Maintaining The Butterfly Garden
It feels strange to not do anything in the butterfly garden, but that is exactly the best thing to do. At least, as long as you have no invasive insects or plants. June is the month of flowers, bees, and butterflies, at least here in Northeast Kansas. It used to be “April showers bring May […]
The Author’s 5 Favorite Trees for Leps
What are leps? Leps refers to Lepidoptera, aka moths and butterflies. I love moths, and butterflies too. So I am always looking to add trees, shrubs, and perennials to my landscape which are great for them. With trees, it is hard to find very many that are great for butterflies. Moths yes, some trees are […]
Exploring the Garden for Caterpillars
Caterpillars are one of my favorite things to find when exploring the garden. My son loves them too. In the summer of 2022, we started a daily notion on who would see the most caterpillars. I usually have time over my lunch break to hunt caterpillars, while he looks for them all day. But I […]
How To Protect Monarch Butterflies with Gardening
Recently classified as an endangered species by the International Union For Conservation of Nature, the monarch butterfly is one of our most recognized insect species. For decades, gardeners, biologists, and entomologists have been watching the decline of these butterflies and pushing to get them on the list. But what does it mean to be on […]
Swallowtail Butterflies in Your Garden
Attracting swallowtail butterflies to the garden is something many gardeners strive for. Why do we love swallowtail butterflies? It is because these butterflies are large, showy, and fun to watch. Even as a child I watched the large yellow and black striped Eastern Tiger Swallowtail swooping and landing on the garden phlox in my grandmother’s […]
Build a Butterfly Garden in 9 Steps
Building a butterfly garden should be on the list for every gardener. You can make your entire garden and landscape a butterfly garden or you can create a small, postage stamp garden specifically for butterflies. Anyone, even balcony gardeners can have a butterfly garden. You can have your own pollinator paradise in 9 easy steps. […]
15 Host Plants for Butterflies
Butterflies are the flying flowers of the garden. Everyone notices them and everyone loves them. To attract a wider range of butterflies to your garden, you need to have a variety of host plants and nectar plants, and even a variety of ecosystems would be helpful. The best butterfly populations are going to be common […]
Spring Pollinator Plants
Finding plants for pollinators in springtime can be a bit frustrating. While there are lots of trees and shrubs, not to mention natives, blooming around you, it can be difficult to discover exactly which plant is best suited for your own pollinator paradise. And spring blooming flowers for the garden can be difficult to come […]
Consider the Cottonwood
With Kansas Day over and done, we think back to the symbols of our state. What is mightier than the cottonwood, the tree that towers over the Great Plains? The Eastern Cottonwood, Populus deltoides, is the symbol tree of Kansas because of its tough nature and survivability. The cottonwood grows where it should not, survives […]
