Making the Butterfly Garden

John had been wanting to build a butterfly garden in the back yard for some time but a lot of other things (thesis writing, for instance) were also on his mind.

I had a small butterfly garden started in the front yard but we've had to rip everything up to re-landscape while putting in the new walkway. I'm glad I started one because we had a lot of healthy and/or robust plants ready to transplant.

When the SFA fall plant sale came up we decided it was finally time to get this project underway.

The house sits on a hill so we have a sloping yard. The first thing we had to do to our garden area was change that. Here's a before pic -
Those are gardenia bushes that were planted before we moved in. They were in such bad shape that we couldn't even tell they were gardenias until a single flower bloomed on one of them a few months ago. We dug those up, composted the dead ones, and planted the only one that still had a fighting chance in a trash can. (We'll deal with it later...)

We brought in some railroad ties that we dug up from the front yard to hold the dirt in our flower bed. We replanted a bunch of grass in other areas of the yard that needed it and dug up LOTS of the dirt that was right next to the patio. Hopefully this will keep some of the dirt off of the patio. (It gets sooo dirty!)


Next we flattened out the area, watered it for a few days, and then planted!

Here's a key.
(Click the photo to enlarge.)

1. Spider lilies that we dug up from elsewhere in the yard
2. Hummingbird Mint, one Texas Giant and one Tutti Frutti (fall plant sale)
3. Texas Fire Bush, from the front yard (Spring plant sale)
4. Columbine, two different varieties (fall plant sale)
5. Milkweed (fall plant sale)
6. Blue and Black Salvia (fall plant sale)
7. Hollyhock, from the front yard (grown from seed)
8. Blue Salvia, from the front yard (Lowe's)
9. Another type of Salvia, from the front yard (Lowe's)
10. Banana shrub, going to the front yard (Mercer plant sale)
11. Gardenia, planted in a trash can...ultimate location TBD
12. Japanese maple, going to the front yard (Mercer plant sale)
* Where we hope to one day see some blue bonnets, planted from seed (free from Mercer)

And here's a future addition to the garden, as soon as I figure out where to put it. It's a Cardinal flower I purchased at last year's fall sale. I need to move it because it's in a place where Bowser really likes to wreak havoc.
My favorite plant in the garden is the Black and Blue Salvia. Soooo pretty -

Happy Gardening!