Alaska Gardening Indoor at Gardening tips

Welcome to Gardening tips

Article

Copyright � 2005 Jane Lake All Rights Reserved

Butterfly gardening is not only a joy, it is one way that you can help restore declining butterfly populations. Simply adding a few new plants to your backyard may attract dozens of different butterflies, according to landscape designers at the University of Guelph.

Butterflies, like honeybees, are excellent pollinators and will help increase your flower, fruit and vegetable production if you provide them with a variety of flowers and shrubs. They are also beautiful to watch, and are sometimes called "flowers on the wing."

- Begin by seeding part of your yard with a wildflower or butterfly seed mix, available through seed catalogues and garden centers. Wildflowers are a good food source for butterflies and their caterpillars.

- Choose simple flowers over double hybrids. They offer an easy-to-reach nectar source.

- Provide a broad range of flower colors. Some butterflies like oranges, reds and yellows while others are drawn toward white, purple or blue flowers.

- Arrange wildflowers and cultivated plants in clumps to make it easier for butterflies to identify them as a source of nectar.

- If caterpillars are destroying favorite plants, transfer them by hand to another food source. Avoid the use of pesticides, which can kill butterflies and other beneficial insects.

- Some common caterpillar food sources are asters, borage, chickweed, clover, crabgrass, hollyhocks, lupines, mallows, marigold, milkweed or butterfly weed, nasturtium, parsley,
pearly everlasting, ragweed, spicebush, thistle, violets and wisteria. Caterpillars also thrive on trees such as ash, birch, black locust, elm and oak.

- Annual nectar plants include ageratum, alyssum, candy tuft, dill, cosmos, pinks, pin cushion flower, verbena and zinnia.

- Common perennial nectar plants include chives, onions, pearly
everlasting, chamomile, butterfly weed, milkweeds, daisies, thistles, purple coneflower, sea holly, blanket flower,
lavender, marjoram, mints, moss phlox, sage, stonecrops, goldenrod, dandelion and valerian.

Remember that butterflies are cold-blooded insects that bask in the sun to warm their wings for flight and to orient themselves. They also need shelter from the wind, a source of
water, and partly shady areas provided by trees and shrubs.

About the Author

Jane Lake's work has appeared in Canadian Living, You and Modern Woman magazines. To make your own butterfly feeders, read her article, Butterfly Food or visit her Nature Crafts section for more nature articles, including how to make nectar for hummingbirds, plus more on butterfly gardens.

Alaska Gardening Indoor Best products

Alaska Gardening Indoor News

alaska gardening indoor

Go to the new RSS page and renew your subscription.]]>

IMPORTANT: Bing News RSS feed has moved!

Since amaryllis are the easiest and showiest indoor flowers you can grow ... There are no printed copies, but you can go to the site and find the area in Alaska where you garden. It is based on the average annual minimum temperature.

Sweet pea starts can help take your mind off winter

5:30 p.m. - Have a cocktail and early dinner at Nosh, celebrated chef Avner Samuel’s restaurant and bar, noted for European and Mediterranean food such as crispy duck confit or pan-roasted Alaskan ... in indoor galleries and the outdoor garden.

48 hours in Dallas/Fort Worth

The ECAC had a game-of-the-week television contract, and helped pay its bills by staging the annual Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, a gathering of ... (CCHA), which stretches from Miami to Alaska. (It’s Miami of Ohio, but that ...

How Many Days 'Till Tebow Reports to Camp?

He said up to 150 pro-Gadhafi fighters were engaged in the street battle, using rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s. He said they managed to ... forcing people to remain indoors and stores to close early. He blamed the gunfire on "sleeper cells" loyal ...

Gadhafi loyalists attack Libyan town, killing 7

So is the extensive spa, with its indoor/outdoor relaxation areas, a steam cave, al fresco showers and couples’ treatment rooms. Through June 14, Esperanza has a “Romance Para Dos” package that includes three nights in an ocean-view garden casita ...

Escape to Esperanza, a secluded resort in Mexico where Hollywood goes to honeymoon

5:30 p.m. - Have a cocktail and early dinner at Nosh, celebrated chef Avner Samuel's restaurant and bar, noted for European and Mediterranean food such as crispy duck confit or pan-roasted Alaskan ... in indoor galleries and the outdoor garden.

Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Dallas/Fort Worth

where a special indoor seating area off the lobby allowed us to keep the dogs with us while we ate. Lisa and I enjoyed a meal of scampi with large prawns in a white wine sauce over angel hair pasta ($22 US) and a pan-roasted Alaskan halibut ($26 US ...

Carmel redefines dog-friendly vacations

FEB. 16 How to successfully start seeds indoors for your spring/summer veggie garden, 6 p.m. Feb. 16 ... Rebeck's mystery set on the Northwest frontier at the end of the Alaskan Gold Rush. 8 p.m. Feb. 16, Erickson Theater Off Broadway, 1524 ...

Community calendar

Enjoy your complimentary breakfast either indoors or on the patio ... boneless cut prime rib, rack of lamb and Alaskan king crab legs. Keep some room for dessert. Casey’s bread pudding, double rich chocolate cake and New York cheesecake are among ...

Gardening tips

Alaska Gardening Indoor Section