The Butterfly Garden

Black Swallowtail adult on Queen Anne's Lace

Butterfly habitat is threatened and disappearing rapidly as more and more open land is developed. Butterflies need safe, sheltered, sunny areas, which are free of pesticides. Butterflies are often very limited in the species of plant which can provide food for their young.

Milkweed, and the larva and adult Monarch Butterfly

Most people know that the monarch can only lay its eggs on milkweed plants. Without land on which milkweed can grow, the monarch will gradually become scarcer. Butterflies need nectar sources for their own food. These may be native plants but some ornamentals are also rich in nectar and popular with butterflies.

A butterfly garden should be in the sun, and sheltered from strong winds. We decided to go with a drought resistant butterfly garden, in keeping with our goal of low maintenance. We chose mostly plants which would have been part of the prairie ecosystem of southwestern Ontario before European settlement. Gray-headed coneflowers, purple coneflowers, blazing stars, asters and butterfly weed grow interspersed with prairie grasses such as big bluestem, blue grama grass, fringed brome grass. The rare hardy south Ontario native prickly pear is also included growing in a raised bed of mostly stone chips.

Fennel, a favorite larval food plant, and the Black Swallowtail larva

Along with these native plants we also included a few common garden ornamentals, which are frequented by butterflies; marigolds, zinnia, cosmos, showy sedum and phlox, plus herbs such as parsley and chives, lavender and thyme. Buddleia or butterfly bush complete the picture.

Larval food plants in our garden: milkweed and stinging nettles (contained in barrels to prevent rampant spread), asters, parsley and fennel. In our shrub garden, viburnums, dogwoods, cherry and poplar.