A butterfly garden (Monarch Waystation) has the right kind of environment for the four life stages of a butterfly: egg, larva (caterpillar), chrysalis and adult. Egg laying caterpillars must be fed both nectar plants and leafy host plants for eggs.
Your tank will need lots of sunny spots and windbreak, with some rock steps or small trees to sit on. It also needs to offer water and salts and amino acids that aren’t readily available from their food.
Planting Tips
But you need to think about how to arrange your garden in a way that caters for butterflies’ nectar and shelter needs in order to attract them. Plant flowers and shrubs that bloom multiple times of year for endless sustenance; include a few shade plants; clump them together so they look more appealing to viewers and caterpillars, and are easier to feed to caterpillars; stuff plants that might get a hungry caterpillar into a hidden place so that caterpillar chewed-up leaves will not tarnish its appearance; put them together instead of individually whenever possible for better sight and easier eating for caterpillars!
Create a “drinking station” in the middle of flowering plants; this can be as simple as offering a dish of sand and soil, where butterflies can rest, drink minerals, and hide. Put flat stones or garden ornaments somewhere butterflies can retreat from wind and sun, don’t use pesticides that will kill butterflies and other pollinators in your yard or nearby.
Alternative Foods
Butterflies aren’t always served by flowers – natural food for butterflies comes from animal dung, old fruit and other plant debris and nectar-filled flowers.
For a second butterfly food source, make a sugar solution (soak sponges in it) and put them into a solution of equal parts water and sugar, hanging them on a branch or shrub with heavy garden twine or plant holders as food for butterflies.
Create your butterfly feeder: Take a length of wire clothes-hanger with a hook on one end and attach snipped bits of overripe fruit, holding them down with bread twist ties underneath each piece. : Hang the butterfly feeder in a highly visible spot to get the best results.
Bananas too ripe, strawberries too watery, peaches and nectarines too soft, melon ends, even a stub of beer can be butterflies’ prey. Check your feeding station often to wash it out and fill water and feeders; maybe record or journal what butterflies have been to your garden and when.
Butterflies and Caterpillars
A butterfly garden requires different species of plants arranged layer by layer by height, both to look beautiful and to reduce nectar-flying butterflies’ distances, so food plants are easy to see. Also essential are the precautions they take when there is wind.
Set some rocks in sunlit spots as nests for cold-blooded bugs like butterflies. Butterflies perch here to heat their wings and snack. Spots of mud or moist sand can become “spider stations” offering moisture and minerals that nectar alone is not.
Host plants give butterflies somewhere to lay their eggs, and a plentiful number of nectar plants lure them back to your garden to feed on your flowers. When possible, do not use insecticides to suppress population growth of caterpillars or repel predators; instead use low-toxicity pesticides or horticultural oils if necessary.
Observing Butterflies
‘Perhaps a thousand flowers blooming in the bright sunshine on a breezy day with butterflies chugging through your garden – you can have this dream when you plan and plant.
You can have a butterfly garden that’s a whole field or it could be just a 5’x10’ patch in your backyard, and it should be in an area with a lot of sun — butterflies love it! Then there is the wind protection which they don’t like to be exposed to.
A good butterfly garden will entail keeping plants with both flowering plants that draw in the adults and leafy “host” plants that feed the caterpillars, close by. In addition, plants should be placed near each other so nectaring butterflies don’t have far to walk to reach nectaring nectaring sites. The gardener will be forever happy to observe butterflies at work performing their lovely act and know they are contributing to butterfly conservation. Even rewarding is a record of the garden: flower phenology, visits, gardening etc.