Watching beautiful butterflies happily fluttering from flower to flower is a real treat. Would you like to attract butterflies to your garden? It's easy to create your own butterfly garden. Simply plant some bee- and butterfly-friendly plants, also known as nectar plants, and their brightly coloured flowers and beautiful fragrances will soon have the butterflies flocking to your garden. Perhaps the most well-known butterfly-friendly plant is the butterfly bush (Buddleja). They also love sunflowers, lavender and crane's-bill geraniums. The bright colours of these plants act like a magnet to butterflies. Good examples of other butterfly-friendly flowers include Muscari, also known as the Grape hyacinth, allium and small irises. Don't have a garden, but do have a balcony? Don't worry, these butterfly-friendly plants can also be planted in a flower pot on your balcony!
A safe haven for butterflies
Butterflies are cold-blooded insects and like to find safe, protected spots where they can warm themselves in the sun and gather their energy before fluttering onwards. For this reason, it is a good idea to create safe places in your garden where butterflies can shelter from the wind and rain, during the night and in the winter. This could be a dry stone wall, an old tree stump, a bundle of sticks or even a pile of decomposing leaves. Special insect hotels for butterflies and bees are also available.
From caterpillar to butterfly
Host plants make it possible for a wide variety of butterflies to reproduce in your butterfly garden. These plants provide food for caterpillars and are mostly wild plants such as Umbellifers, as well as certain varieties of thistle and clover. If you would like to attract a variety of butterflies to your garden, make sure to plant a number of different butterfly-friendly plants.
Attracting bees to your garden
Bees pollinate crops and are therefore an essential part of nature. They also play an unexpected yet vital role in the manufacture of a number of products. Everyone knows that bees make honey, but did you know that beeswax is also used in a number of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products? The pollen that bees collect from flowers is also used in a number of nutritional supplements. All in all, bees are very important to our way of life. They are often confused with wasps and chased out of gardens as a result. Whereas bees are only interested in flowers, wasps are attracted to anything sweet. In general, wasps are also much more aggressive. Give nature a helping hand by giving bees a home in your garden.
