Attracting butterflies to the garden

Have you ever fancied having your garden full of butterflies in the summer? You might be pleased to learn that attracting butterflies into the garden doesn’t take much effort and just a bit of thought now will ensure that your garden is a riot of activity in the coming months. Even if you’re garden is tiny, butterflies will still be attracted to it as long as you have planted suitable nectar plants as it’s the nectar from the flowers that supplies the adult butterfly with food.

You’ll never work alone

To increase the number of butterflies in the garden, plant suitable flowers such as bluebells, dandelions, pansies, primroses, sweet william and wallflowers. If you want to encourage butterflies to stay right through until autumn, then chrysanthemum, French marigold, forget-me-nots, lavender, mint and honeysuckle could also be planted. See below for more shrub suggestions.

Garden centres will be able to give you plenty of advice about nectar bearing plants for spring and summer. Plant them in a sunny but sheltered spot as butterflies enjoy the warmth. The more different species of plants you have, the greater the variety of species of butterflies you’re likely to attract. Keep the new plants well watered too as this helps them produce more nectar.

Feeding the caterpillars

You can also boost the population of butterflies by providing a good food source for caterpillars. Nettles, sweet rocket and garlic mustard are all ideal and most common species of butterfly will be happy to lay their eggs on these plants. Caterpillars will not cause noticeable damage but if you have problems with caterpillars eating the your cabbage leaves, take time to pick them off as opposed to spraying with pesticides.

Alternatively, some gardeners prefer to cover their cabbages with fleece to stop butterflies from laying their eggs there. For those who are not that keen on having nettles growing with other plants, you might prefer to plant some nettles in pots instead and bury them in the ground in a sunny area where they will do the same job but not get out of control. If you grow herbs, plant enough for both yourself and the caterpillars as they enjoy eating things like fennel, parsley and dill and this will help to keep them away from other flowers in your garden.

A few suggestions

Certain plants are big attractions for them. Buddleia and Sedum ‘brilliant’ will attract loads of varieties and even neglected areas covered with nettles will be a haven. Some annuals to plant could be Dill Calendula Candytuft Cosmos Petunias, Nasturtium and Zinnias. Perennials could include: Achillea, Dianthus, Asters, Erigeron, Mints and Sedums. Shrubs that could be effective at attracting the butterfly other than Buddleia could include Potentillas, Spireas Weigela and Viburnums. The more types of planting mean that there are more chances of attracting a greater variety of butterflies. The Inishowen Wildlife Club would be interested if you see any butterflies that are unusual in the garden. E-mail inishowenwildlife.com or check out their website.

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