A neighbor stopped by Sunday evening to ask my husband about all the butterflies in our yard. I called the next day to see if she would like talk about gardening for butterflies. She came by yesterday, we got rained out, and we tried again this morning. Turns out she is also a bird lover and cat lover and is just beginning to think about planting for wildlife. I thought it might be helpful to see how big a footprint the plants will eventually need, which ones spread and take over, and which ones are favorites among butterflies, bees, wasps, hummingbirds, and songbirds. (As long as the wasps leave us alone, I don't mind them. Some of my favorite birds eat wasps.)
Every winter I try to dig out some of the passion vine that is growing too vigorously among my camellias and citrus. When the weather gets really cold and there are no caterpillars, I try to thin out the roots. Every summer I enjoy the swarms of fritillaries and zebra long wings that spring up from its leaves, but it's overwhelming how the vines cover up the bushes.
We also talked about larval food for specific butterflies. It's rewarding to see the caterpillars grow. A gardener has to understand that among the flowers, there will be some plants that are eaten all the way back to the stalks. The more you plant, the more they eat. That's the trade off.
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