put in large planters of annual nectar plants as well. We also donated a stone slab birdbath and the reservation people have several bird feeders in this area. I have seen the chipmunks using the birdbath to drink and there have been several species of butterflies traveling through this garden already, so I think it has been a success so far. I am working to get the perennials we planted established and to survive to next year and it should be gloriously filled out by then. We had daylilies, shasta daisies, coreopsis, rudbeckia, penstemons and gaura and a couple of cute pink volunteer somethings I have yet to identify, but I will! I am going to take some pictures this weekend and I will post them here. If you ever get to Saugus, go to the Breakheart Reservation and check it out.
Martha

Sounds wonderful Martha. It's definitely on my list of places to see.

Al, I just read somewhere about getting that done and also something about declaring your yard like a nature or wildlife preserve(for lack of a better word) It's really neat you can actually get that done.
Martha that sounds really cool.
Victor I have seen an over abundance of butterflies and dragon flies.

Yes Jen - 'Backyard Habitat'. I have all the requirements - food, shelter, water and nesting places - to be certified. Just never did it. I also have lots of Dragonflies around the pond. They're very cool. Also more Fireflies this year than ever.

Firflies are just awesome - we don't see them too often here. I have seen them only a handful of times in my life and you only see them when it gets REALLY hot and humid.

A lot of bugs here this year and they all are mating like crazy! Luv those fireflies too, talk about not hiding your light under a bushel. LOL. :)

Have so many this year I read by them.

Do fireflies only come out when it is really hot? I have always wondered about that?! I am in northern ontario and I have only been lucky enough to see them a few times in my life but they are so beautiful!!! I would give anything to have a night to see them perform while sitting outside with a glass of wine...LOL

Thanks Victor I couldn't remember the correct name for it.


It didn't get real hot till last week really and we've had fireflies for awhile. I don't have a pond and I still have a ton of dragonflies.

How do you know that fireflies like wine, Dawn?? And I didn't know they sat while resting.

Hi! If you want to get certified as a Backyard Habitat, you can check out the website below.

http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/pdfs/bwhapplication.pdf

We don't have any here in Saugus. I miss them. We had a lot of fireflies in NJ.
Martha

Jen, I bought the 'butterfly garden' planned package from Bluestone Perennials and I'm not entirely happy with it, if you were thinking of going that way. I don't think they gave enough space for each plant.... it's crowded now. Well, also, I ned to learn to prune better! The garden doesn't have any host plants (that I know of), just nectar.

Harper

Our BG in Saugus doesn't have any food plants in the main viewing area. Just nectar ones. but it is in a nature reserve and there are a lot of weedy plants and trees of the sort that the butterflies love nearby. I love your butterfly garden, Harper. You are just a good gardener and got everything to grow well. I am hoping our perennials we planted this year take off so well.
Martha

I have a butterfly garden, but mainly planted nectar plants to start with. Now I am working on the host plants. I was given a lot of seeds by folks in the B'fly & Hummer forum to get started. Really nice people there who will answer all the dumb questions you have and come up smiling and ready for more LOL. I tried to start Maypop (passiflora incarnata), which is a host plant, but I didn't have any luck with it, or the milkweeds (I had seeds for 3 different kinds). But I did plant parsley and dill. Haven't seen any caterpillars, but will keep adding plants.

I have considered having my backyard certified as a wildlife habitat. I've looked at the application and believe it qualifies. I am looking to plant more native shrubs that produce some kind of berry or fruit for wildlife. there are so many small things you can do.

Martha, what a sweet thing to say! Thank you.

Gram,
I have a small pot of dill which I have defended vigorously from caterpillers. I know I dispatched several back in June when the dill first got big. They were taking out my herbs. I didn't have enough to share. Could be that the egg laying and caterpillers are over for the season. Next year I plant to start several pots of parsley and dill for both species, woman and butterfly. Some of these will go up to the butterfly garden and I will still defend my ones at home.
Martha

Harper, You must be taking great care of those flowers the plants are huge!

They're too huge! They've flopped over. My staking efforts were not helpful. I gotta figure something else out. One weird thing, the butterfly bush in the corner of the garden is growing up straight on one main stem. I tried pruning it in the spring, but it still only grew one tall stem...wierd.

Harper,
next time try tomato cages when they are smaller and let them grow up through it. You can attach any branches that grow outside the cage to the cage with green twist tie stuff. Plants that big, you won't ever see the cage. This works great on my peonies in the spring. They're not just for tomatoes anymore!
Martha

I planted a butterfly garden at the school I teach in last summer. It qualified for certification with the Monarch Watch.org people this summer. It has wonderful clumps of perenials for nectar and I added some annuals (ageratum, allysum, zinnias, parsley, anise and cilantro) for additional nectar and host sources. Milkweed (asclepias) are absolutely essential for a butterfly garden as they are the ONLY thing that Monarcg cats will eat. I posted several pics of this garden on the Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening Forum back in June. It's looking so fine and attracting butterflies by the dozen at any given moment during the work day. There is also a hummingbird or 2 that frequent the Monarda on a very regular basis.
I just got done planning and planting a butterfly border for a customer. I'll post a few photos of that project when it was almost done. It came out pretty and should be screaming with color, and those "flying flowers" next spring/summer. Tell me what you think.

Couldn't do it without a young strong helper

joe pye weed lookiing good

corner with bench, dogwood and asters

Looks great LadyC!

It's grouped by color, starting with purples, then oranges and reds, then yellows, then pinks before the corner section with a dogwood, a bench, a couple of euonymus, a small boxwood, a hydrangea and some asters

OOps! Think I misposted a pic. Or perhaps the pic was correct and the text was wrong. Whichever, this is the back corner, with a very tired me. Hard work, but a labor of love.

Very well done! You should be proud. (Would I say otherwise after seeing you with an axe??)

Oooo very nice job Lady Cleo. I like the blend of textures as well as the color scheme. All your hard work certainly shows in the finished product. A well deserved sit down and a job well done!

Thank you thank you for all the kind and flattering words. I can't wait to see the border more filled in next summer.
Victor--not to worry. I was HOURS past using that axe as a tool, heaven forbid a weapon. At that point it was more like a crutch or a cane--just helping me stay propped up.

Here's a shot from last month at the school garden.

Wow - that's really beautiful.

And here's a regular visitor