Ten Commandments of Butterfly Gardening 

12 years later and still an amazing source for someone looking to get into gardening and specifically butterfly gardening! Thank you very much for making this video I'm excited to see what other content you've made!

I spend Saturday & Sunday's in my garden with no distractions except for the sounds of birds, squirrels, and bees. Who needs tv or radio?? Enough said...I have to take my coffee outside and start my gardening routine.

Grow the native plants that serve as food and shelter for caterpillars. The butterflies will come!❤️

I only have half acre of property, I can’t do all that. I would love to but I just don’t have the space. So I chose to have milkweed and butterfly bush for monarchs and bumblebees. I have other bushes, trees, flowers and plants. It’s a lot of work just keeping the weeds away. Btw if i were a butterfly, I’d live in your garden. 😎

This was very informative! Very nice job! I am creating a small butterfly garden. It's about 5 feet by 10 feet... Okay, maybe it's not THAT small. I'm so excited!

Friendly update: Butterfly bush is now considered noxious in most parts of U.S. Look for substitutes suitable to your area through extension servce or a butterfly club.

I live in Florida. Today is the 14th of January. This morning I counted five different species of butterfly in my backyard.

This is a fantastic video, interesting, funny & informative. My only reservation about it is that you are promoting Round Up. Perhaps you are not entirely informed or like most people believe the lies industry tells you, but you really should look into the safety of using this product. It has been banned from use in our city, unfortunately it is still being sold in stores- it is a dangerous chemical and is backed by the likes of Monsanto. If you want to keep it green, use vinegar & hard work.

I loved this video. I've been raising caterpillars (at some level or other) since I was about 8 years old... many years ago to say the least. Used to put them in a shoe box, from which they'd escape and make their chrysalis all over our house. This year I've expanded significantly, trying to attract a greater variety of butterflies. I second the notion (big time) that butterfly gardening is amazing for mental health. Lovely video. Thanks. And I'll check out your website.

Thank you so much for that uber informative and beautiful video. You really are Tom Terrific! I see that this was first offered 11yr ago. Wow, still reaching and teaching all these years later. I'm complete novice to this and mainly have cone flowers and one big asclepsia tuberosa. I also have many irises and amyrillys but don't know if the butterflies like them. I'm in NCentral AR between Harrison and Mt Home so your zone is near or like mine which is also very helpful. Blessings, p

The video was SO well organized! It made me think about things I never would have considered and saved me so much time and effort. Thank you for sharing all your knowledge!

Actually it is the importance of butterfly caterpillars to birds to feed their babies. 97% of birds have to have caterpillars to feed their babies. It’s nice that butterflies are beautiful. Flowers are beautiful, and birds are beautiful.

11th Commandment. DON'T USE ROUND UP OR ANY OTHER CHEMICAL IN A BUTTERFLY GARDEN!!!!!!!! OR ANY GARDEN FOR THAT MATTER.

Great Job! Butterflies are endangered and we need to do everything we can to save them. Fennell, dill and passiflora vines will greatly help. Use Vinegar and Baking Soda then add newspaper for 1-2 weeks - weeds gone -

My GOAL in life is : To surround myself with beautiful people, beautiful flowers, beautiful butterflies and beautiful girls. I'm with you , man.

How about laying a black tarp over the area for a couple of weeks, and forget the Round up?

I have to save this video for me to refer to for what to plant every season of the year. . You have a comprehensive info for making a butterfly garden. Thanks sir. Keep on making such great video. 👌🤓👍

I enjoyed watching your video. I can't wait to have a butterfly garden. I won't even mind the bees. Birds will be a bonus. Thank you.

they're so beautiful and delicate! thank you for sharing!

Thank you for this informative video !!! I love it except for the Roundup part. You can sheet mulch by covering your lawn/weeds with recycled flattened cardboard boxes, add adequate organic compost and wood chip mulch on top. In half a year or so, your grass below the cardboard will die without use of toxic chemicals.

Wow! Great details except you spoiled it for me when you sited using round up! Newspapers works too for weed control or cardboard...then you aren’t contaminating your soil.

Thanks SO MUCH for this video!! I grew up in the countryside and there were tons of butterflies. Now I’m living more in the city, so I’m so grateful to you for this super informative video! I’ve been getting a few more butterflies to my garden before this, by planting more flowers, but this video I can tell is going to help me immensely to kick my garden up a notch. You have no idea how thankful I am that you made this video!☺️💜✨🌈🌷🌻🦋

Absolutely beauuutiful ! Time well spent - all the info the butterfly gardeners need to get started ! Thanks

Fantastically helpful video. I already had it on my mind to do something in a small piece of communal garden area where I live but I will definitely be expanding on that with something a bit more ambitious as a direct result of your video. Thank you very much.

More gardens need gardener's that garden, their garden, with great n' good, greativity. I'm Greatful for that.

Thank you for such a thought out and heart felt vid! I am also working towards kicking it up a notch! Keep going!

Nice video! I am an avid gardener and urban wildlife gardener and it nice to see guidelines for folks to really think out their butterfly garden.

Wow just wow, so thorough yet so off the mark with the round up

We need to lobby for responsible land management a fewer chemical pest in our communities! We can make a difference. The pics you showed of land clearing is so sad. Hurts my heart. Love the info in your video. Thank you!

I had an interesting thing happen, I saved a seedling of Black Willow, a native Californian riparian tree/shrub that sprouted in the wrong place. While it was sitting in a pot, waiting to be planted, I noticed some caterpillars feeding on the leaves. I had not seen them before so I looked them up on line and discovered them to be White Admirals! There are four on this plant now. I have a black willow on another part of my property and when it flowers it is covered by more different types of bees and wasps than I've ever seen in one place. The black willow may not look like much, but it seems like one of the best wildlife plants ever.

I wanted to thank you so much for putting together this outstanding video! It is *exactly* the information I need. I am doing my first butterfly garden here in SE Michigan and am in the middle of growing my native plants in the basement and preparing the garden right now. I'll use many of the ideas you presented. I'm finding the design part the most challenging.(what to put where). Can't thank you enough for your outstanding and super helpful video!

Sugar Creek Gardens in Kirkwood MO is a great place to find Milkweed and many other natural Missouri plants. I am just starting out as a Monarch Mamma and they were so very helpful.

This is a great video on butterflies. At first, I was worried about the time, however, I never noticed. Really good advice. Thank You for this video!

Roundup?! Egads! Work for Monsanto, do you? No harmful chemicals- ever. Especially Roundup.

I'd say you forgot, #4 it also adds to your spirituality . Beautiful video

A very informative and helpful video! And yes, your note in the description is good advice. There are safe and easy chemical-free ways to stop weeds and grass.

This was AWESOME you helped so.much!

Another good Native plant Phacelia and Black Adder Agastache,

You made this video and care for your garden with an immense amount of love. Thank you so much for helping the butterfly population and helping others with this brilliant video who also want to help our butterflies. I also loved the narration and the music! Take care in those difficult times!

I truly enjoyed the video, ty

Watched most of it and learned some useful information. You lost me at around 35 when you suggested the use of RoundUp. 😱 Let’s please not poison the earth.

Love this video!! Watched every bit of it and learned a lot... Thank you for the great information! :)

👍🤩😍🐛🦋Fantastic info. Thank you. 💝

Awesome video, never thought so much about butterflies before, just thought about them when I pried them out the the grill of my pickup. We must provide them habitat as they are gods creatures like everyone else and this world needs them to be with us.

Best ever ‼️👨‍🌾I enjoyed your music too and you have a good voice and explain well, clearly ‼️🎈🎈

I would add a commandment. GO NATIVE (plants) as much as possible. Many plants like the butterfly bush you suggested are invasive in some areas. Everyone should do themselves a favor and join their local native plant society. The axiom you should ALWAYS work from is Right Plant Right Place. If a plant is invasive, it most certainly is not the right plant!

Thank you. I do not use any foreign substances or fertilizers. I dealt with slugs hunting slugmagedon all summer picking them off as not to harm anything but the slugs and snails destroying my plants. There were many more as my entire village fought them last year. I have lived at my current house for 6 years. This year being my 7th full season. I have several loved beds. I am one the believes in nature happens. I place my brush and grasses after winter has gone by the wayside. Our last frost in Chautauqua county NY normally May 15th

I agree 100%❤ your views

Thank you tom for sharing I loved butterflies

GREAT VIDEO TOM ! loved watching all i too love good people around me,beautiful flowers and butterflies you got experience and you guided well.. i wont use pesticides i may have used before for keeping plant save from ants but now i wont use .. great video

Awesome!!! Very informative I just purchased my butterfly bush😍 Thank you for sharing

Commandments 1 - 9 1/2 was great! Right on. Then you used the dreaded word - "ROUNDUP". You know better. We all know better. Shame on you.

1st commandment should be ABSOLUTELY NO PESTICIDES! That isn't confined to butterfly gardening, either.

this video was so soothing excellent narration

Music drove me away. Bet the butterflies would hate it. Why not just a tranquil message? Round-up!!! Bloody hell.

Sappington Farms Nursery is a good place to look for pollinator and native plants. Sappington Missouri

Tom, quite a few of your flower choices are invasive--no matter what part of the U.S. Butterfly Bush, for example, has escaped into the wild and is wiping out natives. I had a few in my yard when I first moved in and they seeded like crazy. Took me all summer to get most of it. Moreover, they only provide food, not shelter or caterpillar habitat. Better to plant something with multiple functions. With that said, your program is wonderful.

Nature, the beauty

Very beautiful garden

Thank you! Very informative and helpful.

Great video thanks for the info! 🌸 🌼 🌻 🌞 🐤 🐣 🐥

Thank you so much Tom! Great video. I want to bring butterflies and bees to my garden.

Oaks, Willows and Prunus. Extremely productive host plants, depending on your region.

Thanks !

A robin set up her nest in my bbq area. I bbq'd not knowing that she couldn't take the smoke. I now know but ALL birds left. The squirrels left too, what a benefit. Luckily I still have my Monarchs an yellow swallowtails.

DO NOT USE ROUND UP. IT WILL KILL THE BEES AND BUTTERFLIES YOU ARE TRYING TO ATTRACT TO YOUR GARDEN.

Thank you for sharing your video so informative

Like you said earlier in the video, avoid pesticides (including Roundup!) otherwise a great video and very useful! thanks!!!

11th Commandment: Absolutely No Tropical Milkweed

Fantastic Post! Complete and just...wow.

All of the information in this video is useful. Just avoid the part where he suggests using roundup as it has the potential of causing cancer and not only that, but its bad for the environment. Turn to more natural methods of removing weeds such as covering the area with a dark and opaque tarp, or pulling the weeds and then mulching over it a little at a time if you don't have the patience or the time to do it all at once. Organic gardening is good for both the plants and the environment. Also consider using containers to take advantage of small spaces that cant be dug up and planted in.

Lovely butterfly flowers

Thanks for wonderful info. 😊🇨🇦

I thought this was a great, comprehensive video. I wish that you had also used the scientific names of plants rather than just the common names (sometimes only useful in local areas). I absolutely disagree with using Roundup on the soil to get rid of the grass and weeds. It is poisonous and causes lots of chronic health issues. (There is new scientific literature available to support this). I also don't agree with tilling the garden. As an alternative you need to start months before you want to plant and start with sheet mulching. It is a natural, non-till easy way to get rid of the grass and weeds and in addition helps with simultaneous soil prep. Once you have the grass and weeds gone, then you can turn the soil by hand and get rid of rocks and roots and then mound your soil into the contours you want for the garden shape. We did this with our pollinator garden that is a 22' round garden with a walkway through the middle. We put down the sheet mulch (several layers of cardboard boxes from the bike or appliance store) in the fall with a layer of alpaca poo and leaves on top. By spring the area was free of weeds and the soil was fantastic and ready to prepare for planting. This garden bloomed beautifully the first fall (last year) and this spring is magnificent already (lots of bees and butterflies) and it is late April in Southern Oregon.

Excellent video! Loved it! ❤️🥰

You had me till apply "Round Up" > You cannot be SERIOUS...

Thank you for this video very informative

working in the Garden, just in 1 month lost 20 pounds

Great video and very inspiring. I look forward to all the advice your may have regarding my new found quest, which is to create a habitat for these wonderful insects.

very interesting... I wish I could grow a big butterfly garden!

i have plants flowering from january till december, because of climate change, i have sometimes butterflies and bees in january, Helleborus is a good plant for early flowers.

Thanks, helpful

Tons of info. Thank you.

Very informative. Thank you 😊

Birds will only successfully breed in your yard if there are thousands of caterpillars in the immediate area, which requires lots of native plants, or at least several native trees like Oaks, which support hundreds of caterpillars. Look up Doug Tallamy.

I think your information is wonderful and your devotion to wild bees, butterfies and hummingbirds. I too was disturbed when you even mentioned using roundup at all. You lost me. Round up doesnt last for four months. It lasts for years.

Very helpful, but ... The endless repetition of the same snippet of music was very distracting.

I have a problem with my butterfly garden: more wasps than butterflies. They eat the caterpillars. Don't know what to do. Any advise?

Great information except for the section on killing grass. Look into PERMACULTURE methods & practices instead. (No Roundup please)

Is less than 4-5hrs ok if we're at 6000ft above sea level (more UV)?

Need some help. Recently bought 2 small rue plants. Swallowtails have already laid a lot of eggs on them and I am afraid the plants are not big enough to support all those caterpillars when they hatch. What can I do to help them can I buy anything to feed them from grocery store like parsley, carrot tops etc.? Do you have any suggestions? Thank you

Great video but there are 2 things I disagree with. First is using a defoliant. Especially if you're going to compost the turf. Second is Tropical Milkweed. If you live in the US where there isn't a frost, there is a parasite that lives on that plant that is killing Monarch Butterflies. It isn't native.

round up? really?

Wow. You did a great job on this video. I learned so much.

You know how to tell when you have a successful butterfly garden? When you have to wave off at least three types of butterflies just get in your car, when your echinacea is eaten to stubs by caterpillars and you never quite see the orange flowers on your common milkweed because its constantly consumed. No worries with the thistle…what the butterflies don’t consume, the American Goldfinch will! My butterfly garden this year was epic and next year, even bigger!

Thank you🦋

Super ! Respect !!!

New subscriber here😁

Great video...music drove me nuts!

I stumbled on this video by accident and watched the whole thing! It made me excited to think maybe I could do something like this in addition to vegetable gardening! But to my surprise, he mentions using, ROUNDUP!!?😵 I think you should edit that part out and just encourage what many others here have been suggesting, a more natural way. I wouldn't touch ROUNDUP with a 10ft pole!🤢🤮