by Debra Macapagal

Created on: May 15, 2009   Last Updated: October 26, 2009

Butterfly Gardens: If You Build It, They Will Come

I have worked on different types of gardens on my property over the last seven years. My favourite by far was when I planted my butterfly garden. I love butterflies and really wanted them to have a place to come and visit while they fluttered around my neighbourhood.

I wanted to attract a wide range of butterflies such as the Monarch, Painted Lady, Swallowtails, Red Admirals, Sulphurs and many others. The plant selection proved to be quite the process, since I had to choose plants that the butterflies would like and would do well in my yard. Many hours were spent digging and planning for the garden. The saying from the movie, Field Of Dreams, kept jumping into my head whenever I would work on my garden: "If you build it they will come."

I put down newspaper so the undesirable plants, otherwise known as weeds, would not infiltrate my garden. I added top soil, mixed with compost from my compost bin, to add nutrients. I put in my plants and added wood chips to keep the soil nice and moist. I then waited patiently for both plants to bloom, and butterflies to arrive.

I visited the garden every other day for signs of life. I started to notice an odd plant that appeared all over my garden. I recognized this plant as one of the plants that I had added to my vegetable garden the year before. It was the first year I planted a vegetable garden and I went overboard on the number of plants I added. When we could not keep up with them, the plants ended up in the compost. My butterfly garden had turned into a tomato patch!

I laughed once I realized what had happened, but made a mental note to never use the compost from that bin for my flower gardens. The perfect conditions of the compost bin saved all the tomato seeds from all the tomatoes I had composted the previous year, all of which decided my butterfly garden was the perfect place to sprout. There were way too many tomato plants for me to remove, so I just let them grow in amongst the other plants, and waited to see what would happen.

It was truly an odd site: tomato plants among the blooming flowers! I did have to remove some of the tomato plants, as they really took over my so called butterfly garden.

Once this challenge was diverted I was able to once again enjoy my butterfly plants, and started to notice all the different visitors to my yard.

The first visitor to my garden was a Yellow Swallowtail, which I had never seen visit my yard in previous years. I was so excited. Shortly after, Monarchs appeared. I spotted a few Monarch cocoons on milkweed plants and watched closely until they hatched. Painted Ladies were born in my garden, and Red admirals flittered happily around my yard for weeks.

Since that first year, I have had many years of enjoyment from this garden. Many varieties of butterflies and birds have dropped by to visit my yard.

I have been delighted that the saying "You build it and they will come" came true. I built my garden and the butterflies still come!

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