Plan ahead for butterfly gardening

The Relentless Gardener
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    If you are thinking of starting a butterfly garden, the first step is to understand what butterflies visit our area of northeast Colorado. Each butterfly has a particular plant it uses for food in the caterpillar stage, and then in the adult stage, it needs other plants for nectar as its food.
    From Opler and Cranshaw’s Colorado State University fact sheet, “Attracting Butterflies to the Garden” (5.504), a brief list includes Western Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Clouded Sulfur, Checkered Skipper and Black Swallowtail.
    To do a good job of attracting butterflies to your garden, you need to have a large diversity of flowers in your garden. Butterflies need protection from the wind.
    Create some areas in the garden that have mud puddles. It is thought that this is mostly for male butterflies. They need water and possibly minerals from the mud/soil. If you like photography, this would be a good way to photograph your favorite butterfly. They remain on the ground long enough to get a picture.
    If you create an environment that has the necessary food plants for caterpillars, according to Opler and Cranshaw, this increases the “native” population. So, you are really doing something wonderful with developing this type of garden. First, you are attracting butterflies and then increasing them. However, when they reach the adult stage, they will travel to other gardens. Keeping the butterfly garden from year to year will accomplish the same thing.
    In creating this butterfly garden, it may not be the most well-manicured garden because of the types of wild plants. Rabbitbrush, Chrysothamnus nauseosus, is one of those native plants that has unkempt look about them. You will want it in your garden because it is a good source of nectar.

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