What they don't tell you about butterfly gardening

In today's video, I wanted to dive deeper into a topic I touched on recently. It's about surface level gardening versus the more in depth gardening work and habitat building that you can do. You may notice that when you look up butterfly gardening, for example, you see a few good suggestions, sure, but maybe you yearn for more. Maybe you can feel that something is missing, that you aren't getting the amount of butterflies that you'd like or maybe you're only attracting them a short time frame within the year. This video will give you some other tips and ideas on how to navigate this issue. Almost all wildlife need the basics of course: food, water, shelter, etc. But what else could you research? My channel will hopefully provide you with these tools. I have many videos that talk about different wildlife gardening resources, tips, tricks, and garden design ideas. I hope you find the channel helpful!
In this video, I show my garden throughout the years. You'll get to see what my garden looked like before and after and almost every stage in between! I hope you enjoy it.
Ways to support the channel, other than subscribing and liking the video of course!:
Merch: www.bonfire.com/store/a-wild-...
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Thanks for watching!

[@Jasonfreer]

When I moved into my home it had a full manicured garden surrounding it. I Stumbled upon native gardening 4 years ago, and now 99% of non natives have been removed and replaced including the turf grass. I love how the plants move around and grow and my new bug friends are the absolute best!

[@awildapproach]

🎉Yes!! Now that’s a great change!

[@GrandmaSandy]

You so much for another wonderful video. I love butterflies in my garden and I love seeing them flying around my husband‘s in bad health and he sets on the front seating area and just sets and watches hummingbirds and the butterflies and bees flying around. He enjoys it so much.

[@awildapproach]

Thank you so much for watching and for taking time to leave that lovely comment! Sorry your husband is in bad health, but I'm so glad he finds joy in watching the pollinators in your garden! Happy May!

[@RobertKaucher]

I worked myself into a much worse position when I started. I really had no idea what I was doing and bought a "wild flower mix". The problem is that this mix had some very good native plants in it. I had also bought into the no-mow thing and thought I could just combine them. Now I have a bed that is roughly 20 feet by 20 feet that has mature wild-form purple coneflower, coreopsis, butterfly weed, and common milkweed mixed in with invasives (that I know that I introduced into the area) and different turf grasses. My plan this year is to just try to remove the invasives from very specific areas, prevent any spreading, and make sure they do not reseed anywhere in the garden. I did my winter sowing and I have a lot that I can fill these spaces with. Next year, I will expand those areas doing my best to take out the bad and keep the good. I just hope that in a couple years, I have this area under control.

[@awildapproach]

Lots of us have fallen for that trap, ME INCLUDED! You'll get through it, I believe fully you will. The aggressive natives that you do have will eventually spread themselves around happily. And your plan sounds great. Yes to removing the invasives as you see them. A garden is never finished. :) Thanks for watching and for commenting.

[@bredear]

My worst enemy on my garden has been Bermuda grass and fire ants. I’m still fighting the fire ants. Nice garden, good points and interesting video.

[@awildapproach]

Thanks so much for watching! Sorry you're dealing with those!

[@susanpayne5592]

@bredear, I feel your pain here in Coastal Georgia. Have you managed the Bermuda grass? If so, how? I have it growing through Dewitt weed fabric.

[@bredear]

@@susanpayne5592 I used glyphosate (Round up) I followed instructions carefully. That will kill about 75%, excavated the rest. Then put compost, cardboard and about 2” of mulch on top. Waited 6 months before planting anything. If you don’t carefully cover every inch with cardboard, the Bermuda will grow back, even with the glyphosate treatment. I wish you the best of luck in your garden.

[@susanpayne5592]

@@bredear Thank you!

[@naturesaffiliate]

@@bredear Omg, Please PLEASE DON'T FOLLOW THIS ADVICE. Round up is your absolute worst enemy in this type of garden. DO NOT SPRAY YOUR GARDEN.

[@evilcuteness8194]

FYI Roundup is not your friend if you have a pollinator garden. There are ways of smothering non native baddie plants that don't hurt your native bees, bumble bees or butterflies.

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

Good observations! I agree on the mulch, people forget that a lot of weeds are basically wildflowers, and when you grow wildflowers it can't all be smothered. I am always on the hunt now for reliably self seeding natives, because that is the function of those plants -- to re-colonize open spaces -- and our seed banks have been so long deprived of natives that they are mostly full on non-native self re-seeders. We need to get that niche occupied with good/beneficial species. My problem is that I started with wood chip pathways and now that's actually where everything wants to germinate because the mulch improved the soil in those spots. It seems like you've done your yard in a very manageable way, the borders are really defined and it looks purposeful. I really struggle with that, my yard looks like jungle right now.

[@awildapproach]

Trust me, a native garden gets better over time. 🙂 You sound like you’re doing the right things. It took my self seeders a while but they are in full force this year. I think I have too many tall ones that are prolific vs small ones. So my tip is to add short native self seeders early on!! Especially in a smaller garden like mine! I also like to add shrubs and I’m noticing spots I need to add a shrub or two.

[@TitaniumFelix]

When considering garden types, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. For example, you can plant prairie plants in conjunction with canopy tree seedlings such as oaks. You can allow succession to take place over time. Depending on where you live in the US most areas turn to forest if you do nothing. However, I certainly agree with making a good site analysis, not impeding power lines, creating future hazards, etc. Thank you for sharing your garden, it is beautiful and inspiring for all of us working towards a wildlife garden.

[@awildapproach]

That's exactly how I try to look at things! Thank you for explaining it in such a great way. There's a progression to a garden and it's rarely a static object. It's a living thing full of living things! It's fun to watch things grow and eventually get tall. I love that feeling of enclosure, so I especially enjoy adding trees, shrubs, and vines. Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out the video! Happy habitat gardening.

[@souljahaden6184]

Leaves are the best mulch from my experience as well

[@awildapproach]

Nature’s mulch🍁🍂🌱

[@Jinjinajin]

I’ve been trying to be more aware of native/non native species and pollinator plants in the past few years…and this vid is a blessing

[@awildapproach]

I'm so glad you love it! Keep on keepin' on!☺

[@gymeni]

I love your fence door. 😊

[@awildapproach]

Thank you! We are currently working to repair and repaint it and hope to put it back up soon.

[@MarigoldsintheGarden]

Thank you for this extremely interesting video. If I lived in America I would have an all native garden too. You have the most beautiful, native plants that I have seen anywhere in the world. I live in Australia and we have totally different and unusual looking plants here. I am starting to incorporate as many of them into my garden as possible.

[@awildapproach]

Thank you so much for watching and for commenting! I love the native plants here, too. I'm always pleasantly surprised with the beautiful plants we have, because I keep learning about ones I never knew about!! The diversity of plants here is amazing. I'm lucky.

[@ninatanti6530]

I love your gardening philosophy! Fun and informative video. Beautiful garden.

[@awildapproach]

Thank you so much! I'm glad it was fun to watch.

[@GrandmaSandy]

Thank you so for sharing this beautiful yard of yours before and after thanks so much for sharing all the wonderful improvements you have made into a beautiful flower garden. I know it takes a lot of work thanks so much for

[@awildapproach]

You are so welcome!🌻✨🥰

[@lisalikesplants]

Great video! Love seeing the garden come together. 🌱🌱🌱

[@awildapproach]

Thank you so much!!☺️🌱I enjoy documenting it and sharing it with fellow like minded people such as yourself.🌻

[@BirdsPawsandMore]

I absolutely love what you have done with the open space you started with. Its a lot of work over several years but you have done it! What a fabulous documentary on what you did over time. The arbor is built just right!. I am jealous of your mountain mint! My mint died off a few years ago and never really took. I do have hopes of getting more after I have amended the soil in one spot in my garden. Great job and oasis for the birds, insects and improvement to the ecosystem.

[@awildapproach]

Thank you so much for your lovely comment! I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to say that. As for the mountain mint, one of mine has an issue this year that it didn't have last year, but luckily it's just one plant having the issue and I think it's just too crowded. Maybe a fungal thing. So I may be able to just plant more of my baby ones, sow seeds, or divide and move the sad one. :) we will see! Good luck on your next mint attempt! Love me some mountain mint!!

[@moomoo3031]

lovely what you have created! Im in northern NM and can never have a garden like that but I keep trying to get natives to grow here. At 23, theres one of my favorites, Joe Pye weed, its glorious and wil sprout up everywhere! butterflys just love it! Lovely journey in your yard, thanks so much

[@awildapproach]

Joe Pye Weed is glorious! Thanks so much for watching and taking time to comment.Happy wildlife gardening!

[@embrustzwei]

It's always so neat watching your garden evolve - I think I need to start putting more effort into documenting my own. I'm completely with you on the mulch topic; I just wish I could go without it. For my scenario and how I've gone about it, I've unfortunately stuck myself into mulching my garden space - I've done just about everything I can in order to maximize intent, mulch included. However, I don't plan to refresh the wood chips because my garden will be much more mature and filled-in by that point so that what weeding I will be doing will be lesser and much easier than where I'm currently in the first year of it.

[@awildapproach]

Yes, it gets easier as we go and as the native plantings really fill in. I’m glad you enjoy seeing the progress. Yes, definitely document your own as much as you can. You’ll love looking back on the early days and seeing your work pay off.🙂

[@PlasBachGarden]

A lovely video, the butterflies are amazing! And I dig your garden - bad pun intended!

[@awildapproach]

Thanks so much! 😊 Glad you enjoy the garden and the wildlife. Happy gardening!

[@PlasBachGarden]

@@awildapproach And to you too! I've got a gardening channel too, but need to invest in a proper camera so I can capture the wonderful natural world as well as you do.

[@PlantNative]

Amen! Do you have a video on the diy branches arbor? So cute!

[@awildapproach]

I don’t think I have a tutorial on me making that. It’s because I made it a year or two before starting this channel. But that’s a great video idea!! I am working on a new arbor but it’s not made of natural branches. If I do another natural branch arch, I’ll try to make a tutorial! But in summary, you need to start with outdoor safe wood posts, cement them in the ground, attach your tree branches to these posts with exterior grade screws, as well as exterior grade wire depending on what you need. I like using screws for the thick branches and then I add the smaller ones to them with the wire. Check that everything is secure. Note that over time the wood branches rot, so you’ll need to add to your natural arch every year or every other year and you’ll need to probably assess it every year for issues and make tweaks as needed. I’ve used boxelder tree trunk (young), crape Myrtle branches from my neighbor, and grape vine branches.☺️ Hope that helps!!

[@PlantNative]

It does. Ty

[@BirdsPawsandMore]

@@awildapproach Yes, the arbor was nicely done! Whimsical!

[@lifeoutnumbered]

you probably didn't mulch deep enough but also agree with with natives are better at taking out invasive plants than mulch

[@awildapproach]

Probably I didn't, but I've seen bermuda grass grow through a giant pile of wood chips about 2 feet high or more, so it definitely works its way up through regular mulching. What it makes me realize is that we gotta defeat bermuda with roots as well as over the soil, too.

[@lifeoutnumbered]

@@awildapproach I agree I’m trying to do a combination of deep mulch and planting close together as a ground cover to shade the soil and get rid of the grass. Hopefully it will help keep the soil cool and healthy here in these intense Florida summers I deal with!!

[@awildapproach]

@@lifeoutnumbered Oh yes, we gotta use the strategies that we can where we are. I do not envy that Florida heat! I feel like our summers up here get too hot. I feel for ya! This is probably why I love trees and shrubs so much. Such a relief from the heat. Happy gardening to you, and thank you for your kind comments and feedback.

[@megelizabeth9492]

Mulch can be a good stopgap though, while your plants get themselves established. Especially for the slow growers.

[@jumprope04]

Yes, exactly! For us, mulch as a stopgap with soil amendments and cardboard are working well to start. Tx panhandle. We’re dealing with Bermuda, wind and temp extremes. This yr beginning to add ground covers. Thanks so much for your beautiful, honest video. Wow, inspiring how much you’ve learned and accomplished! 🌿💜

[@PlasBachGarden]

I thought I had subscribed, but I hadn't - have now!

[@mitchl5220]

After watching this I realised I need to get myself some bee balm

[@warp9p659]

Love your garden! I think by far the most aggressive spreader in my garden is common milkweed. I planted like 2 seeds 6 or 7 years ago. It now comes up all over the property. I'm constantly cutting some of it down, but it grows back fast.

[@awildapproach]

Me, too! I planted one that I grew myself from seed, and all the ones you see in my garden are from that one spreading by underground roots! But I do like it. I just don't like its look in the late summer and fall. But frostweed and ironweed are a close second, spreading like wild by seeds. :) Frostweed is hard to pull, but common milkweed is easy for me to pull. I have to dig up Frostweed if I don't want it in the spot it's in. But I do have compacted soil in certain spots...

[@megelizabeth9492]

Common milkweed is great for naturalizing in meadows and that, but I really do prefer swamp milkweed or butterfly weed in home garden settings. Incarnata in particular is great, since it's still very vigorous, nearly impossible to kill, and great for pollinators, but overall just a little better behaved than it's common relative. (also the flowers are so pretty with their delicate appearance and subtle variation in color!🥰)

[@awildapproach]

@@megelizabeth9492 I respect that. In my garden, swamp milkweed doesn't do well, but it also may depend on where in my garden I plant it. I want to try to grow it again in a different spot. Butterfly milkweed does well in my garden, but doesn't spread at all and I want some spreading...but yes common spreads a lot! My huge patch started with one plant. but it is a nice foliage interest right now. Something ate all the blooms off it. LOL 🤣😅

[@megelizabeth9492]

I know our crabapple tree was a big hit with the pollinator crowd. When it was in peak bloom, you could hear a distinct low buzz whenever you walked underneath it!

[@11234231423423]

I highly recommend going all or mostly native.

[@awildapproach]

That’s the plan! Taking it step by step. Garden bed by bed and plant by plant.☺️Thank you for watching and taking time to comment!🎉

[@katiecannon8186]

Your garden is really beautiful.

[@awildapproach]

Thank you so much 💓

[@ThreeRunHomer]

What’s the pale purple flower at 28:41? Good video as always.

[@awildapproach]

Thanks! That is wild bergamot [Monarda fistulosa].

[@graeshoppa9998]

Biodiversity 👏

[@awildapproach]

yes! So needed!! :)

[@ammorales1524]

Great information and video. I have a wild strawberry problem in my garden and cannot seem to eradicate them. I don want to use chemicals because there are a lot of plants entangled amongst them. I just do judicious “weeding”. Any suggestion?

[@awildapproach]

The native strawberry?

[@megelizabeth9492]

Are you sure it isn’t mock strawberry?

[@ammorales1524]

@@awildapproach I am not sure. They are rampant . Lovely white flowers with yellow eyes. Just like the fruiting ones. Hugs the ground and spread very quickly.☹️

[@ammorales1524]

@@megelizabeth9492 I have a photo but not sure how to send .

[@megelizabeth9492]

Mock strawberry has yellow flowers, so at least you don’t have to deal with that.

[@kerele4843]

What is that very purple flowering plant at the side of your house 4:18 please?

[@awildapproach]

That is 'homestead purple' verbena. :)

[@kerele4843]

Beautiful. Thank you.

[@ogadlogadl490]

4:49 you have sooooo much room ! You could be growing some bushels of tomatoes!

[@awildapproach]

Haha I tried! I wasn’t that good at growing tomatoes.🥹But it’s ok as I find native plants more fulfilling for me personally. Plus, there are native food plants, too. For example, my American plum shrubs and my passion vines.💜🥰🌱

[@ogadlogadl490]

@@awildapproach Very cool! I am a mater tomato grower and I could see and envision about 80 plants in that grassy area! 🤣🤣

[@BirdsPawsandMore]

@@awildapproach I am with you on the native plants. I tried a vegetable garden and it just did not work out for me. I switched over to Virginia native perennials and have not looked back. With the veggies plants, I would hate on the bugs that ate my food. Now, I love to check if bugs are eating the leaves of the plant to ensure I am planting to feed the ecosystem. My personal discovery was that I enjoying growing plants for insects more than food for me. One year I grew a 4 foot by 8 foot patch of dill just to attract the Black Swallowtail.

[@awildapproach]

@@BirdsPawsandMore Oh man! I feel you on all that! And I do love me some dill, even if it's not native. Smells so good, too!! Planting golden alexander, too, for the native version of black swallowtail host plant :)

[@megelizabeth9492]

It’s worth mentioning that tomatoes are a New World crop, and actually have a close relationship, and (at least in my experience,), are a favorite of local bumble bees. Squash, another New World plant, even has its own specialist pollinator, the Squash Bee.

[@dmnos6824]

Are stinging nettles needed by certain butterflies where you live? Do you have any? I hope to have butterflies in my garden this summer and where I live stinging nettles are very popular among butterflies so I have some despite always thinking that they were bad before. I have them hidden at the back of my house.

[@awildapproach]

They are considered "adventive" here, so not really a native, but there are other plants like Parietaria pensylvanica that the admiral butterfly can also host on (admiral can host on stinging nettle). Parietaria pensylvanica is native to my area.

[@dmnos6824]

@@awildapproach Thanks for your reply and best of luck with your gardening. You have made huge progress since you started wildlife gardening, keep up the good work. Your channel will inspire many more gardeners making your channel a force multiplier! 🙂 I love your echinacea, purple coneflower, I have some planted, but I don't know how they will turn out, there aren't native to where I live, a good ornamental plant for pollinators in my country.

[@onetwocue]

Im a bit torn in my garden. I got milk weed popping up everywhere where i dont want. Is it bad of me to kill them off? But leave the ones that are supposed to be in the beds?

[@awildapproach]

Pull up any you don't want. Don't spray them, because it could hurt your other plants. I get common milkweed spreading in my own beds and I just pull whichever ones I don't want. For example, sometimes I pull them out of my path. So far this year, I haven't pulled them yet, but they are fairly easy to pull especially after a good rain. :)

[@liesesadler5295]

Before pulling them up how about finding a person raising butterflies in your area and donating the plants - I met a woman last year that raises monarchs in her home and is always on the hunt for milkweed

[@awildapproach]

@@liesesadler5295 Great idea for the plants that transplant well. Some of our prolific plants don't transplant so well.

[@liesesadler5295]

@@awildapproach I meant so the leaves can be fed, not replanting. The caterpillars eat the leaves voraciously and so butterfly raisers are always on the hunt for leaves.

[@awildapproach]

@@liesesadler5295 Oh! My bad, I read your comment incorrectly. I wouldn't encourage captive raising. It can spread disease. It's best to let the butterflies live in our gardens, predator pressures and all!

[@purelife_simplelife]

Please do not plant non-native plants you will confuse the migration process of your native birds and insects

[@awildapproach]

It seems like you may have not watched the whole video.