How To Attract Birds & Butterflies

Nurture wellness during breast cancer recovery with a garden full of birds and butterflies. Here you can lift your spirits, or nurture and soothe the soul amid the pleasant surroundings of flowers, nature, and wildlife. It’s easier than you think to attract birds and butterflies, and the good news is you don’t need a lot of space to do it. Container gardens give you the ability to attract wildlife to your backyard, patio, deck, or even a balcony.

Simply follow these four steps and your garden will be filled with color, motion and a season of wildlife.

1. Provide food for birds and butterflies.

To attract butterflies, include plants with flat daisy-like flowers

For hummingbirds, include some plants with tubular flowers including

You can attract seed-eating birds with a few great additions to your garden

Parsley
Bronze fennel
Licorice vines
Purple Majesty millet
Coneflower
Coreopsis
Rudbeckias

2. Provide water for both the birds and butterflies. Water is a key ingredient, add a decorative small shallow container filled with water. Or include a free-standing birdbath within your container garden collection.

3. Provide a place to live and raise their young. Add a few evergreens, ornamental grasses, and perennials to your garden. Add a few birdhouses, these can be included in a container garden or mounted on a fence, post, or nearby tree.

4. Provide a pesticide free yard. Nature, including the birds you invite into your landscape, will devour many garden pests. Plus, the chemicals designed to kill the bad guys can also kill the good bugs and wildlife you are trying to attract.

Breast Cancer Butterfly Community:

Erin Prendergast, RN, teaches butterfly gardening to children and adults alike as part of her role as a master gardener. She founded On Butterflies Wings and is combining her passion for butterfly gardening and compassion for her patients to bring HOPE to women with breast cancer.

Stewart’s Butterfly Garden – The beautiful Butterfly Garden is the result of an idea from a generous participant and donor to honor the memory of his wife who lost her battle with cancer in 2010.

Source: Melinda Myers, Mellisa Mayntz – Top 10 Hummingbird Flowers.

About Dawn Bradford Lange: Co-founder of Breast Cancer Yoga. Dawn is making a difference with Breast Cancer Yoga therapeutic products designed to support you emotionally and physically during breast cancer . We want to give you the attention and personal service you need so please email us at info@breastcanceryoga.com if you have questions.