Back in 2019, I published a post on how I wanted to have a butterfly sanctuary in my garden. I love Monarch butterflies (I specifically identified this species as white butterflies are pests in my garden, which continuously devour on my vegetables like cabbages and cauliflowers) and I want to give them a nurturing environment by planting Swan Plants where they can lay their eggs and for the caterpillars to live on, until they undergo metamorphosis.
I've got around four plants (I only have three photos, as I already took down one of them) which eventually grew taller than me. However, through time, they became more of a nuisance as their location is not ideal aesthetically (they're mixed with my citruses and just close to the neighbor's fence) and since they are too exposed, the prevalence of wasps makes it easy for the caterpillars to become prey for them.
It is the reason why I haven't updated that posts in more than a year, since I have rarely seen a caterpillar transformed into a butterfly back then. I have actually considered that project a failure.So here I am now, hitting the reset button. My plan is to grow a new set of Swan plants that will serve as a breeding ground for Monarch butterflies. Initially, I planted new swan plants in pots and put them at the west side of our house.
Then I started by clearing a section in the frontage of our house then planted a number of Swan plants. After cutting a big shrub at one side of the house, I put in soil conditioner and wood chips to prepare the soil, then put more Swan plants to grow at the back row. However, I decided to plant some lupins in the front row to attract more pollinators and at the same time provide some variety of plants in that section. Also, lupins are easy to grow and maintain.
A month after, here's how they look like.
It's nice seeing eggs being laid by Monarch butterflies on these new plants. I expected them to be hatched and turn into these cute caterpillars which will soon evolve into new Monarch butterflies.
Here are some photos of the caterpillars I have on the plants as of this writing.
I am looking forward to see them next spring, when most of the plants have taken off and I will also update my blog to let you know of the progress I made. And I hope in the coming weeks, I will see more of these butterflies hovering around our yard.
Thank you and I hope you enjoyed reading.
A Little About Me
Please feel free to follow my account if you like my post.
Amazing - I love butterflies and the monarch ones always seem special to me. I love that you're growing plants specifically for butterflies as a sanctuary - cool.
It would be better if you can post your insect related in content in Amazing Nature, Natural Medicine, Ecotrain or HIVE Pets, as we're trying to help grow a diverse set of niche communities so readers can get a better community trending page as mentioned in The OCD community.For a list of the communities we're curating right now please check OCD Communities Incubation Program - Update #20. You are welcome to cross-post your posts from that community onto OCD with the peakd.com feature to get more visibility and engagement from the OCD subscribers.
Wow! Thank you for this informative post. Type ko din yang idea daming butterfly aaligid sa house. Hanap pala ako ng plants na fave nila. Hmm, I like your stone tiles wall.
Thank you Mommy J, I don't know if Swan plants will thrive in the Philippines. I think the favorite egg-laying spot for butterflies there are Mulberries.
For the stone wall, I do like it too. It's an old house though, built in the 80s.
Hi leoneil,
Visit curiehive.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.