Front garden after the addition of tulips.

Year 4

A butterfly garden can look all kinds of ways. It just needs host and nectar plants.

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.

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.

Wild strawberry, spotted geranium, allium

It took 2 years for these to grow in.

Jacobs ladder

too much mulch on crowns of the iris were causing them to underperform. extra mulch was removed and used elsewhere.

Grasses, swallow-wort, pachysandra, and creeping bellflower are all being weeded out making way for new ground cover (wild strawberry) and the existing plantings 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.

American Lady on Echinacea purpurea

Monarch Watch

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

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.

Rudbeckia hirta, Black-eyed Susan

Year 2

year 3. focus on making the best use of the backyard.

Annuals can be great for nectar sources and are often a part of my plantings. I have the best luck with them when they are grouped - as these are in containers.

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).

plenty of journey in this design even though the property is reatively small.

Loving the windows into the back garden space

Triangular beds planted with native grasses and wildflowers.

Right from the start this garden was amazing.

Perfect location for a butterfly garden.

Every year the garden gets better : )

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

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

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

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

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.

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

with manual pulling and flame weeding we’ve been successful at keeping invasive species from taking over.

Muliflora Rose, Autumn Olive, Oriental Bittersweet, Purple Loosestrife, Glossy Buckthorn....they are all present in this meadow but their populations are going down, giving our native meadow species room to grow.

Each year I see more Verbena h.

there are still invasive species, but it is getting better each year and not worse making more room for native plants to emerge.