Attracting butterflies, hummingbirds & ladybugs to your garden!

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.

Grow Great Grub

Do your summer plans include growing great grub or a garden that fits your space & schedule?  If so, we have two book recommendations that you need to check out: 

1. Grow Great Grub: Organic Food From Small Spaces by Gayla Trail is a wonderful how-to gardening book loaded with great photographs & nuggets of tips!  I love that this book gets to the point and doesn’t waste reader’s time with extra words.  There are pictures and oodles of excellent tips to get started and apply immediately!
2. I Garden: Urban Style by Reggie Solomon and Michael Nolan is packed with gorgeous photographs and helpful information to identify what you want out of your garden and how to get it.  It focuses on the urban garden, but their information is pertinent for anyone starting small or working with window boxes and container gardening.  

composting with kids!

Help your kids develop their green thumb by teaching them to compost.  Composting is a fun family project that's easy to do and great for the environment. Teach your tykes how simple it is to recycle waste and turn it into nutritious soil for your yard or plants. The micro-organisms that make the compost, need an even mixture of “greens” and “browns”. They also need water and air for a perfect compost formula. Here’s the compost recipe:

One part “brown” (dead dried plants – they provide the carbon): dried leaves, pine needles, straw, hay, wood shavings or chips.

One part “green” (fresh living plants – they provide the nitrogen): grass clippings, vegetable and fruit leftovers, plants, coffee grounds.

Place layers of brown, green, brown, green, brown into the composting bin, being sure to add water after every layer – make sure that the compost is always moist so the microorganisms can do their job. Stir every 3-4 weeks and voila… nutritious, rich soil!

A couple of composting no-no’s: NO meats, dairy, oil, fats, diseased plants or pet droppings!

A great book to read is, “Compost Stew” written by Mary McKenna Siddals and illustrated by Ashley Wolff  "Apple cores, bananas bruised, coffee grounds with filters used.  Just add to the pot, and let it all rot into compost stew!"


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