New Year’s Resolutions for Your Butterfly Garden

Choose one of these New Year’s Resolutions to make your garden more butterfly-friendly this year!

Resolve to Stop Pesticide Use

One simple New Year’s resolution that can have a huge impact on local wildlife (and your own health) is to stop using pesticides in your garden!

Pesticides can directly poison pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects.

Stop using pesticides and instead focusing on tried-and-true natural gardening practices can be a great New Year’s resolution for your garden! By avoiding or minimizing pesticide use, you create a safer, healthier environment for pollinators and contribute to the overall health and sustainability of your garden.

Plan to Plant Milkweed!

Milkweed is the primary food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars. By planting it, you’re helping to support the lifecycle of these beautiful and crucial pollinators, which are currently facing population declines.

With its unique flowers and foliage, milkweed can add an aesthetic appeal to your garden. It comes in various species, each with different colors and textures. Click here to purchase seeds.

Milkweed attracts not just monarchs, but a variety of other pollinators such as bees and other butterflies. This helps to enhance the biodiversity in your garden and supports the broader ecosystem.

The blooms of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) attract many species of butterflies such as this **eastern tiger swallowtail** (*Papilio glaucus*) and silver-spotted skippers (Epargyreus clarus).

By planting native milkweed, you’re contributing to conservation efforts, promoting ecological health, and adding a vibrant touch to your garden. It’s a small but powerful way to make a positive impact this new year!

Have a Goal to Add More Native Plants to Your Garden

Native plants are known to support a greater abundance and diversity of bees, butterflies, and other wildlife. Including native plants in your garden enhances biodiversity by providing a variety of plant species that support a diverse range of organisms. This helps to create a balanced and resilient ecosystem.

Click here to find seeds for these and other native wildflowers.

Native plants are adapted to the local climate, soil, and pests, which means they generally require less water, fertilizer, and pesticides. This makes them easier to care for and more sustainable.

Take time this winter and spring to walk through your garden and figure out what percentage of your plants are native species. Aiming for a wildlife garden that is at least 70% native plant species is a great goal with scientific backing.

Add Host Plants

Larval host plants are the secret to successful butterfly gardening; they are plants required by a caterpillar for growth and development. By planting host plants in your garden, you offer a promise of food for the next generation and will attract more butterflies than you thought possible.

Graphic from Design Your Wild (formerly Dear Avant Gardener) https://www.designyourwild.com/p/10-butterfly-hosts

Remember, you cannot have a butterfly without the caterpillar and you cannot have the caterpillar without that host plant. So plant lots of host plants. You can never have too many.

Click here to find host plants for caterpillars!

Celebrate Your Efforts by Certifying Your Garden

By certifying your garden, you not only gain recognition for your efforts but also contribute to larger conservation goals. It’s a wonderful way to make a positive impact on your local environment!

Here are some common certification programs you can consider:

National Wildlife Federation (NWF)

Certified Wildlife Habitat sign. Photo by Bernadette Banville.

- - - Certification: Wildlife Habitat Certification
    - Criteria: Provide food, water, cover, and places to raise young for wildlife. Use sustainable gardening practices.
    - Website: NWF Garden for Wildlife

Monarch Watch

- Certification: Monarch Waystation
- Criteria: Provide milkweed and nectar sources to support the monarch butterfly lifecycle.
- Website: Monarch Waystation Program

North American Butterfly Association (NABA)

- - Certification: Butterfly Garden and Habitat Program
  - Criteria: Create a garden that provides resources for butterflies, including host plants for caterpillars and nectar plants for adults.
  - Website: NABA Certification

Xerces Society

Certification: Pollinator Habitat
Criteria: Create a habitat that supports pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects.
Website: Xerces Society Pollinator Habitat

- - - Wild Ones
      - Certification: Native Plant Butterfly Garden Certification
        
        Criteria: Use native plants to create a garden that supports butterflies and other wildlife.
        
        Website: Wild Ones Certification

Gardening for butterflies can be a truly joyful and rewarding experience. Successfully attracting butterflies to your garden can give you a great sense of achievement. By nurturing a butterfly garden, you’re not only creating a beautiful space but also fostering a connection with nature that can bring lasting happiness.