My Native Wisconsin Butterfly Garden

I'm not sure that every flower planted is in the sketch yet. Small's Penstemon (SmP) will be listed only if it survives the winter. Blue False Indigo (BFI) also died back early, so I'm not sure it will return. I will never document every violet nor hepatica, but I may try to update more of the others another time. *= a new bloom for that month March: *Hepatica - for early season color after a long winter April : *Bloodroot - for early season color and native bees *CB = Columbine *Common Blue Violet -- Host plant for Great Spangled Fritillary, Aphrodite, Meadow Fritillaries *Common Blue Violet (Pink) -- Ditto *PV=Prairie Violet -- Ditto *Smooth Yellow Violet -- Ditto *Spring Beauty *Wild Blue Phlox Hepatica May : *Cream Violet -- Ditto the other violets. *GA = Golden Alexander -- Host plant for Black Swallowtail *Ph= Downy Phlox -- a high value nectar source, as monarchs begin arriving in Wisconsin mid-May Bloodroot Columbine Common Blue V...

I love plants that give a bonus show in fall and/or winter. This first year, foliage on the Foxglove and Rose Milkweed, along with the lingering the seedhead of the Sweet Black-Eyed Susan were a welcome sight.

Our first frost has been extremely delayed this year, which prompted the Small's Penstemon to put on its show. I'm glad I got to see it, as I ordered this one too hurriedly. It's not suited for our zone, so this may be the only glimpse of it I ever get.

The first frost held off long enough for the Sweet Black-Eyed Susan to make an appearance. And then on October 8th, I caught a local butterfly checking out the new plant...

Perennial gardens take patience, and for those lacking in it, a few annuals can fill in the gaps the first year. I chose some lantanas and a purple coneflower already in bloom at a local garden center. The butterflies who stopped by appreciated those additions as well. This photo was taken right before the average first frost to document the growth in one season.

I took some time to make an amateur sketch of my planting layout, taking care to size the drawings for each plant's eventual mature width.  BFI = Blue False Indigo  CB = Columbine  FG = Foxglove  FN = False Nettle  GA = Golden Alexander  HV = Hoary Vervain  LBS = Little Bluestem  OCF = Orange Coneflower  PCF = Purple Coneflower  PMW = Purple Milkweed  PPCF = Pale Purple Coneflower  PV = Prairie Violet  RMW = Rose Milkweed  SBES = Sweet Black-Eyed Susan  SmP = Small's Penstemon  SOG = Sideoats Grama  YCF = Yellow Coneflower

It didn't take long for all the silver maple "helicopters" to start sprouting. But, a nice treat to see one of the plugs (Foxglove) already blooming -- a rare sight the first year in a perennial garden.

While my hope is that native violets will fill in as a living groundcover, mulch is needed in the meantime. I've labeled every single plant so that I will know what should appear where and to better inform my future weeding activities after a long winter.

With a few desirable plants protected, and a pile of dirt waiting, it was time to get busy...

I convinced my husband to purchase landscape timbers and build a small retaining wall so that we could build up the soil level.

Exhibit A: "The Ailing Flower Bed" -- consisting of a deep slope, a shallow soil bed, gravel from the driveway, garlic mustard, and some invasive shrubs. As a co-leader for a Girl Scout troop, I was thrilled when my troop voted to plant habitat gardens for monarch butterflies and native bumblebees. I even tried talking them out of their plans, making sure they really didn't want to do one of their other ideas instead. I didn't want my unexpressed enthusiasm for the project to somehow have subliminally influenced their decision. So when they finalized their idea and selected their garden plans, I set out only to make sure the plants in the pre-planned monarch and pollinator gardens they chose were really ideal native plant choices for monarchs and native pollinators. As I did some fact-checking, something clicked, and I just had to put together a butterfly garden of my own. I researched the common butterflies of Wisconsin, along with their native ...