CONSTRUCTION: Construction of a butterfly garden is important, butterflies are delicate and are not huge fans of wind, but they do love the sun! Butterflies use the early morning sun to warm themselves and retreat to shadier places during the heat of the day. These little flitter flutters love moisture too so it’s good to have a mix of plants consisting of a canopy, middle layer, ground cover and shelter.
PLANTING: Colourful massed beds draw butterflies in and keep them happily moving through the garden. With bold clusters of flowers more effective than single plants scattered through a garden. The shape of the flower is important too, with simple, flat flowers easier for butterflies to extract nectar.
Knowing which butterflies hang out in your area is important in knowing which food plants to provide, as a few of our rare butterflies only feed on a small number of locally native plants.
Grevillea, Banksia, Callistemon, Carrea, Hibbertia and Hardengergia are all great butterfly attracting plants and are also included in our Austraflora range click here to search our varieties http://www.austraflora.com/category/our-varieties/.
CHEMICALS: Chemicals in the garden can hinder attracting these beautiful critters. Not all of us are completely at ease with critters and insects in the garden, and tend to declare chemical warfare. In order to keep a bio-diverse, butterfly-friendly garden, we need to consider what chemicals we are using, and why. We have all heard of the butterfly effect, where a minor action in one location can have knock-on effect elsewhere. Well, apply this to your garden, where the sprinkling of ant sand or the spraying of pesticides could have an impact on not only the target insect, but a whole host of important critters. Think carefully about chemical use, and, where possible (especially in butterfly gardens) avoid it altogether.
Butterfly photo credit: lillydale.com, Plant your garden credit: Ku-Ring-gai Council