How to create a butterfly-friendly garden?

Butterflies have an important role in our ecosystem. Apart from being pollinators, butterflies can enhance the aesthetic look and appeal of any garden. Pollination from the butterflies makes sure that pollen is spread from flower to flower leading to fertilization and seed protection. Creating a butterfly friendly garden is easy and does not require any fancy equipment. By simply following some basic natural principles, you can attract butterflies to your home garden.

Here are some tips that can increase the chances of creating a wonderful butterfly garden in your home.

Plant the right flowers: Butterflies thrive on drinking nectar of flowering plants and are more likely to be around a garden having such flowering plants. The best and the easiest way to attract butterflies in one’s garden is to shortlist the types of butterflies prevalent in that area and planting the native flowering plants. Usually most species of butterflies are attracted towards all bee balm, mints and sages apart from butterfly weed and other season flowers. Other popular plants and flowers that are known as breeding grounds for caterpillars and butterflies include milkweed, dogbane, cow parsnip, fennel, dill, cabbage and mustard apart from others.

Make Sure the garden receives adequate sunlight: One of the basic parameters to ensure your garden gets a wide range of flowers to bloom attracting caterpillars and butterflies is t make sure the garden receives adequate sunlight. Sunlight is an essential element for blossoming of most flowers. Without adequate sunlight, the flowers would not blossom at their peak. Such flowers may not attract any butterflies to the garden. Ideally four to six hours of direct sunlight is recommended for your garden to turn it into a beautiful butterfly garden.

Avoid chemical pesticides: The use of chemical pesticides is one of the easiest ways to make sure that your garden can never have butterflies. Chemical pesticides are brute and harsh as they kill all bugs including caterpillars. The use of such harsh chemicals makes sure that the wonderful metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly never materializes in the garden. Instead of using a chemical pesticide, one can use organic disinfectants that can help maintain the population of good bugs while aiding in removing any bad bugs detrimental to the growth of the flowers in the garden area.

Provide shelter plants for butterflies: Creating shelter plants for butterflies makes sure that they stay around in the garden area. Butterflies need shelter from string winds and general predators. Butterfly bushes can act as a perfect home for the butterflies while enhancing the overall look and appeal of the garden. Different herbs and plants can be used in a series of butterfly bushes to attract different species of butterflies to make the bushes their permanent home. Also it is essential to keep the bushes damp with regularly spraying of water as butterflies are incapable of drinking water from a regular bird bath or open water source.