Front garden after the addition of tulips.

Don’t forget to add what YOU like to your gardens. You can have native plants to support bees, butterflies and birds AND you can have

Native wild geranium - early spring source of nectar and pollen to bees and butterflies.

Native ground cover added to existing gardens. Wild strawberry plants support 87 species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) — second only to goldenrod (of perennial species).

Year 1.

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Pincushion flower (Scabiosa columbaria) & Prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis). Rose milkweed can do very well in average garden soil - it doesn’t have to be wet as the common name suggests. Host to monarch butterflies. Pincushion flower is a nectar source all summer.

Very cool looking visitor on Amsonia tabernamontana 'blue ice'. Be careful with your caterpillar finds. Some use stinging hairs as a defense mechanism.

Silver Gem Prostrate Blue (Viola walteri ‘Silver Gem’). This will spread creating a lovely ground cover.

The native plants for this garden were chosen with a specific goal in mind - fit zen theme and support butterflies. With the exception of seaside goldenrod all native plants are knee hight or smaller.

Edging twice a year helps to keep your lawn out of the garden.

Vanessa virginiuensis nectaring on Nepeta (in front garden). Caterpillars feeding on pearly everlasting (in the back garden).

Lily of the valley was removed making room for native foam flower, carex grasses, and geranium. Year 1.

Wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca, growing as ground cover among the drumstick allium.

Wild strawberry is a powerhouse in supporting pollinators. Year 2.

Echinacea and verbena from seed. Monarda and phlox moved from other gardens. Year 2.

Invasive species control allows natives to flourish.

Spring. It doesn’t take long for some natives to become established. Year 2.

Butterfly gardens can look many different ways. This space is long and narrow so I chose to plant a repeating pattern of tall ‘ish’ and thin ‘ish’ plants.

Everyone can help the endangered monarch by planting milkweed.

American Lady on Echinacea purpurea

Monarch Watch

Zinnia’s are a great addition to butterfly gardens and super easy to grow by seed.

Allium and zinnia are both great nectar plants for butterflies. It doesn’t have to be only natives. Non native plants can be really helpful for nectar and they help create the look and feel of our garden spaces.

I leave about half of the seed heads for the birds; the other half get used to create new gardens.

Variegated Fritillary on native Oakleaf Hydrangea

The new fence will let the sun shine through to the back. Next year that space will have a raised bed veggie garden.

Just enough.

Year one was pretty spectacular.

Overgrown foundation plantings were replaced with witch hazel, native grasses, red-twig dogwood and Russian sage

Ground cover was native spiderwort and violet which were both saved but thinned out.

This area is stone over layers of landscape fabric. It was all removed and will become a shade garden.

Just keeps getting better. Year 6!

I’m starting to see some of the things I threw in here and forgot about…

This got planted as a dormant plant. A few years went by and I forgot about it. This spring there it was in full flower — beyond delighted! Dodecatheon puchellum, shooting star.

Echinacea purpura is not native to this area of the US, but adds significant value to a butterfly garden. It is a great nectar plant when in flower. In the fall spent seed heads are frequently visited by goldfinches.

When there is dill or fennel in this garden we find Black Swallowtail caterpillars. Other host plants are: celery, parsley & Queen Anne’s lace.

Allium schubertii

Eastern Commas are very hard to photograph because they rarely sit still! When folded they look like a dead leaf making them very hard to spot. We were very grateful to find this one sunning itself!

Easter Tiger Swallowtails will nectar on Coneflower, Blazing Star, Verbena, Buttonbush, Chives, Ironweed, Joe-Pye Weed, Lilac, Milkweed, New England Aster and Zinna (among others).

Established annual flower garden converted to perennial butterfly garden.

Right from the start this garden was amazing.

Perfect location for a butterfly garden.

Triangular shaped beds add a little extra visual interest.

Triangular beds planted with native grasses and wildflowers.

We used the lawn mower to help create spaces and see how we felt about them over time. Our original thought was to create a third space but once we marked the triangle beds we decided another space was too much.

I love it that I can see this garden all the way down the street.

Verbenia bonariensis is not native but it adds so much value to the garden. Butterflies and hummingbirds love it.

First year gardens can be amazing. Next year this will be even better.

I love it when clients send me pictures of their gardens and texts like this “It’s literally a work of art! You are a garden artist! I”m so happy with it!” I have the best job.

Site was seeded with Rudbeckia hirta and planted with little bluestem and prairie dropseed. Drumstick allium was added this fall.

19 species of wildflowers (only 2 non-native) plus 3 native grasses

Allium cernuum a beautifully elegant native Allium.

Phlox paniculata 'Jeana' . Attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

This front yard was largely unused by the previous home owners.

Path being considered as are choices for natives that will attract a variety of pollinators…

Step one of path (designed and installed by homeowners).

Mixed containers were added to make this outdoor living space more comfortable.

Native plants (and bird seed) attracted a variety of butterflies and songbirds. A great addition to the Zen vibe.

Nodding onion (Allium cernuum) grows very well in containers. It’s a pretty mix with pink geranium. Both bloomed into the fall.

Larger mixed planters flank the entrance - little bluestem & nodding onion mixed with non-native Astilbe.

Ferns are great in containers and add a sense of calm to a space. Perfect for a zen garden.

The first step to transforming a lawn is getting rid of the grass! Here we chose to use a sod cutter.

We chose to create the new beds as an extension of the current vegetable garden. One garden flows right into the next.

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. fulgida), Iron Weed (Vernonia lettermanii), Bee-balm (Monarda fistulosa var. fistulosa), Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)…

Monarda in bloom.

Aromatic Aster (Aster obl. October skies) & Smooth Aster (Aster laevis blue bird).

Monarch happily nectaring on Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata ‘ice ballet’) while family chickens forage about.

Cabbage white butterfly

In addition to host and nectar plants butterflies like warm places to sun them selves (rocks or sticks) and water. Here an old pottery plate has some dirt on the bottom (for nutrients) and water.

Year one eggs! When you are out in your garden make sure to check the undersides of leaves.

Our native Monarda (Monarda fistulosa) can be tricky to grow because it is prone to powdery mildew. In a perfect world it likes sun to part shade, average to moist soil.

We were so happy to see this little one. Smooth aster is a host plant (and included in this garden). Nectar plants are plentiful. In this garden it will be most attracted to Black-eyed Susan, Joe-Pye Weed, Milkweed, and it’s Smooth Aster.

Many traditional garden plants make excellent contributors to butterfly gardens. They help create the look and feel of our gardens and supply pollinators with nectar.

Penstemon digitalis is one of 4 native Penstemon. It is easy to grow in full sun with no serious insect or disease problems. Watch for aggressive spreading.

With cooler temperatures summer blooms give way to seed heads (available to hungry birds). Aster and Goldenrod are take over as nectar plants.

A first year garden will not leave a lot of debris in the fall. As plants mature try and have a limited fall clean up. This allows for wintering over at any of a butterflies life stages (adult, egg, larva, pupa).

The branches in the foreground here are Multiflora rose. If not removed, eventually this area will be completely covered.

This section of the project is one of the worst. It is very densely covered with both Multiflora Rose and European Bittersweet.

Pink flag marks where European Bittersweet, Glossy Buckthorn and Multiflora rose were dug out.

The edge of this meadow is heavily covered with Multiflora Rose. A very vigorous invasive plant.

The interior of this meadow has several native goldenrods adding beautiful fall interest.

Blue Vervain or Swamp Verbena, (Verbena hastata) is scattered through out this wet meadow. It is a nectar plant for butterflies and is a host plant for caterpillars of the Common Buckeye butterfly.

Joe-Pye Weed