A garden full of butterflies will always be a beautiful sight, but unfortunately numerous species of insects are now in decline because of a loss of habitat and you may have already noticed a drop in numbers outside, as a result.
Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to help bring butterflies back to your garden, mainly by making sure that they have a lot of food to feast on. Achieve this by choosing your flowers carefully, with butterflies particularly partial to marigolds, buttercups, bluebells, marjoram, heather, lavender and garden mint.
Also think about where you position your plants, as butterflies also like it when it’s nice and warm, so try and find some sunny spots outside to plant your flowerbeds.
Even if you don’t have a big garden – or a garden at all – you can still do a lot to bring butterflies flocking to your home, so think about using window boxes or potted plants placed in the sun and you should soon start seeing an influx of butterflies before too long.
Wild gardening is a great way of bringing all sorts of different insects to your gardens, not just butterflies. What about letting a patch of your lawn grow a little bit longer, something that wildlife will really appreciate. Choose a part of the garden that hasn’t been tended for a while, as wildflowers do best on unproductive soil.
Autumn is the best time to sow your wildflower seeds as this will give them time to settle in over the winter months, but make sure you check the pH levels of your soil so you know which seeds to go for. Scatter your seeds evenly and then rake them in lightly and give them a thorough watering.
Another key point is to make sure you try and avoid using pesticides as these can be harmful to all kinds of pollinating insects. Either grow your own so you know how everything has been treated or opt for organic plants instead.
Check out this useful guide from The Wildlife Trusts if you’re really determined to have your garden alive with lots of beautiful, colourful butterflies. It recommends cuckoo flowers, sweet Williams, native bluebells and primroses in the spring to lure in the sects, while bramble, herbs, hemp agrimony and cornflowers all do well in the summer.
It also suggests planting big clumps of larval food plants together, including the likes of common sorrel, bird’s foot trefoil, fescue grass, holly, ivy, nasturtium, stinging nettles and Yorkshire fog grass.
An insect-rich garden has other benefits besides being pleasing to the eye. Pollinators such as butterflies, bees and moths, can help spread pollen from plant to plant, giving them more chance to reproduce. They also help fruits and veggies to grow as well, including peppers, tomatoes and courgettes… so perfect if you have space for a vegetable garden, as well.
For help and advice relating to synthetic lawns, get in touch with Prestige Lawns today.
