Design Your Own Butterfly Garden

Color adds an irresistible dimension to any yard. Put a pair of wings on that color and suddenly your yard is alive with life! Butterflies live all over the country, so you’re likely to see them no matter where you live. To attract butterflies to your backyard, you need to provide the things they like: nectar, water, sun, and shelter. For most of us, this is as easy as planting some wildflower seeds in a sunny spot. In just a few months, the tiny seeds have grown into huge, beautiful flowers that butterflies just can’t resist. A butterfly log house for shelter is also easy to build. Everyone wins—you enjoy the butterflies, and the butterflies get a satisfying home.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

Author Mathew Tekulsky wrote the first book on butterfly gardening for North America, nearly 40 years ago! Butterfly gardening is the practice of attracting beautiful butterflies to your garden by growing common plants and flowers that they use for food and nectar. This fun and wonderfully simple activity will bring color, light, and beauty to your garden and home. With the relaxing and rewarding qualities of this outdoor hobby, it’s not hard to see why it’s sweeping the nation and growing in popularity. How to Create a Butterfly Garden is a complete, step-by-step guide to gardening for butterflies. You’ll learn about: The butterfly life cycle, habitats, and behaviors Choosing and obtaining food and nectar sources Designing your garden Options for country, suburban, and city gardens Fifty common garden butterflies and the plants they like Butterfly observation and conservation This guide will teach you everything you need to get started—whether you’re a suburban resident, the owner of a small urban garden, an apartment dweller, or a keeper of a country estate, you can enjoy frequent butterfly visits to your garden or window box. The key, Tekulsky believes, is learning some basic knowledge of butterfly characteristics and behavior and knowing how to meet the needs of the butterfly species most common in your neighborhood. Not only is butterfly gardening one of the easiest ways to enjoy these enchanting creatures, but it’s also a wonderful way to help conserve natural butterfly populations for generations to come. Learn how to create your own beautiful butterfly garden today!

Everyone loves a garden filled with bright colors, soft textures, and lovely smells. Add a little water to the mix and you have the perfect spot to relax and enjoy the best of nature. Relaxing by your water garden is the end of a long but rewarding process. Follow these step-by-step instructions for finding the best spot in your yard for a healthy water garden, designing and digging it, choosing water flowers, and adding fish. You can even build a toad house to attract wild visitors to your backyard. When all the designing, digging, lining, planting, and stocking is done, you can sit in your own private oasis and enjoy nature’s gorgeous bounty. Color, movement, scent—it all adds up to life!

Garden Alchemy is a hands-on guide for do-it-yourself gardeners who want to turn their garden into gold using natural recipes and herbal concoctions (while saving both time and money!). This gardening recipe and project book is packed with over 80 ideas to naturally beautify your garden, using organic methods that regenerate your soil and revitalize your plants. By following the processes that are closest to nature, it brings the gardener in sync with the garden, allowing plants to thrive with less effort and less cost. Recipes for mixing your own potting soils and homemadeorganic fertilizers give you the freedom to choose what ingredients make their way into your garden. Step-by-step instructions for building a compost pile, concocting soil tests, and constructing inexpensive DIY seed-starting equipment are accompanied by gorgeous, full-color, step-by-step photography. You'll also find recipes for natural pest deterrents and traps, garden teas, and growth-boosting foliar sprays to help your garden grow strong all season long. Garden Alchemy starts with home experiments to help you get to know your soil and customize recipes for your individual needs. The rest of the chapters share how to decipher and combine natural ingredients to make the best quality amendments and elixirs. Detailed descriptions of earth-based materials demystify common ingredients, such as mycorrhizae, biochar, and greensand, and help you learn how to fix common garden problems with minimal effort. The simple method of making use of what you have available supports plants better than brand-name products. Dozens of recipes and projects include: Homemade seed bombs, disks, and tapes Granular and liquid natural fertilizer recipes DIY rooting hormone Herbal anti-fungal spray Plant propagation instructions Soil care recipes to adjust the pH and manage fertility 13 specialty potting mixes 7 clever traps for common garden pests Written by Stephanie Rose, the creative gardener, permaculturist, and herbalist behind the popular website Garden Therapy, this fun and beautifully illustrated book is packed with great ideas and inspiration for DIY gardeners who want to embrace their creativity and have more control of the garden's care.

Butterfly gardening is the practice of attracting beautiful butterflies to your garden by growing common plants and flowers that they use for food and nectar. This fun and wonderfully simple activity will bring color, light, and beauty to your garden and home. With the relaxing and rewarding qualities of this outdoor hobby, it’s not hard to see why it’s sweeping the nation and growing in popularity. Mathew Tekulsky’s The Butterfly Garden is a complete, step-by-step guide to gardening for butterflies. You’ll learn about: • The butterfly life cycle, habitats, and behaviors • Choosing and obtaining food and nectar sources • Designing your garden • Options for country, suburban, and city gardens • Fifty common garden butterflies and the plants they like • Butterfly observation and conservation This guide will teach you everything you need to get started—whether you’re a suburban resident, the owner of a small urban garden, an apartment dweller, or a keeper of a country estate, you can enjoy frequent butterfly visits to your garden or window box. The key, Tekulsky believes, is learning some basic knowledge of butterfly characteristics and behavior and knowing how to meet the needs of the butterfly species most common in your neighborhood. Not only is butterfly gardening one of the easiest ways to enjoy these enchanting creatures, but it’s also a wonderful way to help conserve natural butterfly populations for generations to come. Learn how to create your own beautiful butterfly garden today!

"It's up to every single one of us to do our bit for wildlife, however small our gardens, and The Butterfly Brothers know just how that can be achieved." Alan Titchmarsh Join the rewilding movement and share your outdoor space with nature. We all have the potential to make the world a little greener. Wild Your Garden, written by Jim and Joel Ashton (aka "The Butterfly Brothers"), shows you how to create a garden that can help boost local biodiversity. Transform a paved-over yard into a lush oasis, create refuges to welcome and support native species, or turn a high-maintenance lawn into a nectar-rich mini-meadow to attract bees and butterflies. You don't need specialist knowledge or acres of land. If you have any outdoor space, you can make a difference to local wildlife, and reduce your carbon footprint, too. "Wildlife gardening is one of the most important things you can do as an individual for increasing biodiversity and mitigating the effects of climate change. From digging a pond to planting a native hedge, the Butterfly Brothers can help you every step of the way." Kate Bradbury