April 2016

     People need to rethink the yard.  A yard of all grass lawn benefits no one.  A yard of landscaping benefits nature.  Less grass lawn and more landscaping and trees will result in more birds and butterflies.  I step out of the door and hear birds and see butterflies.  When walking around the yard, butterflies zip past me.

     My butterfly gardens are full of butterflies, mostly Monarchs and Zebra Longwing.  Swallowtails,  sulphurs and others appear also.  To have butterflies in your yard be sure to have plenty of host plants for the caterpillars as well as nectar plants for the butterflies.  Monarch caterpillars only eat the leaf of a milkweed plant.  Zebras only eat the passionvine leaves.  Caterpillars are particular by specie as to what leaf they will eat.  Butterflies eat the nectar of any nectar plant.  Lantana, pentas, daisies, firespike, and plumbago are good examples of nectar plants.

     These are pictures of my front yard and back yard.  There are butterflies in the pictures, but they either blend in or are flying by to fast to make out.