Home Ownership Basics: Tips For Making Your House A Home

« Back to Home

How To Attract Butterflies To Your Yard With A Wildflower Garden

Posted on

Humans have a natural attraction to butterflies because of their beauty. Butterflies are an inspiration for poems and art. They are also useful at moving pollen between flowers. For these reasons, it is hard to resist buying a box of wildflower seed packets from the gardening store. Read on to find out how to attract butterflies to your yard with a wildflower garden.

How To Plant Your Wildflower Garden

Wildflowers are the type of flowers that is vigorous, self-reproducing, and needs little attention. Many gardeners use wildflower seed mixes to start their garden. When using package seed mix, you want to make sure you have enough to cover your gardening area. A good rule of thumb is to plant one ounce of wildflower seed mix for every 100 to 150 square feet.

Many wildflower seeds are very small. It helps to mix sand with your flower seed packets, which helps with spreading them evenly.  You should also rake the seeds lightly after spreading them. A wildflower garden also requires you to keep the seeds moist until they germinate. It can take from four to six weeks to get your garden established.

What Is The Connection Between Wildflowers And Butterflies?

If you want to attract butterflies, then you need to plant flowers that help with the life stages of this insect. Butterflies need somewhere to plant food for their larvae and somewhere to lay their eggs, need nectar sources and somewhere to form chrysalides. Many native plants and butterflies depend on each other for reproduction and survival. Examples of plants to attract butterflies may include buckwheat, milkweeds, willows, dragon sagebrush, gooseberry and pawpaw. It helps to choose wildflowers that thrive in your local area.

Maintain Control

It helps to maintain control over your garden. Some gardeners think they can just plant it and leave it. You can get an imbalance in your garden due to weather conditions. Weather conditions can make your garden look sparse. Over seeding can help with maintaining the balance of plants.

A flower garden is more than just helping your yard look beautiful. It is good for the insects and gives you peace of mind. Some people feel a sense of calm when sitting out in their garden, which is something that you can enjoy year round.

You can benefit from talking to an expert about your gardening plan. Once you establish your garden, you should not have any problems.


Share