So I mentioned in my last gardening post that my daughters really wanted a butterfly garden this year. We did a little research about what plants would welcome pollinators in our area, especially butterflies, and I bought a few plants that fit the bill. (The photo above is of a wild mountain laurel now blooming in my yard.)
What did we buy?
- Butterfly bush
- Spanish lavender
- Milkweed (from our local farmers market)
- Chamomile (from our local feed and seed store)
- Mixed sunflower seeds
Some of the plants we wanted to buy were not easily available. I am super happy that we lucked into finding some milkweed! I hope we will host some monarchs in the coming years!
As is true to fashion for teenagers, this ended up becoming an all mom effort to install the garden. It took me a while to figure out where to actually put it. I wanted it to be near our vegetable gardens, but in a place easy to plant. I ended up making a bed with an existing peony bush, and I think it turned out well!
To finish off the garden, I harvested some larger rocks from our gravel driveway, making a border with these. I’m still debating about whether to fill in with pea gravel to keep the weeds down. We’ll see how the garden evolves!
Do you have a special area in your yard devoted to pollinators? I’d love to hear about it! As always, I hope you all are safe and healthy.
Anne the Vegan 
Good work. Our garden has loads of lavender, buddleia and sedum (which is also very good for attracting butterflies and especially bees).
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You did a great job. I would love to have a butterfly garden. I am great at making plans, but actually getting it done is a totally different story. LOL
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I just got lucky that I actually found plants and had the time! And a driveway with lots of rocks to harvest! 😂
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And thank you 🙏
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