Attracting Butterflies to Your Garden with a Butterfly Bath

Attracting Butterflies to Your Garden with a Butterfly Bath

There have been so many articles about attracting butterflies to your garden with the right flowers that it seemed redundant to write another one. We all know that butterflies love to visit gardens filled with bright coloured flowers such as rudbeckia, shasta daisies, phlox and the butterfly bush. But did you know that when attracting butterflies to your garden that you should include water for them? A butterfly bath will do just that, so I recently added one to my garden after seeing the idea on my friend, Barb’s blog…..Our Fairfield Home and Garden

Like the birds we attract to our garden with a birdbath, butterflies need water too. A male butterfly needs the nutrients and salt and the female needs the sodium to get the energy needed for mating.

Choose a shallow container like a traditional birdbath or shallow bowl. Then put a small layer of pebbles and rocks on the bottom, leaving some exposed to allow the butterflies to land. I created a “landing pad” with a small piece of reused concrete and added pebbles and small rocks around the edges (more for aesthetics than anything).

As with all wildlife watering spots, you’ll want to keep the water fresh and clean. A lot of people add a few drops of bleach to the water which helps control the bacteria. But I replace the entire water amount every day when watering my plants. I simply put the hose to it on jet setting to help clean out the bottom.

Place your butterfly bath somewhere in the garden near the flowers that butterflies love. Mine sits in a sunny spot in the perennial garden surrounded by sedums, purple salvia and (yet to bloom) monarda (aka bee balm) which the butterflies love.

So if you’ve taken the time attracting butterflies to your garden with the right flowers, may I suggest that you also add a butterfly bath.

Sharing with:

Original article and pictures take www.newhousenewhomenewlife.com site