March 28, 2023
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Gardening Tips

How to attract butterflies to your garden?

Chetna Bhalla
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How to attract butterflies to your balcony?

When did you last spot a butterfly? Even better? When did a butterfly come and sit on your hands? Butterflies have become a rare sight for city dwellers. But there are some ways to attract these beauties into your balconies and gardens. It will not only make your flowerbeds beautiful but will also support biodiversity at the same time.

Some ways in which you can attract Butterflies

  • Introduce host plants

Grow more host plants. Host Plants include plants like Curry leaf, Lemon, mandarin orange, other citrus varieties, hollyhock, snapdragon, violet, oak, switchgrass, and dill. If you are in the northern part of India, I recommend growing lemon and curry leaf, and you will soon have loads of lime butterfly caterpillars in your garden or balcony.

Swallowtail on Lime Tree
  • Give them food

Grow nectar-rich flowers like milkweed, phlox, lavender, sunflower, cosmos, dahlia, and marigold, to name a few. Make sure the plants stay watered because if the plants struggle for water, they will not produce enough nectar.

  • Stay away from chemicals and harsh sprays

Do not use chemical sprays on your plants in the garden or balcony because this will discourage butterflies and other pollinators from visiting your garden.

  • Create Safe Zones

Sunny Spot

The butterflies love Sun. They are cold-blooded creatures. They need sunlight to start their day. Planting the nectar-feeding plants and host plants in sunny areas is a must.

Water

The butterflies also need water or a spot with water to drink from. You can have a simple dish filled with water or a birdbath.

  • How would you know that your efforts are working?
  1. After you have planted the host plants, keep a close eye, and you will notice a female butterfly flit around the plant, gently laying her next generation’s eggs, either on the stems, on the bottom of the leaves, or the top of the leaves of the host plant in rare cases. The eggs are laid generally at the bottom because it wants to protect them from predators.
  2. The tiny larvae (caterpillars) will emerge in 10-14 days. They are less than an eighth-inch long and begin eating the leaves of the host plant. They grow larger every day.
  3. They will then become a chrysalis, and finally, a butterfly will emerge 2-4 weeks later.

Not all caterpillars reach the larva stage because many of them are eaten by birds. Nature has its way of selecting and discarding too. If you are very particular about saving a caterpillar and helping it reach the butterfly stage, you can try putting it in a transparent jar or box.

If you keep your Garden / Balcony or Terrace free from harsh chemicals and pesticides, you will get rewarded in multiple ways, one of which is the presence of butterflies in your garden.

Learn more Gardening Tips here:

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Chetna Bhalla

Chetna Bhalla, founder of GetMyHarvest.com. She believes that by sharing knowledge and ideas, one can make this world a better place. Chetna is also a founder at MyTechMantra.com, a favorite website in the Tech world. She believes that it is the need of the times to connect with nature. She is very passionate about the idea of living close to nature. Chetna co-founded this website along with her husband Ashish and son Vihaan during the COVID-19 Pandemic to inculcate a love for life and to provide ideas to engage kids productively. She wants to create a brigade of green ambassadors who are future-ready and understand the importance of cooking from fresh produce. Please connect with her via comments on the website.

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