How to Create Your Own Butterfly and Moth Garden
Symbols of freedom, love, artistry, and passion...
Artistic impulses or divine inspiration made visible...
The ghosts of departed loved ones...
The dreams of children full of imagination, light, and color...
Over the centuries, butterflies and moths have meant many things to many people. Besides all this, they are lovely and endangered. It is our duty and joy to provide homes for them. There are 700-750 species of butterflies in North America alone; surely we can attract some of them.
Butterflies and moths, along with frogs, often serve as a leading indicator of the state of the environment in a specific area. As hardy as many of them are, they are among the first to dissapear when something goes wrong. By planting a garden and encouraging the plants upon which butterflies thrive, you will be positively impacting the world on two fronts, along with just making your home nicer and more wondrous. Also, whatever encourages butterflies and moths often encourages birds, such as hummingbirds.
Even if you live in an apartment and must garden out of windowboxes and empty barrels, it is possible to lure some of these creatures to your home, as long as you don't face a busy street or playground where the vibrations and noises will frighten some of them away.
What You Can Do
Plant sweet-scented colorful plants that attract them visually and olfactorally. Depending upon where you live and what butterflies are native to your area, willow or maple trees might attract tiger swallowtail butterflies.
Plant a cherry or apple tree to attract white admiral butterflies.
Find a local expert on butterflies who can tell you which species you can expect to see. This person will also know the plants native to your area that you could plant to attract the notice of your faery visitors.
Choose your location carefully (if you have a choice). The spot should be sunny, warm (not overly hot), sheltered from high winds by a tree or wall, and not in a major pathway. A balcony might be perfect for this if it faces away from a street.
Arrange your plants so that they shelter each other. Put taller varieties in the back and shorter ones in the front.
Provide a source of water for the butterflies, just as you would for birds. A birdbath would work, or just a saucer of water. Drip irrigation also works and is wonderful for the plants, too.
Consider starting a community butterfly garden. How better to get children to care about the environment that to dazzle them with the wonder and beauty of butterflies? Use a corner of a park, chuch or school yard, even near a library. It might be easier to fund this way, and the upkeep on such a thing is minimal.
What You Should Not Do
Please do not include pesticides in your garden regimen if you intend to help butterflies. The toxins will meld with the liquids of the plants, including the nectar; this nectar is what the butterflies feed upon. Their tiny bodies and quick metabolisms cannot process out these toxins, and they will die.
Other Resources for Your Butterfly Creation
Butterfly Gardening (Self Help Sheet #7). $2.50. The Xerxes Society, 10 S.W. Ash St., Portland, OR 97204. The Xerxes Society is a nonprofit butterfly conservation organization. Send a SASE to get a list of other titles that may be useful and membership information.
Butterfly Gardening: Creating Summer Magic in Your Garden. $18.95. An expanded edition of the Xerxes pamphlet. Includes color pictures. You can order this from the Xerxes society.
The Butterfly Garden by Matthew Tekulsky. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Common Press, 1986. Includes information on raising butterflies from the larval stage onward. This book is available from Amazon.com.
Attracting Birds & Butterflies: How to Plan and Plant Backyard
Habitat by Barbara Ellis. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Another good source to have all of your questions answered, including what to plant, how to plant it, and what kind of upkeep is necessary to keep the plants attractive to the butterflies. This book is available from Amazon.com.
Butterfly Gardening for the South by Geyata Ajilvsgi. New York: Taylor Publishing, 1991. Ajilvshi's book provides information necessary to those who would garden in the deep South, including how to keep water around, what species to watch for, what plants are native and attract the elusive creatures and more. It's lovely to look at, as well. This book is available from Amazon.com.
Websites
Check out the Butterfly Website for more information on butterflies in general and gardening for them, as well.
Memorial to the Xerxes Butterfly
Only one hundred years ago, the Xerxes butterfly lived in the sand dunes in and around San Francisco, California. However, the encroachment of humans led to the removal of the dunes and the death of the butterflies. The Xerxes butterfly has the dubious distinction of being the first species destroyed by humankind. Not the last, just the first.
Of course, no photo is available...
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