Planning Your Butterfly Garden

by webmann on June 6, 2009

Image by Chris & Lara Pawluk via Flickr

When creating a butterfly garden, the possibilities of what to include in your butterfly garden designs are endless. Below are some suggestions to help get you started when designing your butterfly garden plan. They are designed to spark the creative process of your mind and get you started on your way to creating a lovely and well-suited butterfly garden.

- First, before you even begin your butterfly garden, find out which species of butterflies are in your area. Consider taking an exploratory hike around your location with a butterfly identification book to find the butterflies that dwell close to your property. This may take a little extra time and some research on your part but the results will be worth the effort. After you have compiled your list of local butterfly species, be sure to write down in your butterfly garden plan what these particular species of butterflies use for nectar and food plants.

- Be sure that your butterfly garden plan includes a location that provides at least six hours of sunlight per day. Butterflies are cold-blooded creatures and therefore, do better where they are warm and sheltered.

- Wind can be a butterfly’s worst enemy so be sure to have plenty of wind protection in your butterfly garden design. You can plant tall shrubs and other plants in order to create a wind break. Know the direction of your area’s prevailing winds. The first choice, however, is a nice ‘tucked away’ location that avoids heavy winds.

- Keeping the above points in mind, choose a suitable location to have your butterfly garden. The best of all worlds would be a butterfly garden placed on the south side of your home with windbreaks on both the west and east sides. You may also wish to be sure that you are able to view you butterfly garden from inside your home as well as provide seating outside from which to observe the antics of the butterflies.

- If your area permits, a possible suggestion for location of a butterfly garden is provided by Barbara Damrosch in her book Theme Gardens. She suggests the use of an old basement or home foundation if such is available around your home or the place you wish to have your butterfly garden. As an alternative, you can excavate an area and build a stone wall around the excavation to simulate an old construction foundation. Remember to covered the bottom of the excavation with several inches of gravel where you do not intend to plant your nectar and food plants for the butterflies. This will save you from a muddy walk through your butterfly garden after a rain.

There are many creative ways for constructing a butterfly garden. Take your time to design a garden that you will enjoy and be proud of later when all is said and done.

Source: http://www.backyardgardeningtips.com/backyard-garden/planning-your-butterfly-garden/

Students turning park into butterfly garden

 KTIV NewsChannel 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

Posted: June 2, 2009 06:12 AM

Students turning space into butterfly garden

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -- It started with an idea to make a change, and now it's a reality for some middle school students.

Back in October, East Middle School students joined a club called "We Can Change the World Challenge". The students met twice a week after school planning to make-over a green space in Sioux City.

The students worked with the city of Sioux City, planning and organizing their project to make-over Macomb Park in Morningside. Now, they are seeing their hard work come to life.

"We have a butterfly garden and there are some little stones that you can walk through and benches and we're going to put up a fence around it and we have a spot where we're going to put the sign in and there are flowers all around that," says Courtney Uhl, East Middle School student.

The students and other volunteers have transformed the space over the last three days. The Junior League gave them a $2,000 grant to help pay for flowers and they will be installing a playground.

Students say despite the hard work and the initial challenges, it was worth all of the hard work.

"We hope to be an inspiration to other young adults. Just because you are told no, doesn't mean you should give up," says Shelbie Uhl, East Middle School student.

The students and other volunteers will be taking care of the garden the rest of the summer.

Butterflies use wings to send both 'sexy' and 'repulsive' signals

DNA: Sci/Tech: Butterflies use wings to send both 'sexy' and 'repulsive' signals

Butterflies use wings to send both 'sexy' and 'repulsive' signals
ANI
Thursday, April 2, 2009 17:47 IST

Washington: The eyespots of some butterflies serve to both attract mates and ward off predators, according to new research by Yale University biologists.
Pankaj Shukla / DNA
The eyespots of some butterflies serve to both attract mates and ward off predators

The researchers say that butterflies seem able to both attract mates and ward off predators by using different sides of their wings.

"You want to be noticeable and desirable for mates, but other onlookers, including predators, are paying attention to those signals as well," says Jeffrey Oliver, a postdoctoral associate in Yale's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Oliver joined forces with Yale biologist Antonia Monteiro to study whether the eyespots on the upperside of butterflies' wings -- specifically, those of bush brown butterflies -- serve a different purpose than the ones on the underside.

The researchers used different evolutionary models for their study.

They found that the eyespots on the upperside of the butterflies' wings appeared to evolve much more quickly than those on the underside, meaning they appear and disappear frequently through the course of evolution.

According to them, the finding is consistent with the theory that these are used to attract mates, as signals used for sexual selection tend to evolve faster than others.

Oliver claims that his group's study is the first to employ evolutionary history models to show that a species can use the same signal on different areas of its body to communicate different messages.

He says that butterflies can flash hidden eyespot on their forewings to confuse predators and give themselves time to escape.

While the researchers have yet to find out how the upperside eyespots communicate with potential mates, it is thought that they might help butterflies identify each other and thus would help keep different species from cross-mating.

Oliver has revealed that his team next plans to use longer evolutionary timescales to study where and how eyespots evolved, as well as whether they developed all at once, or independently over time.

The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Yeoor to be a better home for butterflies

Yeoor to be a better home for butterflies-Thane-Cities-The Times of India

Printed from

THE TIMES OF INDIA

Yeoor to be a better home for butterflies
20 Feb 2009, 0404 hrs IST, TNN


THANE: Were you aware that the world's largest Atlas Moth - having a wing span of ten inches to a foot is frequently seen in the Yeoor range? Well it is true that not only this, but some 72 known species of butterflies with about 127 to 130 sub-species are found in and around this area. The forest department is taking initiatives to attract more butterflies to this area so that the people get to know more about them.

V P Patil, the Assistant Conservator of Forests (Yeoor), said, "The landscaping which will be done will enhance the appearance of the Nature Interpretation Centre. The plants will be grown near the Centre and tourist cottages. The local public will be treated to a breathtaking sight of many colourful butterflies. We are sure that people will get to know more about these beautiful creatures. It will be especially informative for the children visiting the Centre."

The wildlife wing of Maharashtra had created Nature Interpretation Centers around the state, educating people on the importance of interaction between wild animals, plants and importance of conserving forests.
Y R Masurkar, the Range Forest Officer, informed, "To attract the butterflies that are visible in the Yeoor Hills closer to civilisation for sensitising us, some special plants are being grown. Many varieties of plants such as Khulkhula, Peru, Marigold, Lantana and Pudina will be planted so that more and more people can see these colourful butterflies. We believe that with increased number of butterflies visiting this area, people will get to view them closely. Moreover little children will be very happy."

According to Dr Minal Vaidya, who has done her PhD in Horticulture, "The flowers, smells, colors and nectar of these plants attract more butterflies in comparison that other plants do and I have incorporated this system successfully elsewhere."