Make Your Garden Attractive To Butterflies

Your garden can be designed to attract certain birds, bees, or butterflies, yes butterflies.
The Butterfly Garden Design can be enjoyed by not only the creatures which they attract but by the creator as well.
The sole purpose of creating a butterfly garden design is making a garden which will attract butterflies. There things you need to consider and to include in a butterfly garden design. You will want to take the time to find just the right elements for their location and for the types of butterflies they want to attract. It is not hard to create a butterfly garden design and there are many helpful gardening books and internet sites where additional information can be found.
The garden should be approximately 8-10 feet by 10-14 feet. It should be located in place that receives full sun at least six hours a day. You may also want to provide fruit such as bananas and watermelon as an additional food source. Provide a water source such as puddling. Do this by burying two pans filled with sand. Place a few sticks and rocks on top of the sand, and fill the pans with water. Provide two low containers filled with dark rocks for butterflies to warm themselves if you live in a cooler part of the country. In Texas I find this is usually not necessary. Also, include a hummingbird feeder in the garden. The butterflies will use the feeder and hummingbirds will be attracted also.
These Are Great Plants To Use For Your Butterfly Garden Design
Adult butterflies are attracted to flowers. Butterflies feed on nectar which is in the flowers. Incorporating many flowering plants of various colors into the butterfly garden design will inevitably attract adult butterflies. Plants such as One butterfly bush Four goldenrods, Three New England asters, Two or Three ornamental cabbages, Two or Three joe-pye weeds, One dill plant, Five parsley plants, Knight') Eight globe amaranth. These also work well, the butterfly weed, azalea, butterfly bush, lilac, marigold and impatiens will be big butterfly attractors.
If you would like to make an attractive area for butterflies at all stages of life then milkweed, dogbane, thistles and nettles will need to be incorporated. These are not usually desirable plants for a garden but will be where the butterflies lay their eggs and where the caterpillars will feed.
You can provide in addition to the above a larger water source in the butterfly garden design. A small pool, a bird bath, or a couple small pans inset in the soil will make nice pools of water for the butterflies. Another important feature is to make an area where the butterflies can warm themselves. And don’t forget if you live in a cooler climate use dark rocks or other solid objects that absorb the heat from the sun and place them around the garden where the butterflies can stop and rest and warm themselves.
A nice addition to the butterfly garden design would be a small bench and perhaps even a gazebo where you can sit and enjoy the quiet solitude the garden will provide. Another incentive to build a butterfly garden design is your children will fall in love with it.
Flower Garden Tips

Do You Have A Problem With Raccoons?

It is already known that raccoons are known to adapt very easily to a changing environment that is why many people have problems with the damages caused by these creatures. Raccoons have inherited a bad habit: they vandalize garbage cans, fish ponds and also your very own kitchen pantry due to the fact that many houses ( especially in United States ) have a pet door which for a raccoons is like an invitation. Besides this, raccoons invade attics, chimneys, porches and other similar locations, not to mention that the cities and suburbs offer these creatures a developed underground roadway system for those intelligent animals who use these storm sewers. These raccoons not only invade your privacy but also they cause damage, for example, they can get into crops or just by simply occupying your chimney they make annoying little sounds that eventually will drive you crazy.

The first thing you should do is to find out if you are truly having problems with raccoons because many people have the tendency to affirm that raccoons are the one’s to blame for the damages but in reality, the one’s who should be blamed for causing these problems are dogs, cats or other "friendly" animals.

If you don’t have the possibility to observe these animals directly the best thing you could do is to identify their tracks. In order to do this you should use the following : flour, nontoxic powders and also cornstarch, these will help you to check out footprints on hard surfaces. A useful tip : raccoons which use chimneys or attics usually begin to make noise when it is getting darker and they stop doing this in the morning, when the sun makes its appearance. The sounds that raccoons make when they are moving can help you detect them more easily. Also, if you hear purring noises then you should know that young cubs are present. Usually, you will hear these noises when their mother comes back to the den.

A wise thing you could do if you have problems with raccoons is simply wait; in other words, many of the problems made by raccoons ( for example: occupation of a building ) resolve themselves within a few weeks or if you are lucky, in a few days. If cubs are also causing you problems then you should know that they won’t leave your attic until they are nine weeks of age because until then, they can’t take care of themselves so they won’t venture in an unknown environment where they will be helpless.

When it comes down to chimneys and attics if yours is uncapped then raccoons will probably use it for denning but also for giving birth and raising cubs. If you assume that after a while they will leave, the best thing you should is that you might try using some harassment techniques so that you could “hurry” their departure. Also, you might as well leave the attic lights on or place a radio tuned to a talk-show and leave it a high volume.

Once you are certain that you got rid of all the raccoons, the first thing you should do is install an approved chimney cap so that in the future, raccoons won’t be able to invade your privacy. A very important note is that you shouldn’t use fire or smoke to make the animals come out of the chimneys because by doing so, you will most likely kill the youngsters as they aren’t able to evade on their own.

When it comes down to yards and gardens, in order to discourage garbage vandalizing you should place cans at the curb when the day of garbage pick-up has arrived. Another thing you could do is that you should secure the lids using bungee cords or weights. Don’t forget that raccoons are often attracted by birdseed and suet and they usually cause a lot of damage to garden fruits and also vegetable gardens , especially corn and grapes. Garden vandalizing will often occur when the foods are ready to be picked so you should be more attentive during those periods.

All in all, raccoons can cause a lot of problems so some safety precautions should be taken in order to avoid these problems which can become very annoying if ignored for a longer period of time. Getting rid of raccoons can become a very frustrating thing to do if you don’t take the best decisions. Patience and clever thinking are a "must" when confronting with such a delicate situation.


Guest Author
Angelina Diaz has been dealing with raccoon issues for years. You can visit Coon Hunting Info to find the latest tips & tricks about how to get rid of raccoons but also very useful coon hunting info.
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Flower Garden Designs

Choosing a garden style that is right for you is a matter of choice. If you design your entire garden according to a specific style, but sometimes just a few sensibly elements call to mind a style. Whether you’re trying to select flower garden designs or trying out a new landscaping idea, the right garden plants and accessories will set the mood you’re trying to reach. Landscape design styles come and go, but certain century-old garden styles continue to preserve their attraction. Any style be it Asian, cottage, formal, and others has its own characteristic details such as particular plants, water features, and materials. Various features are so strongly identified with a specific style that they immediately evoke the proper mood.
Look below at these three lasting and respected garden styles, then incorporate these style elements into your garden design for the look you want.

Cottage Gardens
The informality of cottage garden designs lends them an energy lacking in most garden schemes, none the less the gardens are neither haphazard when the overall design is caringly structured. These gardens express cheerfulness and zeal for individual plants. Cottage gardens originated centuries ago as modest, fenced-in pieces of land kept by cottagers who cherished wild-collected plant life for its usefulness. Livestock and vegetables, berry bushes, fragrant flowers, and herbs for crafts, cooking, and medicine packed the enclosures.

Asian Gardens
In the Asian tradition, landscape contemplation - in the wild, in a garden, or in a scroll painting serves as a spiritual experience. The Chinese and Japanese usually held sacred the space within a garden and deemed the world outside profane. A number Japanese garden designs offer a rustic landscape and contain wet or dry streams and waterfalls, bordered by ferns, moss, and distorted pines. Lake and island style gardens, developed in China, influenced Japanese garden designs. Islands symbolized the home of immortal spirits and consisted of carefully placed earthen mounds or jagged rocks set in an imitation pond.

Formal Gardens
While a love of plants or nature inspires cottage and Asian gardens, formal garden designs express the humanistic value of people as the center of the cosmos. A formal garden design looks it’s utmost near a traditional-style home so the garden exaggerates the home’s architecture. Formal garden designs are symmetrical though the main alignment often leads from a specific position near the house (a balcony, front door, a stone terrace) to a focal point further away such as a pavilion, bench or sculpture. By continuing the geometry of the house outdoors, a formal garden layout makes a transition to a wild or informal landscape at the edge of the property. property’s edge.
About The Guest Author
Ralph J. Smith; I hope you enjoyed this article you can find more gardening, flower gardening, garden design tips and more on my site Flower Garden Tips.com.

Ladybeetles, Ladybirds Are Welcome To My Garden

Ladybugs, also called lady beetles or ladybirds, can be a gardener’s best friend. The ladybug’s bright coloring brings welcomed cheer to the garden, as well as helping with pest control. Since medieval times, ladybugs have been valued by farmers all over the world. Many believe that the ladybug was divinely sent to free crops of insect pests. In fact, that is how the ladybug got its name. People dedicated the bug to the Virgin Mary and therefore called it “The Bug of our Lady”, which was eventually shortened to the present name “ladybug”.
Adult ladybugs are usually oval or domed shaped and have red wings, yellow wings or shades and variations of these colors. The number of black spots can range from no spots to 15 spots and they are typically about one quarter inch in size or smaller.
The length of the life cycle of a ladybug varies depending upon temperature, humidity, and food supply. Usually the life cycle from egg to adult is about three to four weeks, and up to six weeks during the cooler spring months. During the spring the adult female ladybug can lay up to three hundred eggs in an aphid colony. The eggs normally hatch in two to five days. The newly hatched larvae feed on aphids for up to three weeks and then enter the pupae stage. About one week later, the adult ladybug emerges. There can be as many as six generations of ladybugs hatched in a year.
The ladybug enjoys popularity around the world. These pretty insects have long been considered a symbol of good luck and fortune because of their ability to eat an enormous amount of aphids. One ladybug can eat as many as 50 to 60 aphids per day. Aphids (also called plant lice) are herbivores and are one of the worst groups of pests on plants. They feed in colonies and damage plants by sucking the juice out of the leaves, stems, or roots. While aphids feed, they damage plant tissue creating a loss of plant fluids and the photosynthetic tissue needed to produce energy for plant growth. Some plants will show no adverse response to aphids, while others react with twisted, curled or swollen leaves or stems. Aphids also transmit many plant diseases from one plant to another.
Apart from aphids, ladybugs eat a variety of other insects and larvae including white flies, mealy bugs, spider mites, and other types of soft-bodied insects. They also require a source of pollen for food and for that reason are attracted to certain types of plants. Their preferred plants have umbrella shaped flowers such as dill, fennel, angelica, tansy, caraway, cilantro, yarrow, and wild carrot. Other plants that attract ladybugs include cosmos (especially the white ones), dandelions, coreopsis, and scented geraniums.
If your garden does not have adequate space to plant ladybug attracting plants, you can purchase ladybugs from numerous websites on the internet and most nurseries. Before releasing them into your garden, here are a few tips to help ensure that the ladybugs stay where you want them:
1. Release ladybugs near infested plants after sun down or before sun up. They navigate by the sun and are most likely to stay put in the evenings and early mornings.
2. Water the area where you are going to release the ladybugs. They will appreciate the drink and the moisture on the leaves will help the ladybugs to “stick” on the plants. If released in a dry garden, the ladybugs will most likely fly off in search of a drink instead of sticking around to eat.
3. In the warmer months, chill the ladybugs in the refrigerator before releasing them. This will not harm the ladybugs and they tend to crawl more in colder temperatures rather than fly away.
Another way to attract ladybugs to your garden is to place several ladybug habitation boxes around your garden. Fill the boxes with organic material such as peat or compost to encourage ladybugs to roost and lay eggs inside the box. In addition, the habitation box also provides protection for the ladybugs in the winter months.
To further promote ladybug populations, consider cutting back on spraying insecticides in your garden. Ladybugs are sensitive to most synthetic insecticides and if the majority of their food source is gone, they will not lay their eggs and therefore will not continue to populate.
Here are some interesting ladybug facts:
• There are nearly 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide and 400 which live in North America.
• A female ladybug will lay more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime.
• A ladybug beats its wings 85 times a second when it flies.
• A gallon jar will hold from 72,000 to 80,000 ladybugs.
• Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes terrible so that birds and other predators won't eat them.
• The spots on a ladybug fade as the ladybug gets older.
• Ladybugs won't fly if the temperature is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The ladybug is the official state insect of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Tennessee.
As you can see, the ladybug is one of the most effective and economically important insects to have in your garden. In some cultures, seeing ladybugs in gardens indicates a bountiful harvest, an indication of good weather or a good luck omen. Create an alluring environment for ladybugs and they are sure to provide charm and pest control in your garden for years to come.
About The Guest Author
Lesley Dietschy is the creator/editor of The Home Decor Exchange, a popular home decor, garden decor, and home improvement website. Please visit the website for quality resources, articles, ideas, tips, free projects, and much more. The website also has a shopping marketplace and a unique Gallery featuring Pine Needle Baskets and Gourd Art.www.HomeDecorExchange.com

Most Common Mistakes From Home Vegetable Gardener

It does not matter whether you have been vegetable gardening for twenty plus years or twenty plus minutes, you will invariably make some mistakes along the way that will lead to a less than hoped for production in your harvest. Here are the most common mistakes that I have seed many people make.

Wrong Seeds - Sure I like to eat oranges, bananas and kiwi just as much as the next person, but lets face it, I have no chance of growing any of them here in New Jersey. Just like someone who lives in an area of the world where the temperatures are always hot, they will more than likely lack the ability to grow cool weather crops such as spinach or lettuce. Plant the seeds to the vegetables that are indigenous to your area. You will have a greater chance of success.

Too Much Water - As crazy as it sounds, yes you can over water your plants. When you over water your vegetable plants you can cause root rot, an environment susceptible for fungus growth, and also wash away valuable nutrients your plants need like nitrogen. Most plants require moderate watering and what that means is the ground is moist but not wet. You can simply pick up the first couple of inches of your dirt and if it is crumbly or sandy then it is too dry and if water comes out when you squeeze it, then it is too wet. If you do not want to go that "unscientific route", then spend a couple of dollars at your home or garden center and pick up a soil moisture sensor. You will get a much better reading, and they come with instructions to help make sure your plants are getting ample amounts of water.

Not Composting - One of the easiest and best things a home vegetable gardener can do to ensure optimal growth of their plants is to add a fresh supply of compost on a constant basis. Compost is nothing more than taking organic material such as grass clippings, leaves and your left over dinner, and allowing nature to take its course and break it down into what is called compost. There are a variety of methods for composting that go beyond the scope of this article, but you need to add compost to your soil throughout the year. Compost adds the many nutrients your plants will need to grow thrive and survive in a safe, affective and environmentally friendly way.

Late Harvesting - This is one I have been guilty of myself and that is not harvesting my vegetables when they should be. Of which, for me, are my zucchini plants. On Tuesday they could be ten inches long (I like to pick them when they are about twelve), and two days later when I go back they are near twenty inches. With zucchini if you let them get too big they will develop way too many seeds and that takes away from a lot of the "edible" portion. The same holds true for many other vegetables. The longer you wait to harvest the more flavor the fruit or vegetable will lose and even worse it will literally rot right on the vine.

Home vegetable gardening is meant to be a fun and rewarding hobby but like all other activities it has its share of opportunities to make mistakes. Now that you know the common ones, you can fix these and move on to making some new ones, well, hopefully not.

Guest Author: Bruce A. Tucker
Mike is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC where you can sign up for their Seeds of the Month Club and receive 4 packs of vegetable, fruit and herb seeds every month.
Organic Gardening Articles

Build Your Own Water Garden Now

When a stream intersects the garden, this requires more work. You should use general treatment in expanding the water area considerably. One of the ways in which you can do this is to create a lily pond in that part of the garden beyond the brook, having an inlet and an outlet, thus securing water circulation.

Bays should be formed on the near side. Communication across the stream may be by means of a simple bridge, or stepping stones if the water is shallow. You should resist the temptation to give a "rustic" character to his bridge and think carefully about adding patio statuary, large fountains, or indoor wall fountains that are best left indoors. It should be a plain affair, well and firmly built, as befits its purpose, and with a hand-rail on either side.There is a type of water garden which is frankly artificial and depends for its water supply on the kitchen tap or the pump. This last condition means that you should have some knowledge of the economy of water and that can best be done by devising what is called a circulating system.

The first consideration will be the planning of the ponds (for such they are) and in that you must be guided by the levels in your garden and your desires in the matter of water area. If there is a distinct slope in the garden surface, so much the better. It will help you come up with a simple arrangement for running off the water, as must be done from time to time to keep ponds clean and their tenants in healthy condition.You must provide for the waste or overflow from the pond or series of ponds for when the garden slopes toward the house. The most convenient way is to carry it into a gully in connection with the house drainage system. When the slope is in a contrary direction the best expedient is to make a "soak-away" drain. This is merely a pit sunk in the soil and filled with rubble, into which the overflow pipe is conducted. Consider hiding the rubble with a large fountain such as a wall fountain or other type of patio water feature.

The ponds must be constructed with an impervious bottom by using cement or concrete. This means forming the bottom and building up the sides of the pond. If you use rock or rubble sides, they must be built in cement. You also have to be careful to make the joints watertight. You can make the floor with six or eight inches of concrete, faced with cement. The surface should not be finished to a dead level, but should have a slight fall toward the outlet, to facilitate running off the water.If the pond sides are built of cement, you should make the edges battered with the edges showing. You can do this by first building a frame of wood. Fresh cement of good quality should be used, tempered with a third part of sharp sand. Pipes for inlets and outlets should be inserted when the sides of the pond are being made. If a single pond is installed it will only be necessary to carry a waste-pipe from its bottom to the drain.

This should be done in a straight line, if possible, to facilitate unstopping in case of obstruction. The most suitable piping is iron gas pipe of not less internal diameter than one and a half inches. A plug must be provided to close the inlet, which may be a simple cone of wood fitted to the bore of the pipe. Again, the piping can be hidden with the inclusion of large waterfalls, patio statuary, or garden fountains. When you want to make two or more ponds, they should be connected by piping into a single system, with the waste-pipe connecting the one nearest the drain to it.

If all ponds stand at the same level, the connecting pipes may enter and leave at the bottom, but if the levels are stepped, as would be the case on sloping ground, the overflow from each pond to the next lower one of the series must be placed at the water line, otherwise the water would all flow to the lowest pond. You can conveniently fill up the pond and drain it with the garden hose.
Guest Author:
Allison Ryan is a freelance marketing writer specializing in landscape architecture and do-it-yourself installation of large fountains and patio statuary. For the ideal wall fountain or outdoor water feature for your backyard, stop by Garden-Fountains.com
Organic Gardening Articles

What Is Water Garden?

The terms "water garden" and "garden pond" are often used to mean the same thing. A garden pond normally contains plants and fish like goldfish, while a water garden will contain a variety of aquatic plants and may contain fish typically like gold fish. The term Koi pond differs entirely, from both a water garden and a garden pond because a koi pond will have a limited amount, if any plants in it, basically because the koi will eat most of them. In general, a pond is a small area of still fresh water. A pond differs from a river or stream as it does not have moving water. Some man-made ponds do have elaborate mechanism for water movement like fountains and waterfall but none of these are natural. A natural pond differs from a lake as they are typically smaller and much shallower, and normally filled by rainwater or by underwater springs. These natural ponds are commonly known as dew ponds.

Another less known fact is the history of ponds. For centuries every village and farm would have a pond. The water would be used by both animals and humans. When water supplies and drainage became readily available to the masses, many ponds were neglected and forgotten about. The animals would no longer trample down plants growing on the edges, and soon a combination of fallen debris like leaves and overgrowing plants would begin to starve the pond of its most vital ingredient, oxygen. Many ponds either became bogs, destroyed by pollution, or drained and used for other purposes especially on farms. As an example, sixty to seventy years ago Great Britain had many more natural ponds than today, so sadly they are becoming less common to see. Today however the popularity of man made water gardens and garden ponds is steadily increasing. They bring immense pleasure to many people who find that it’s a relaxing and fulfilling hobby. Depending on where you live, a garden pond can enhance your home and garden by attracting a vast array of wildlife. It's been estimated that over nine hundred species of animals can live in a natural pond environment. This figure is somewhat reduced for a man-made garden pond. A natural pond will attract mammals like voles and shrews, birds like ducks, herons and kingfishers. A garden pond may be frequented by some of the mentioned animals but will not be large enough to sustain them. In a typical garden pond you will find amphibians (newts, toads and frogs), herbivores (water fleas and snails). If you are unlucky you may also attract raccoons or other such varmints who think your pond was specifically built for their culinary needs!

As land is becoming scarce and with the ever increasing effects of pollution on natural ponds, the burden may fall on peoples backyard garden ponds to help species like frogs and newts survive. Why not consider building your own pond? One word of warning though. Just as with swimming pool hazards and concerns, please be very careful if you have young children. Please ensure that your children are constantly supervised.

If you do decide to create your own garden pond, you will be astonished at how quickly it will attract wildlife. You will also enjoy seeing how your pond changes throughout the months, and seasons. The pond will require your attention all year round, but it's especially rewarding to see your efforts flourish in the summer, as you watch the tadpoles mature into frogs, your plants become strong and established, and your fish flourish in a well balanced mini eco-system.

Guest Author: Steven Sannan
Steven Sannan is currently a member of the OnGardenPond.com staff, with 35+ years of fishkeeping experience. Experience that includes extensive freshwater, saltwater and pond keeping knowledge.
Organic Garden Articles