Ideas For Your Butterfly Garden Design

When creating a design for your garden, you might choose to have a theme or goal for your garden. For example, you may want to attract certain birds, bees, or butterflies to your garden. As a result, your garden can be enjoyed by not only the creatures which are attracted to the garden, but also by you.

Attracting butterflies is a popular theme for many gardeners. The goal, of course, is to create a butterfly garden design that butterflies will find attractive. There are many considerations and features to include in the butterfly garden design. You’ll want to take the time to find just the right elements for the garden location and for the types of plants needed to attract the butterflies. Though it’s not hard to create a butterfly garden design, there are many helpful gardening books and internet sites where additional information can be found.

Plants for a Butterfly Garden Design

Adult butterflies are attracted to flowers. Butterflies feed on the nectar from the flowers. Incorporating many flowering plants of various colors into the butterfly garden design will inevitably attract adult butterflies. Plants such as butterfly bush, butterfly weed, azalea, lilac, marigold and impatiens will be big attractors.

Milkweed, dogbane, thistles and nettles are appropriate plants if the goal of the butterfly garden design is to make an attractive area for butterflies at all stages of life. These are not usually desirable plants for your garden, but these plants offer a location for butterflies to lay their eggs and create a food source for the resulting caterpillars to feed.

A Few Other Items to Include In a Butterfly Garden Design

Water is a necessary element for your butterfly garden design. A small pool, a bird bath, or a couple small pans inset in the soil will make nice pools of water for the butterflies. Also, butterflies need an area where they can warm themselves. Dark rocks or other solid objects that absorb the heat from the sun can be place around the garden where the butterflies can stop and rest.

Fresh fruit can be placed throughout your garden to supplement the butterfly’s diet. Be sure to replace the fruit often so that it is always fresh. Hummingbird feeders are useful to butterflies and can be placed in the garden. Butterflies will use the feeder and, as a bonus, hummingbirds will enjoy your garden.

Finally, don’t forget to add a small bench and perhaps even a gazebo so that you can sit and enjoy your beautiful butterfly garden design. And don’t forget to have some fun!

Jonathan Townsend works and gardens in Marietta, Ga. Get more great garden design ideas at www.allgardendesign.com

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