How to Create Your Own Butterfly Garden

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Ah, Spring is quickly approaching. Now that we’re in March the warm weather is in sight. It is the perfect time to get your backyard ready for Springtime. Using Scotts® Turf Builder® Bonus® S Southern Weed & Feed will help get rid of those pesky weeds and thickens your grass for lush landscape. Now that our grass will be fed, planting and gardening can begin! Creating a butterfly garden can add beautiful landscaping to any backyard. Having fluttering butterflies around your yard for the family to enjoy. Do you want to create your own raised butterfly garden? If so, follow along!

We had a butterfly garden in our previous home and the kids loved it. We knew we wanted to create another one in our new house. We had plenty of room and we had the perfect little corner for it. My kids loved seeing the caterpillars grow. They got to experience the life cycle of a butterfly from the egg stage to the caterpillar stage to the chrysalis stage to an adult butterfly. We tend to get a lot of monarch butterflies because we plant milkweeds which is both host and nectar plant for them. Butterflies drink the nectar from the milkweeds and lay their eggs on the milkweed leaves. Once the caterpillars emerge from the egg they start eating the leaves from the milkweeds. They eat a lot and grow very rapidly!

Materials:

12 bags – 1 cubic ft top soil
1x8x10 wood
Brick retaining wall blocks
Gardening fabric/cloth
Gardening gloves
Native plants from your area (like milkweeds)

Step 1: Clearing the area of grass. You want to make sure that all the grass is cleared.

Step 2: Screw 1×8 wood borders onto the wood fence.

Step 3: Lay down gardening cloth (or cardboard, like we did). It just helps prevent the weeds from growing.
Step 4: Close off the front of flower bed with brick retaining wall blocks.
Step 5: Fill in your flower bed with top soil or soil of choice.

Step 6: Place your plants in the desired area. Once your satisfied with their placement, start planting them!

There are a few things we’ve learned along the way. You want to make sure that you’re mindful of the heights of the plants you are planting. You want to keep the taller plants in the back and the shorter ones in the front. Caterpillars love milkweeds and they will eat through them quickly so allow space for you to add more. We actually grow our own milkweeds with seeds. They grow really fast!

Scotts® Turf Builder® Bonus® S Southern Weed & Feed will cover 5,000 sq ft. Just apply Scotts® Bonus® S where you see weeds growing. It’ll kill dollarweed, clover and other listed lawn weeds. Get your lawn Spring time ready with Bonus® S.

Looking for specific information for how Scotts® Turf Builder® Bonus® S Southern Weed & Feed can help solve your lawn problems? Click here to sign up for the Scotts‘ email reminder service to receive specific tips and information for your area! Be sure to pick up Scotts® Bonus® S at your local Walmart store if you live in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.