Throughout the millennia, the astounding beauty of the butterfly has inspired the imagination, the arts, literature, and poetry. Attracting these magnificent creatures into our own yards requires three basic ingredients: larval host plants, nectar plants, and sheltering habitat.Read More
Butterflies are likely the most beloved and recognizable group of insects because of their striking wing coloring and patterning. Butterflies are a subset of moths in the order Lepidoptera. Because our North American butterflies are active during the day, and no species is a pest to the average person, they get more respect than their...Read More
Ten years ago, Liz Stanley’s and her partner Lynn Gallagher’s suburban yard was a weedy, turf-grass expanse, complete with invasive buckthorn. With no backgrounds in gardening—and through trial and error—they have slowly transformed their half-acre yard in Bloomington, Minnesota (a suburb of the Twin Cities), into a lush native habitat for pollinators, birds, and other...Read More
Over a decade ago Daniel Schultz listened to a talk given by Doug Tallamy, the author of the book Bringing Nature Home. It turned the way he saw the natural world upside-down. “It was such a shock to learn how little wildlife habitat is left in the United States,” states Daniel.Read More
When a caterpillar emerges from an egg, it is minuscule and can’t travel far to find food. To aid her offspring’s survival, the female butterfly (or moth) deposits her eggs on the food source her newborn caterpillars require so they can eat as soon as they emerge. The specific plant (or plants) a particular caterpillar...Read More
It’s hard for many gardeners to resist “cleaning up” their gardens in the fall or spring. But many moths and butterflies overwinter as caterpillars, pupae, and even adults in the soil surface, leaf litter, dead plants, twigs, and other hiding places in the garden. Other insects such as native bees, beetles, and more, need “messy”...Read More
Pictures tell most of this story. Property owners in an east suburb carved out a section of their property and transformed it into a wildlife haven in just a year. Milkweed that had always grown on the property were supplemented with a variety of Minnesota native plants. The following season, the planting was bursting with...Read More