Every flower garden should be full of butterflies! Butterflies are beautiful and I love to watch them around my gardens all summer long. Most people decide to have a summer garden just because they like flowers and want to attract butterflies to the garden. Another reason that is becoming popular these days is families wishing to entertain their children through things that are closer to home like teaching them about butterflies. And this is an easy way to engage children in the knowledge of butterflies and keep them busy all summer long.

The sad thing about butterflies is that these beautiful creatures have very short life spans. Maybe that is the reason they seem to be attracted to beautiful things during their short lives. Butterflies are attracted to bright color flowers and flowers like aster, black eyed susan, marigold and butterfly weed are known to attract them in droves.

When selecting flowers for the purpose of attracting butterflies to your summer garden take into consideration that butterflies flock to a garden to get their food which is the nectar of the flowers. So a garden that is filled with more nectar producing flowers will likely get more than its share of attention from butterflies nearby. The greater the selection of nectar producing flowers in your garden, the greater the number of butterflies your garden will attract.

Besides planting lots of colorful flowers in your garden, you can also place several pieces of ripe fruit around your garden and this will attract even more butterflies. This is another method that is used by many butterfly lovers. Also keep in mind that butterflies love the sun which means that shady types of gardens are not best suited for attracting them. So your butterfly garden should be planted in an area where it gets full sun most of the day. In addition, keep in mind that different butterflies are attracted to different plants both as caterpillars and as butterflies. For best results, visit your local nursery and ask lots of questions when seeking the most suitable plants for your butterfly garden.

The use of pesticides in a flower garden set up to attract butterflies should be avoided. Pesticides will harm butterflies and it doesn’t make sense to harm these beautiful creatures through the nourishment they receive when they visit your garden. The good news is that you can use organic gardening methods in your butterfly garden for best results and protect them from harm.

Butterflies need to be kept hydrated so make sure there is a source of water nearby. Some gardeners add water fountains that keep the water running while having it available for birds and butterflies. If you decide to use this method, be sure the water runs to avoid attracting mosquito infestation. The most important thing to remember is that a summer garden is an investment and adds beauty to you home. It is a great thing when we can accomplish more than one beauty as the result of our hard work and effort. A summer garden designed to attract butterflies is a great way to achieve just that.

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

William Robinson (gardener) - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Flower Gardening - Yahoo
Tips for Container Flower Gardening
Yardening: How to Grow Flowers: Information from Answers.com
AOL.com Video - How to Create Flower Arrangements
BBC - Chelsea Flower Show 2011 - Times Eureka Garden - Marcus ...

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