A butterfly garden is a wonderful way to butterfly-watch. You can attract butterflies to your house by planting a just few of the right flowers in a windowbox or in a corner of a vegetable garden. Or you can devote an entire section of the landscape to your butterfly garden.

BEGIN YOUR GARDEN
Find a good spot for your garden. The best spot is a sunny one with protection from the wind—against a wall or stand of bushes. Sunlight is a very important ingredient for your butterfly garden. Butterflies are cold-blooded, so the sun helps them stay warm. Check your yard at hourly intervals on a sunny day to see which area receives the most sun.

The first thing you'll need for your butterfly garden is flowers. The best plants for a butterfly garden are those that flower for a long period of time, are fragrant, grow in colorful clumps, and have large petals or blossoms that provide easy access to nectar. Choose a few plants from the following list to get your garden started. If you are unfamiliar with a certain plant, your local nursery can provide planting tips. An additional benefit: many flowers that butterflies are attracted to also attract hummingbirds. Look for them among your blossoms, especially the red ones.

Butterflies are sociable insects and they will be attracted to a site with flowers and water. You can attract them into your garden by providing them with water to sit in and sip. A small birdbath or garden pond is ideal. Or using scissors, carefully cut off the bottom of a milk jug, leaving the sides about an inch and a half high. Place among your flowers. Fill the jug with water for your butterflies, and remember to change water often to keep it clean and fresh.

Plant your flowers. Do not use any pesticides around these plants. The poison that kills insect pests will also kill butterflies and their larvae. Use man-made products with restraint and be aware seen and unseen consequences. Butterflies (and caterpillars) are insects. Insecticides such as Dursban, Diazinon and Malathion kill insects. They don't discriminate between harmful and beneficial insects. They are designed to kill insects that come into contact with them. Use these guidelines for using pesticides sparingly in your butterfly garden.

MAINTAINING YOUR BUTTERFLY GARDEN
• Try to plant disease and insect resistant plants. Get your plants healthy. Use compost. Select plants native to your area. Plant sun-loving plants in the sun. Plant shade-loving plants in the shade.
• Spray the plant instead of the garden. In fact, spray just the part of the plant insects are after instead of the whole plant. Spray only if you know the insects are there. Preventative spraying of insecticides is not a good thing.
• Buy a water wand to control spider mites and aphids. Its high pressure spray knocks these critters off the leaves without the use of any chemicals. It is amazingly effective.
• Organic gardening books and magazines will help you choose the least harmful products.
• Avoid bacillus thuringiensis (BT). This is a powder which contains a bacterial pathogen that kills caterpillars. It is often praised by natural gardeners as an accepted biological control. However, BT kills caterpillars and butterfly gardeners need caterpillars to make more butterflies.
• Walk your garden and get to know your individual plants. Some pests can wipe out a plant overnight. Benign neglect does not always work. Vigilance will pay off and the pleasure of strolling the garden is an added bonus.
• Do not use systemic poisons. These are chemicals that are placed in the ground and taken up by the plant's roots to make the entire plant poisonous. Unfortunately, this makes the plant a killer of both beneficial and harmful insects. It also leads to the increase of insects resistant to the systemic.
• Water your plants before you spray.
• Wear protective gear when spraying insecticides. A long sleeved shirt, pants (not shorts), gloves and goggles are a minimum. Many insecticides and fungicides are very harmful to the eyes. Do not spray without eye protection. And wash the clothes separately.
• Relax a little. Unless you are entering your plant in a contest, does it really matter if something (perhaps butterfly larvae) has nibbled some of the leaves? A butterfly garden is a man made environment. Do only what is necessary to keep your butterflies happy and healthy and they will provide you with many hours of enjoyment.

Robin Milliken is a Landscape Specialist and Master Gardener
The Master Gardener appears monthly in The Olathe Daily News.
© H&R Lawn and Landscape

Links to other monthly columns: