Create a Butterfly Garden from Scratch 

Thanks so much for watching! Sounds like a beautiful garden you have there. I do add sand to my butterfly puddles, but still no luck. yet ;)

@@awildapproach no luck here either. I built a beautiful puddling station yet they aren’t interested. I must be doing something wrong. .

@@denisef1153 It is common to find difficulty in attracting butterflies to our puddles…I instead find them using the driveway barely damp or a bare patch of dirt in my flower beds, barely damp…🤷🏼‍♀️I need to do some digging on this subject…

I'm glad you found a company you like to order native plants from. Happy butterfly gardening!

@@awildapproach thanks. You too.

Who did you order your native plants from? I’ve been purchasing from burpee. Everything arrived so healthy. Butterfly gardener Denise in S Florida

@@denisef1153 I prefer to buy from places as local as possible, and from native plant specific nurseries. I've bought from a native plant rescue squad, from local native nurseries, from a seed company in Kentucky, and many many more. I've also been given free native plants from friends and from people in the wild ones group. They have chapters in many areas of the USA. :) I guess I should give some tips some time on where to purchase native plants and seeds. It's just such a specific topic that would need to cater to specific locations. As local as you can get is best. I've also bought from prairie moon, but it's not local, so I try to get local first and if local places don't have a species I want, I go further out... :)

Garden for wildlife is a good online native plant website

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Yes, and over time, my pathways will get skinnier and skinnier. ;)

HOAs must be having a real negative effect on rewilding. I am glad that I don't have one, although I do live in an area where appearances are important and I hide my wildlife garden in the back garden.

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching and taking time to leave the comment! Happy wildlife gardening. :)

I think hummingbird feeders can be great, especially in the stage of garden you have. I personally didn't have any luck with my hummingbird feeders. Mine just attracted ants. I gave up on them, but if one is diligent with keeping them clean, they should be great until your native plants grow up. :)

Thank you so much, Gale! So, as for the plants themselves, I can't speak for your side of the country, but over here on the East side of the United States, in a lot of areas butterfly bush (aka buddleia) is an invasive plant. I used to have one, and since removed it. There are supposed sterile cultivars, but sometimes sterile plants become non-sterile years later. So, over here we shouldn't plant that specific one, but I don't know the status where you live. I so appreciate your comment and I also try adding mud puddles here, but for whatever reason, they love my driveway water runoff instead. Who knew? :) And yes, it's exciting about that pipevine swallowtail! I LOVE our pipevine swallowtails over here in Tennessee. One of my favorites! Happy gardening, Gale!

@@awildapproach did you add in some sand in your butterfly dishes with the water? I read that helps with their minerals and salts. Maybe that’s why they like the driveway water? I’m still learning about these puddles for butterflies. Just doesn’t work for me so I keep on reading, watching and learning

@@denisef1153 I did add lots of sand, bit of dirt or compost, pebbles, sticks, etc. Still no luck yet, but they do visit the driveway sometimes when I water pots on it...so your guess is as good as mine. I'm still figuring stuff out, too. :)

@@awildapproach I did not add rotting fruit. Maybe that’s the secret? If it is I’m still not going to do it. It will attract wildlife I don’t want to attract.

@@denisef1153 I’ve tried it. It didn’t work for me, but I haven’t tried it hanging up high…maybe that’s a way to do it?🤷🏼‍♀️

keep on going! You can do this. Takes time to attract them, but worth the effort. Take it slow if you need to. Maintenance can be overwhelming in young gardens. Thanks so much for watching and commenting.

@@awildapproachYour welcome, you really did have a lot of good points to make.

Great points and observations! I’ve tried both cleaner water and even muddy things like moist compost. But I hadn’t thought about the city water I do in fact have! Great point. I do have a pond kit I plan to install as soon as I can, but I could be a while as I may have to run electrical underground!😅But in the meantime, maybe I can let rain fill up something and use rain water…🤔Thanks for taking the time to leave your comment. One other note: when I get water on my concrete driveway from my hose, butterflies sometimes come and drink that, but it’s also city water.🤔interesting.

​@@awildapproachDo you or yoyr city drop road salt during the winter on or near that driveway? That's likely why they enjoy that area... And maybe the radiated heat from the concrete. 🥂

@@RealBradMiller they do sometimes salt in winter, but it’s rare. But that’s a great question! Oh yes, I bet the heat really helps, too. They love sunning in my garden.🦋❤️

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

Thank you for the kind comment, and for watching!! I'm glad it was useful.

That is a gulf fritillary butterfly. :) I really enjoyed seeing their entire life cycle, two years in a row. They host on purple passionvine. Here's a video about that plant, so you can see more about it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-weEfpV-vnnY.htmlsi=75MzX1C0d-lG12rw My goal is to have the opportunity to see even more species of butterflies in their entire life cycle in my home garden.

@@awildapproachisn’t passion vine intrusive? Or was I told misinformation?

@@denisef1153 Depends on where you live. If it's native to your state, it's not invasive. However, I will admit that it is a vigorous native, and not for everyone. I personally think it's worth it for the wildlife value, but it does pop up in most of my garden after years of have multiple vines. They spread under ground. :) So, if you don't want that, don't plant it, but if you don't mind it and it is native where you live, then give it a go. :)

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks so much for watching! I'm so glad you enjoyed it.