Butterfly Gardening
By Nicky Pilkington, Tue Jan 10th
What is butterfly gardening? Simply put butterfly gardening isthe art of growing flowers and plants that will attract thesecolorful and dainty creatures to your garden. Delight yourfamily and visitors with beautiful butterflies, but be sure tocreate a safe habitat for them. If you own cats rethink yourplans, because it would be a shame to attract these lovelyinsects to their death.
The design your butterfly garden is a matter of personalpreference. Typical points to consider are the size of yourgarden and the types of flowers and plants you want to grow.Pick a style of garden that appeals to you, but ensure it alsocontains the plants and flowers that appeal to the butterfliesyou wish to attract.
It is important to find out which plants and flowers willattract the species of butterflies. that live in your area. Thisinformation can be found at the local library To create the kindof environment that they find attractive, you will also needwater of some kind. A birdbath will look attractive and keep thebutterflies up off the ground, away from stray cats ormischievous puppies. A shallow dish on a post or hung in a treewill do just as well.
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When planting your butterfly garden be careful how youcoordinate the colors you choose for your flowerbeds. Althoughbutterflies do not care about your choice of color, you don'twant your garden to be a hodgepodge of unrelated colors andtextures. Butterflies are attracted to those flowers that havenectar rather than pollen, like honeysuckle, milkweed, summerlilac, Valerian, daisies, Purple Coneflower, Yellow Sage, daylilies and lavender.
Some people find it helpful to draw and color a layout of theirbutterfly gardening plan to see what the finished product wouldlook like. Keep in mind that warm colors like red and orange areflashy and showy. These colors have a greater impact against astrong green background. Cool colors such as blue and purple aresoothing and toned down and would work better with a whitecontrast to create the look of freshness and brightness.
About the author:Find more about gardeningand some useful gardeningtips at AboutGardening
