Creating a butterfly garden is easy, even if the only dirt you have available is in a window box. Sheila Ellison encourages you to discover creative garden activities perfect for warm spring or summer days. Here's how to begin:
- Find place for your butterfly garden that gets about six hours of sunlight a day and is sheltered from the wind. This can be an area of an existing garden all the way down to a flower box on your deck.
- Fill it with nectar-producing flowers that will attract butterflies, such as zinnias, purple cornflowers, black-eyed Susans, marigolds, etc. Then look at the height description of each plant on the back of the seed packet, and place taller plants in the back of the garden.
- For window-box gardens, plant smaller varieties, such as verbena, alyssum, and impatiens.
- When the flowers begin to bloom, sit near the plants with your child, and watch the butterflies arrive.
- Get a picture book so you can identify the different varieties of butterflies that have come to visit your garden.
