Future Care of the Butterfly Garden

by James Goldschmidt

After the first killing frost (usually in October or November), use a lawn mower to cut down the garden to about three inches high or so-- a little taller won't hurt, but don't go much under. This will help distribute the seeds throughout the garden. Do not rake the garden afterwards. Simply leave the shredded dead flowers on the bed to rot, as the leftover decaying matter will help enrich and mulch the bed the next year.

Depending on how well the garden emerges the following spring, we may or may not need to re-seed the garden. This depends mostly on the previous winter-- if the winter was harsh with many days of sub-zero temperatures, it will probably will need it. In that case, I suggest we use a wild seed mixture of native regional wildflowers-- I believe there are some mixtures available of wildflowers native to Hamilton county. Although NKU is located in Campbell county, I imagine the virtually same wildflowers are found in both counties. Although the Ferry-Morse seeds have done well, I just think it is important to get a great diversity of wildflowers in our garden, and though most of the Ferry-Morse seeds are native to the U.S., they aren't necessarily native to our region. Even then, only a small minority of the plants that populate our garden will not be geared to attract butterflies anway. Even if winters are mild, it should nonetheless be reseeded once every 3 springs. Records of reseeding (or any other activity of note, like when and what was used to fertilize the garden) should be kept on a webpage linked to the main butterfly garden page. Photographs of new plant species in our garden should be scanned and the images added to the flower gallery page.

When re-seeding, broadcast thinly, using about 1/4 the seeds needed to cover the recommended area, and concentrate of course on the bare areas. The seeding should be done between April 20th and May 10th. For easy seed broadcasting, mix well 1 part seed to 5 parts dry sand. Water for one hour after seeding.

Also, I think we should plant a few butterfly bush and butterfly weed seedlings at the borders of the garden (protecting the seedlings for a three or four weeks from rabbits using chicken wire). Walking through the garden should be generally avoided, especially in march-may when the seedlings are at their most tender. It won't really hurt the garden to walk though it November-February, at which time certain garden maintenance may need to be done. For example, there is a patch of iris bulbs that ought to be dug up and separated every four years (the extra bulbs should be planted elsewhere- along the edges of the driveway, along the border of the woods, etc.). As mentioned before, the butterfly garden will need to be mowed down every year.

Our butterfly garden only needs to be fertilized twice a season: once around the 20th of April, and again about the 10th of July. Please ONLY USE ORGANIC FERTILIZER! Always water the garden with the lawn sprinkler for an hour (or whatever is equivalent to an inch of rain) after applying the fertilizer. Follow the directions on the package. Bone meal or cotton seed meal are good choices, and K-Mart has inexpensive organic fertilizers under the Martha Stewart label. Avoid using the same types of fertilizer over and over.

Composting and weed cultivating with tools should not be done to the butterfly garden- compost will bury too deeply the annual seeds, and cultivation with tools will destroy the root systems of the perennial plants. So, weed only by hand. It will be difficult to identify the weeds, so be sure what you pull out is actually a weed. We do have milkweed growing in the garden which grew there wildly. Some milkweed is desirable, as it is a food plant for monarch butterflies. Milkweed looks alot like a dandelion, but taller and a bit bristly. It is though a rampant, quick growing plant, so the amount of milkweed should be kept down to under a dozen plants.

It would be wonderful if someone took pictures of the garden once every month, from last frost to first frost (March-November) from a few viewpoints (from the deck above, from the herb garden, from the corner of the garden nearest the strawberry patch, etc). And then posted the pictures to the webpage. Thus, one could see the progress of the garden, from month to month and from year to year.

Also it would be nice to catalog the types of butterflies that are noticed that visit our garden, and any other interesting creatures (hummingbirds perhaps).