Butterfly Gardens and Pollinator Gardens – Show Notes

Today’s links: ely.how/episode62

Create your pollinator garden with the ELY Membership!

Ask a question about your butterfly garden
Find me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest

Butterfly gardens and Pollinator gardens

Several benefits to pollinator gardens
- Beautiful
- Environmental health
- Easy to maintain
- Educational
How to start a butterfly garden
- Can be overwhelming
  - Something is better than nothing
- Try to select plants so something blooms all season
- Learn what insects you want
  - g. Monarch butterfly
- Find host plants needed for your insects
  - Egg-laying
  - Larvae
  - Adults
- Generalist nectar plants are also important
- Plants that attract butterflies:
  - Black eyed susans (Rudbeckia hirta)
  - Sunflowers (Helianthus spp.)
  - Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea)
  - Yarrow (Achillea spp.)
  - Mountain mint (Pycnanthemum spp.)
  - New england aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
  - Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Start with a blank space, or integrate into existing garden
  - Episode 10 – how to start a new garden bed
- Things to avoid
  - Random seed mixes
    - Unless you want a ‘meadow’ appearance
  - Pesticides
  - Butterfly bush (Buddleja spp.), non-natives
- Resources
  - Local parks, Botanical gardens, arboreta,
    - Resources & workshops
  - Local Wild Ones chapters
  - Xerces Society
- Doing your part
  - Sharing space with other creatures
  - Part of greater landscape
  - Monarchs, bees, other insects suffering
  - Educational
  - Invigorating

Are you ready to free yourself from your yard work routine?

Confidently transform your landscape
with the Easy Living Yards Membership!

Learn More!

Note: Some of the links on this page contain affiliate links. If you click on these links to make a purchase, I may obtain a small commission at no charge to you. All of these products are either products I own or have researched and would like to own. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.