This is Weed. And this is Wack with WOWDY gardens. We are an organic gardening show focusing on saving money in the garden and trying to be good to the environment. Right. And we’re big fans of doing it yourself and not having to spend a ton of money on gardening projects. Today we’re going to talk about creating a butterfly garden, which is something I’ve never done intentionally, but I’ve always had butterflies around all my annuals and perennials in my garden. So I must be doing something. Right? Have you made a, have you intentionally ever built I have, I have installed a couple of butterfly garden gardens for clients back when I was landscaping. And actually my wife and I took a trip down to North Carolina to the Biltmore Museum in a state. And the first thing we did is we went in and we checked out their garden. They had a nice walled garden.
on the, on the estate. And when you enter the garden, they had butterfly gardens that are mirrored. They were mirroring each other. So they had one on the left and they had one on the right. And they planted the plants directly opposite each other. And it’s centered around the butterfly bush, which is a very prolific, um, sub shrub. I say sub shrub because it needs to be for, for its best health, it should be cut back every year.
In spring time in March, it should be cut back to about, uh, two feet off the ground or so. And then it’ll put off new shoots with, with big flowers on it. If you never cut it back, the plant will get spindly and not put off nearly as many flowers. So, and by the way, the light purple type is the only type that is considered invasive. So watch that. If you’re going to plant that type, um, you know, it will spread. Well, my research, um, as I said, I’ve never intentionally gone about, uh, doing a, um,
a butterfly garden, but, uh, here are some quick things I, uh, gleaned from the internet. Tons of good literature out there, particularly on the, uh, uh, agriculture extension websites. Maryland has a good, good articles on, um, on the butterflies. But one, uh, draw up a plan for your garden. Two, uh, make sure you have a, uh, you’ve provide food with lots of flowers and plants and trees. Butterflies need water. You need a spot with six
to eight hours of sunlight, uh, and, uh, avoid pesticides. That’s, that’s, uh, that’s, that’s a no-no for, for pollinators, particularly, uh, butterflies. That’s right. And so your butterfly garden should have in it a some milkweed. Absolutely. Milkweed just keeps on coming up every article I read. And, uh, uh, it’s, it’s vital for the, uh, the, the caterpillar feeds for the monarch butterfly. Very specific.
Nick wants to only chew on monarch or something. Milkweed. Milkweed. Right. So you want to have some milkweed for the monarchs that could be coming by, and you want to provide other flowers that they will like to, to, um, you know, feast on. And that would be summer, summer blooming perennials and sub shrubs. And that would include butterfly bush, Russian sage, black-eyed Susan, echinacea,
and different types of, um, sunflowers, as well as gladiola, um, and so forth. You can also put annuals in that will help them. And, uh, from what I read, it sounds as if you want to, uh, diversify, have a diversified portfolio in your garden. That’s right. Lots of different colored flowers in various groups all over the place. And, uh, which, uh, I’ve always done with my
vegetable garden, which is, I know, know much more about starting in a vegetable garden than I do a butterfly garden. But I’ve always enjoyed, uh, my zinnias and, you know, all those, yeah, zinnias are great because they’re summer blooming. Apparently, uh, my, I love to grow parsley early spring stuff. Those caterpillars do have to munch on things. Those baby, um, uh, butterfly and moth caterpillars do have to munch on things. Apparently they like parsley. Uh, and, uh, I didn’t seem to notice too much.
Too many things chewing on my parsley this year, but, uh, but keep in mind that some of those color, colorful caterpillars will turn into, uh, uh, butterflies. And if they’re eating some of your veggies, I’d say that’s one case where you let them go at it. Let them do it. That’s right. Would you have a frisbee, uh, close on the ground with a pebble in the center? I do that. Yeah. And it gets knocked over and evaporates all the time. My, my pond, uh, uh, is attracting dragonflies and, and, and butterflies as well.
All right, folks. So.
That’s right. Lots of different colors. Summer blooming perennials are great cause you don’t have to replant them, but summer blooming annuals are fine too.
I’m definitely going to, uh, uh, talk to my neighbors have milkweed about, uh, getting more milkweed in my garden. Yeah. Get some seeds and we can grow some. Yeah. I noticed that the city’s doing a pretty good job of planting, uh, uh, milkweed in, in open spaces like around the co-op. But, um, as we walked by last night, my wife noticed someone had taken all the seed pods, which I guess is a good thing. Right.
So, uh, um, have some, you know, encourage butterflies. If we all, and the, and it’s not just one yard that we’ll do it, all yards, if all yards had this kind of stuff, uh, if we had one yard per block, that would be awesome. Oh, we need more than that. But yeah, there are a couple of yards per block. Then the, then the monarchs can go on their way and feast and rest as they’d go. And there’s tons of like literature out there. So, uh, uh, go at it. That’s right. They’re fascinating creatures.
That’s right. All kinds of stages of life. Anyway, before I ramble on about things for which I know nothing, uh, having, uh, not having a degree in biology. Well, you, you’ll go plant a butterfly garden. You’ll be, you’ll be encouraged. Well, as I, as I said, I’m already doing it because I have lots of butterflies and hummingbirds and things. Yeah. All vines that grow, you know, so I have, I’m doing something right because I’m seeing hummingbirds and butterflies, uh, every day.
But anyway, we’re, we’re blabbing. Eric’s got a show to carry on with it. Thanks Eric for hosting us. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Yeah. So goodbye from weed and whack. Join us next week and we’ll be back.