Gardening for butterflies
We love to encourage as much wildlife to the garden as we can. Of all the possible animal sightings, there is nothing that makes our daughter – and us! – happier than spotting a butterfly fluttering through, or resting on a plant.
But while our childhood memories are of lazy hot summer days and gardens filled with butterflies, for children today the sighting of a butterfly in the garden is a much rarer occasion. There are 59 different species of butterfly in the UK, and five of those have become extinct in the last 150 years. Worse, a survey carried out in 2015 showed that a huge 76% of the UK’s butterflies have declined in numbers over the last four decades. Butterflies (like bees, moths, and many other insects) have been the victims of climate change, pesticide use and widespread habitat destruction. Clearly, we need to do more to preserve these beautiful creatures.
Gardens play an important part in providing habitats and food for butterflies. Though each garden itself might be small compared to the greater landscape, when put together gardens can provide crucial “stepping stones” between nature reserves and other natural habitats.
So, what can you do to attract butterflies to your garden?
Plant for nectar
Butterflies feed on nectar in flowers, so it’s important to have a good range of these in your garden to help feed butterflies.
Choose nectar rich plants and position them in sunny spots. Butterflies are cold blooded and need the warmth of the sun to keep their muscles working properly. This is why you can often find butterflies “basking” in sunlight on flowers.
Butterflies are relatively large insects, and need strong, sturdy flowers to support their weight. They rest while they feed – standing on the flower itself, rather than hovering close to it – so the plant needs to be able to support their weight. Large flat flowers, made up of multiple blooms, such as sedum, are a good option. Tubular flowers on sturdy shrubs are also a good choice, such as hebe.
As a general rule, butterflies are attracted to “high frequency” colours: purple, pink and orange, along with white and red. Opt for plants with flowers in these colours.
Include a range of plants in your garden that flower throughout the Spring and Summer months, providing a nectar source for a long period of time. The butterfly conservation charity has a useful list of nectar rich plants that flower by month. Ivy, as pictured to the left, is invaluable as a nectar-rich plant that is in flower when little else is.
Water
Butterflies need water, but can’t land on open water sources, such as a pond or bird bath, to drink.
Instead, they drink water from muddy soil, which also gives them essential salts and minerals. This is known as “puddling.” It’s especially important for butterflies during the summer months, and at the hottest times of the day (usually between about 10am and 3pm).
If you have a pond, then maintaining muddy edges can provide a great spot for butterflies to settle and drink. If not, you can create a specific puddling location by making an area of wet mud in a spot with full sun. Dig a small depression, and line with a pond liner, then fill with a thin layer of soil. Pour water on top until the puddling area is muddy. Keep topped up with water during the hot months, so it doesn’t dry out.
If you don’t have space for a full muddy spot, then a simple dish filled with sand and kept damp with water should work just as well…
Include food and habitat for caterpillars
Butterflies lay their eggs on plants that provide both habitat and food for caterpillars. And these are often completely different to the nectar plants that the adults feed on! Include some of these in your planting to support every stage of the butterfly lifecycle.
Different species of butterflies have different favourite host plants, but some that are good to include are native shrubs and trees, as well as some “weeds” – nettles are a preferred host plant for a lot of different butterfly species, so leaving a wildlife area in the garden to cultivate some nettles is a great plan!
Willow, hawthorn, oaks and lime trees are all popular host plants for a range of caterpillars. Nasturtiums are a popular host plant for the cabbage white butterfly, so plant some of these if you want to tempt them away from your cabbages!
There is a detailed list of some of the popular food plants for caterpillars available from the Butterfly Conservation Charity.
And finally: don’t kill caterpillars! It sounds obvious, but many new gardeners are terrified that every caterpillar they see is going to eat away at their plants (and, indeed, many will) but if you kill all the caterpillars, they won’t have a chance to turn into butterflies or moths.
Avoid pesticides
Avoid using any pesticides or insecticides on your plants. Pesticides will harm all insects, including butterflies, and have been especially linked to declining bee populations in recent years.
Rather than reaching for a spray to kill bugs, we’d always encourage creating a biodiverse garden, with natural predators to do the job for you. For example, encourage ladybirds, lacewings or hoverflies to eat aphids. And tolerate some pest damage to plants as well. Rather than having perfectly pristine plants, but a scorched earth policy to insects, we’d always prefer a garden teeming with nature, even if a few leaf edges are looking a bit nibbled…
Record your sightings
With species that are in decline, it’s helpful to monitor and record sightings, in order to better understand how populations are changing. The Butterfly Conservation charity records early sightings of butterflies each year. You can add your sightings here: first butterfly sightings.
