A Butterfly Garden

Before we moved into our house, I knew with absolute certainty that I wanted to turn our backyard (and potentially our front yard) into a vegetable garden.  And so when we closed on our house, I started with five beds, expecting to add more as time went on (which we have also done).  What I didn't know was how much I would love the visitors that some of these plants brought with them.

When we found a rotund caterpillar (on our dill) then watched it promptly spin a cocoon and transform into an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly, I found out that dill was indeed a host for these beauties.  The following September, we spied a "flock" of migrating Monarchs on a neighbor's butterfly bush.  Each of these two specimens was so spectacular that I knew we would love to see more in our very own garden.

I started doing some reading on butterflies (namely The Family Butterfly Book by Rick Mikula) in order to get a good idea of the varieties of plants we should have around our garden.  This year I am paying special attention to those plants that are native to Northern New Jersey.  Here are some that have gone into the ground:

Bee Balm

Dianthus

Milkweed

Butterfly Bush

Loads and loads of dill

Yarrow

Coneflower

Blazing Stars

Lavender

With the exception of the dianthus and yarrow, none of them are in blossom yet, but we, err...me, are so so excited to see the wonders of a butterfly garden right in our backyard.