Wildlife garden
Butterfly garden: nectar for butterflies and food for caterpillars
A butterfly garden needs two things: nectar plants in the sun for the butterflies, such as brown knapweed, hemp agrimony and wild marjoram, and food plants for the caterpillars, such as stinging nettle, cuckooflower, alder buckthorn and bird’s-foot trefoil.
What to do
- Choose a sunny, sheltered spot: butterflies warm up in the sun and dislike wind.
- Plant nectar plants that flower one after another: blackthorn and cuckooflower in spring, bird’s-foot trefoil and valerian in early summer, brown knapweed, field scabious, devil’s-bit scabious and hemp agrimony in late summer.
- Leave a patch of nettles in the sun, and don’t cut it between May and September.
- Plant an alder buckthorn or buckthorn in your hedge for the brimstone, and let ivy and holly grow for the holly blue.
- Leave fallen fruit in autumn: red admirals and commas come to feed on it.
- Don’t use insecticides, not even organic products against caterpillars.
Why it helps
- No caterpillars, no butterflies: each species lays its eggs on a few particular food plants. Peacock, small tortoiseshell and red admiral lay on nettles, the orange-tip on cuckooflower and garlic mustard, the brimstone on alder buckthorn and buckthorn.
- Butterfly bush attracts plenty of butterflies, but feeds not a single caterpillar and self-seeds easily. Native nectar plants do better on both counts.
Which plants?
- Common nettle Urtica dioica herbaceous plant Native
- Cuckooflower Cardamine pratensis perennial · flowers April–May Native
- Garlic mustard Alliaria petiolata herbaceous plant Native
- Alder buckthorn Frangula alnus Shrub · flowers May–August NativePoisonous
- Buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica Shrub · flowers May–June NativePoisonous
- Blackthorn Prunus spinosa Shrub · flowers March–April Native
- Common ivy Hedera helix Climber · flowers September–November NativePoisonous
- Holly Ilex aquifolium Broadleaf tree · flowers May NativePoisonous
- Bramble Rubus Shrub · flowers June–August Native
- Heather Calluna vulgaris Dwarf shrub · flowers August–October Native
- Bird's-foot trefoil Lotus corniculatus perennial · flowers May–September Native
- Brown knapweed Centaurea jacea perennial · flowers June–September Native
- Field scabious Knautia arvensis perennial · flowers June–September Native
- Devil's-bit scabious Succisa pratensis perennial · flowers August–October Native
- Hemp agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum perennial · flowers July–September NativePoisonous
- Valerian Valeriana officinalis herb · flowers June–August Native
- Wild marjoram Origanum vulgare herbaceous plant Native
- English lavender Lavandula angustifolia Dwarf shrub · flowers June–August
When?
March–October.
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Take up the challenge
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No Mow May (May)
Let your lawn grow and flower in May: daisies, clover and dandelions feed bees and butterflies.
Did you know? The brimstone spends the winter as an adult butterfly in ivy or among leaves, which is why it is often the first butterfly you see on a sunny day in February.