butterflies, weeds & stewardship
how you can help butterflies thrive!
Great Spangled Fritillary nectaring on echinacea purpurea
So often, people say to me ‘I just don’t see many butterflies these days, why is that?’. That typically launches a discussion about native plants, ‘weeds’ and stewardship. What we plant, what we don’t rip out and how we manage our gardens and landscape provide the answers to this question.
Here’s what I mean:
The Community Hospice House gardens are home to native violet plants. We do not remove the violets as they are the only host plant for the endangered Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly shown in the video above (thanks Kerry Parsons for filming this beauty!). The butterfly lays her eggs on the violet foliage in summer. The eggs hatch, and the tiny larvae overwinter in the leaf litter near the violets. Caterpillars emerge in the spring to consume the violet’s foliage and buds. When the time is ‘right’ they crawl to a neighboring plant to pupate. The chrysalis will then eclose (hatch) and another beautiful creature will emerge to drink the nectar of the native plants in our gardens, including echinacea purpurea shown in the video. The adults will mate and the female will then find the violets, lay her own eggs and perish. This is how the cycle of life plays out in our gardens…if we don’t muck it up by ‘cleaning’ and raking and cutting back at the wrong time. (also, special shout out to the cute skipper butterfly shown nectaring on the same plant in the video above).
Pilea pumila in The Big Little Garden
artfully ‘weaving the weeds’
Many gardeners are obsessed with weeds. I get it. We try to exert control over our gardens to create a palette that reflects our personality and taste. Then the weeds arrive, and we freak out. My suggestion is to research what you are intending to eradicate before yanking. Many weeds are simply native plants that have co-evolved with our beneficial insects and are essential to their survival. It’s simple: eradicating weeds is habitat destruction. No habitat, no beneficial insects.
I am on a mission to better identify and understand our native weeds and their role in promoting biodiversity. The Big Little Garden is home to an impressive amount of pilea pumila, aka ‘Canadian clearweed’ shown here. Years ago I ripped this out with abandon. Then I decided to research it (took a photo with my Google Pixel phone and hit ‘lens’ which retrieved instant identification and search results). I learned that it’s a native host plant for a variety of moths and butterflies. Now, I let it spread, and it’s currently the ‘mortar’ between my stepping stones on the west side of the house. It looks really nice and helps keep other non-native weeds at bay. Fun fact: read how the Iroquois used it medicinally!
it’s crazy, really
We gardeners eliminate these pesky weeds only to plant non-natives or plants that have been so cultivated, that they have zero wildlife value (I’m talking about you, double echinacea!). There are so many plant resources available on that inter-webby thing that we have no excuse not to educate ourselves. Check out this Mt. Cuba Center report, specifically pages 18-19 to view the results of their recent echinacea trial. No surprise, the cultivars with the double bloom were the least beneficial to butterflies and other insects, because they can’t access the nectar. If you simply must have double echinacea, fine. Just try to add the more beneficial single bloom cultivars too, like the straight species echinacea purpurea which ranked 2nd in visits by pollinators (page 15 on the Mt. Cuba report and star of Kerry’s video above).
the threat of non-native invasives in the garden
Nov 24: burnish bush removal at Community Hospice House 11/24
Native plants are essential for the reproduction of our beneficial insects. Non-native plants, especially those that are highly invasive (Japanese knotweed, oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, burning bush, and the beautiful, but HIGHLY problematic, callery pear trees) out-compete our natives and eliminate the natural food sources for all our wildlife. Removing non-native invasives from the landscape is the First Step toward promoting biodiversity and habitat for our winged creatures.
become a better steward
American Lady caterpillar on host plant, antennaria plantaginifolia, aka ‘Pussy Toes’ in the Community Hospice House gardens
I’ve said it before (a million times), and I’ll say it again. The practice of leaving the leaves, weaving the weeds, emphasizing native plants, eliminating the use of pesticides, herbicides, and toxic lawn treatments offers a multitude of benefits. Not only is this more relaxed practice immensely liberating (while others are stressed out in the fall raking and ‘tidying up’, I’m enjoying the show with an adult beverage), it’s at the heart of ecological gardening. Cleaner air, cleaner water, healthier lives for us all.
Don’t take my word for it, though. Take a more relaxed approach in at least one area of your landscape and see for yourself what a difference it makes for the life in your garden next year!
Until next time, stay calm and garden on.
~ Barb