How to Plant a Butterfly Garden

In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook shows how a garden can be made to attract butterflies.

Steps:

1. To attract caterpillars, plant host plants about 30 feet away from the butterfly garden. Good host plants include spicebush and cherry tree.

2. Select plants for the butterfly garden that will bloom throughout the summer. In early summer, plant chives, sage, even dandelion.

3. Later in the summer, plant milkweed, coneflower or a butterfly bush.

4. Plant asters around the edges of the butterfly garden; they’ll bloom from late-summer into early-fall.

5. Be sure to set the plants in big clusters to create a larger target area for butterflies.

6. Create a damp puddling area in the garden; butterflies like to suck mud for essential minerals.