If you build it they will come !
An adaptation of the line from the Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones movie Field of Dreams. I love that movie ! This applies not just to baseball fields, but to butterfly gardens as well.
Now that the kids are out of school for the summer, why not try a very simple, very rewarding project; create a butterfly garden.
Planting a garden to attract butterflies is one of the best ways to get your kids interested in nature, and gardening. Plus you can sneak in a little bit of science at the same time.
I always suggest starting small. You can add butterfly plants to existing spaces or create a separate garden area especially for the kids. The size of the garden is up to you; even a container garden will hold enough flowers to attract a few butterflies. You should locate your garden in the sun. Butterflies need heat to keep their body temperatures warm. Color and fragrance are what's important to attract butterflies. Group a few plants together for maximum impact, a swath of orange milkweed or Mexican sunflowers is easier for them to see and smell.
It's never to soon to start creating an amazing butterfly garden with your eco friendly kids or grandkids.
The 7 a.m. check isn't better; it's just another fixed ritual, and a shallow dish under zinnias dries by noon regardless. A watering calculator for container gardens only helps if you log shade and pot size, which the two-column plant-and-visitor page doesn't capture. Three butterflies over a week is too small to credit the dish anyway.
Three butterflies over a week made me move my shallow dish under the zinnias, then I stopped the daily ritual and checked at 7 a.m. because it dried out by noon. I also redid my journal as a two-column plant-and-visitor page. A garden watering calculator now tells me when to refill; the messy, slower version finally works.
Adding the shallow water dish brought ants first, not more butterflies. I tried it under the zinnias after counting three different butterflies over a week; the dish dried out by noon, so morning checks worked better than the daily ritual described. I ended up keeping a two-column page in my container-garden butterfly journaling notes: plant and visitor, no cursive labels. The advice still worked, just slower and messier.
The suggestion to start small with a container garden really landed here. Last summer my kids planted a pot of zinnias on our sunny porch and we counted three different butterflies over a week. We kept a little nature journal, using some cursive handwriting practice sheets to label the flowers, and it turned into a daily ritual. Now I’m curious whether adding a shallow water dish would bring even more visitors.
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