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| SPECKLED WOOD |
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By choosing a range of butterfly friendly plants you can start to attract butterflies to your garden. A butterfly garden is an ideal place to study different stages of the butterfly life cycle but remember to provide food plants for caterpillars as well as the brightly coloured nectar rich plants for adult butterflies.
Choose a sunny sheltered spot. Butterflies need the sun to warm up before they can fly. They will not visit flowers in the shade and enjoy basking in the sun.
Consider planting a hedge to provide shelter from strong winds.
Butterflies can hibernate as adults in shrubs and outbuildings while others overwinter as eggs or pupae.
Dense tangles of vegetation, drifts of dead leaves etc are all possible hibernation sites. Resist the temptation to tidy up the garden too much in Autumn to leave cover for over wintering insects.
Avoid using pesticides in the garden as they can kill caterpillars.
In very dry weather keep the borders watered as in drought conditions nectar can dry up.
Regular dead heading will extend the flowering season.
Bare gaps between plants can be filled with nectar rich annuals to discourage weeds.
Plant vegetation suitable for the local area as unsuitable plants may fail to thrive.
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