Butterfly Gardening – Welcome Your Winged Friends
Even if it’s mid-summer, you can still plant a butterfly garden and welcome winged friends to your yard. Many butterflies go through several generations during a single summer, and now is the time to lure adult butterflies from a first or second generation this summer to the garden to lay eggs on host plants. Once the eggs hatch, you’ll have your own little butterfly farm right outside your window.
Get some Host Plants
Host plants are what …
Butterfly Larvae are Here!
A few weeks ago, I captured pictures of the first Eastern Black Swallowtail in our garden. She was busily laying eggs all over our fennel plants. I have since been inspecting the plants each day to see if the eggs had hatched. Last week, I thought they had. However, the little green wormy looking thing did not match the Swallowtail larva I have seen before. …
Breaking Butterfly News!
The Butterflies are Back! This weekend in Wilmington, NC, the Azalea Festival is going full-swing. I took in my share of fun, and my azaleas are blooming. However, the big news today is that we saw our first Eastern Black Swallowtail flying around our little butterfly garden, and it was laying eggs like crazy all over the fennel plants. …
Habitat Gardens: Happy Meals and a Home for Garden Critters
“Invite animals into my garden? I don’t THINK so!” I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that from many serious gardeners if asked whether they welcome or shoo away insects, small mammals, birds and other animals to their gardens. Yes, deer herds indiscriminately ripping baby lettuces out of the vegetable garden, and cheerfully eating hostas and stripping arborvitae of their leaves is maddening. …
How to Create a Backyard Butterfly Garden
Butterfly conservatories are a favorite tourist attraction in any city lucky enough to have one. You don’t have to wait for a vacation to a far-off place to enjoy bountiful displays of butterflies! Planting a backyard butterfly garden is easy and fun. The key to raising your own butterflies is to grow plants for the larva to eat, for holding the chrysalis, …
