Butterflies in Trouble

Nature Garden Planning

You want to do more for butterflies? Learn more about nature garden planning on the following pages.

Soil Condition

The soil condition is an important factor. We distinguish between clay, loam and sand.

It is easy to find out what sort of soil your garden has. Take a hand-ful of soil and crumble it between your fingers. If the soil is dry, light and crumbly, your garden contains sandy soil.

If the soil is redder and firmer it is clay. If the soil is more brown, pasty and wet, it is loam.

On the hand you should test, whether your garden soil is wet or not. That depends on where you live, near a river or near the hills. Please notice: Fallen leaves and fruit are not bad for your garden but help butterflies. They like drinking nectar and the soil can extract necessary nutrients from the leaves.

Light and Shadow

There are butterflies that prefer moist shadow zones and others that prefer dry and sunny warm zones. So if you find out about the light situation of your garden, you may help special butterflies to find the way into your garden.

So find out where the sun rises in your garden and where the North is.

Enjoy gardening and read some necessary information about butterflies under List of plants.

List of plants

Please choose plants:

Shadow Plants 1: grass

Botanic Name
Carex Pendula
Festuca Gigantea
Luzula Sylvatica
Mulinia Arundinacea

Shadow Plants 2: ferns

Botanic Name
Athyrium Filix-femina
Dryopteris Abbreviate
Dryopteris Filix-mas
Gymnocarpium Dryopteris
Matteuccia Struthiopteris
Phyllitis Scolopendrium
Polypodium Vulgare

Half-shadow Plants:

Botanic Name
Saponaria Officinalis
Allaria Petiolaris
Lathyrus Vernus

Sun – Half-shadow Plants:

Botanic Name
Daucus Carota
Chorium Intybus
Echium Vulgare
Centaurea Jacea
Reseda Lutea
Sedum Telephium
Aster spec.
Plantago Major

Nettle plants:

Botanic Name
Rumex Obtusifolia
Urtica Dioica
Cisium Arvense
C. Vulgare
C. Oleraceum
Sisymbrium Officinale

An example of a nature-friendly design

The design of the front garden of an advertising agency

In December 2006 I got mail from an advertising agency. They asked me for help in designing their front garden in a butterfly-friendly way. I agreed to help them and at our first meeting they told me about their wishes. I promised to contact them as soon as I had more information for them.

During my research I realized that I had a lot of knowledge about ecological contexts but that I needed help concerning the designing of a nature garden. I brought in biologist and garden architect Mrs S. Martin with whom I developed a concept for the planting of the front garden.

Tips for planting a nature garden

No. 1

Herb patches are easy to keep but difficult to plant. You need to fill 40cm pure lava into a hole as a foundation and to enclose the patch, which is best done with stones. Then you fill in the right kind of soil, i.e. gravel or lava mixed with compost. The last layer should be gravel.

No. 2

If you design a garden, it is important to be sure what you want. Otherwise you will have to start again the next year.

You should also know how much you can afford. For example it is not enough to cut the grass if you want to get rid of a lawn, you have to dig at least 10cm deep to extract the roots. That means you really need an excavator.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

deutsch  english 

Copyright © 2007: Codewalk ICT Consulting. All Rights reserved.   Imprint (in German)