While
bees need little enticement (beyond a few flowers) to visit your garden, other
helpful bugs & birds benefit from some coaxing. A garden pro shares the easiest ways to
attract these natural beauties!
Butterflies
Why
your garden loves them: Because pollen sticks to their legs as they
flit from flower to flower, butterflies help both flowers and vegetables
flourish – and help the gardener too (studies show that just watching
butterflies lowers blood pressure)!
Invite
them by:
- Making a mud pie! Male butterflies have a serious salt
tooth, says Sharon Lovejoy, author of Trowel and Error. “They like to feast on the proteins and
minerals in salt.” Just fill an 8”-10”
wide plant saucer with a little soil, water and 1 Tablespoon salt, and put
your ‘mud pie’ in a sunny area, because “butterflies are solar powered,”
she says.
- Planting “pizza” herbs! Butterflies make a beeline to both colorful flowers (sunflowers, zinnias and butterfly bush) and herbs. So Lovejoy suggests you combine the two: Grow the herbs they most love- basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme and place sunflowers around them. Small butterflies will land on the herbs, while the sunflowers will entice bigger Monarchs.
Hummingbirds
Why
your garden loves them: “Look at a hummer’s head,” says Sally Roth,
author of Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds to Your Backyard. “It’s often dusted with grains of pollen,
which are then transferred to the next flower it visits.”
Invite
them by:
- Hanging a sack of scraps! “Fill a mesh onion sack with
finger-length pieces of yarn – any color will do – and small feathers,”
advises Lovejoy. Hang the sack on a
tree branch and hummingbirds will “tug out your offerings” to use to make
their nests!
- Feeding them right! They may look dainty, but hummers are
champion eaters, consuming half their body weight every day! To feed them, make hummingbird syrup by
combining ¼ cup sugar and 1 cup water and microwaving 1 ½ minutes. Use in a hummingbird feeder and change
the solution every few days.
Why
your garden loves them: Ladybugs devour harmful pests, including
rose-ruining aphids; each adult can gobble up several hundred insects a
day! The larvae of ladybugs also eat
garden enemies, meaning that once ladybugs are in your garden, they provide
continual protection!
Invite
them by:
- Planting borage! In one Swiss study, gardens with the
pretty blue herb- which can be planted in June- had the highest numbers of
ladybugs! Other herbs ladybugs
love? Dill, coriander, parsley and
cilantro.
- Setting them free at night! Live ladybugs can be bought at your
local nursery or online (INSERT HERE).
Wait until evening to set them out.
“If you release them during the day, they’ll fly away,” Lovejoy
explains. To further ensure they
linger, spray your garden with a solution of ¼ cup water and 5 ounces of
sugar – “sweet leaves” lure ladybugs!
Entice
praying mantises with berries! Praying
mantises are natural bug zappers, feeding on pests like mosquitoes. They seek out shrubs- especially raspberry
and rose bushes, which attract the aphids they favor!
Fireflies
Welcome
fireflies with wildflowers! “Firefly
larvae are voracious eaters of slugs, mites and cutworms,” notes Lovejoy, who
says they seek the protection of tall wildflowers and bushy areas that are free
of pesticides.
for more reading, check out:
Trowel & Error
Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds to your Backyard
article excerpted from Woman’s World
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