Gardeing for Butterflies and Moths
Gardens provide essential food and homes for butterflies and moths all over the UK and provide an essential source of food through flowers and plants.
As well as planting nectar-producing flowers, letting an area of your garden grow wild and allowing the grasses to grow tall could attract a range of regular visitors to your garden, including meadow brown, speckled wood, gatekeeper, small skipper, marbled white and ringlet.
Top tips
• Have flowers available throughout the season, but particularly in spring and autumn when early emerging butterflies need energy and later in the year with some species needing to build their reserves up for the winter.
• Prune some of your buddlea in March to ensure late flowering
• Nectar production is greater if plants are kept well watered
• Always buy genuine UK wildflower plants and seeds, as exotic species may not be suitable for butterflies.
• Grow caterpillar plants as well as flowering species.
• Limit the spread of stinging nettles by growing them in a large container sunk into the ground.
• Avoid buying commercially produced garden compost, as this is often sourced from peat bog habitats at the expense of lots of wildlife including rare species of butterfly, like the large heath.
• Go green and avoid using insecticides and herbicides in your garden. This will promote beneficial insects such as butterflies and bees, plus lacewing, ladybirds and even mammals like hedgehogs which control pest species such as aphids and slugs.
