HOW IT IS ACHIEVED

As I've mentioned, our garden is not just a place rich in nectar plants to entice passing butterflies, but a properly maintained and designed mini habitat for them to breed and thrive in. That is the main objective: to have them breeding here, on site, as opposed to them merely visiting for nectar. In a nutshell, we need to create an actual habitat for them - a piece of suitable countryside on our very own doorstep.

Green-veined Whites mating.

BUTTERFLY MOBILITY. The majority of butterfly species do not wander much at all of their own accord from their place of birth, which is partly why they are (generally) in so much need of conservation help. If their habitat is destroyed, they do NOT automatically move on. Let us look closer at butterfly mobility to illustrate this point further. Of the 58 species regularly found in the UK, the Lincolnshire Fens hosts 24, including migrants. Of this 24, by far the majority - 11 - are sedentary species, the least mobile; 5 are fairly mobile but still generally restricted to specific habitat types; leaving only 4 species that are highly mobile, plus the remaining 4 migrant species - these are the real exception to the rule, butterflies that literally cross countries and do not generally survive the British winter so are not permanent, established residents even though they may breed during their time here.

A normal garden rich in nectar attracts the latter two groups due to their high mobility. By creating a butterfly friendly habitat we encourage all of the groups, but we favour specialist treatment for the most threatened and sedentary ones. You may ask where do they come from if they're not mobile as such? Obviously they are in the near locality otherwise we could not attract them (in our case the dyke network). Once with us, either by singletons being blown by the wind or females searching for egg-laying sites, the idea (and hope) is that they will stay with us, breed on site, thus setting up their own colony in time. It is working! Already, after just 3 years, we had 17 species setting up home on our land, and now having experienced the offical worst ever summer in 2007, the butterflies (and Mother Nature) have fought back and 2008 saw record breaking numbers for the rarer species. Very encouraging indeed.

WHAT DOES IT ENTAIL? Over the years I have built up sufficient knowledge to understand what the locally found species individually need. The basics in all cases are the two types of foodplants: nectar for the adult butterflies, but more importantly, the correct larval foodplants for the caterpillars. But even having a mass of these two types of plants throughout the acre site is not the whole story: larval foodplants in particular often need specific conditions. You will find more details relating to individual species' requirements on the butterfly pages. Except for certain VIP varieties (very important plants - see box below) nectar plants are purely there to attract, feed, and maintain the adults, which in turn encourages egg-laying. But without a wealth of correctly positioned larval foodplants for the eggs to be laid on, the butterflies will move on in search of them. The fact that larval foodplants are in the main viewed as troublesome weeds: nettles, grasses, sorrels, etc.) is what puts many people off from even contemplating the idea further. But because the very design of this type of garden favours an informal, cottage garden / semi wild approach, they nicely blend in with the rest.

THE VIP CATEGORY. A few plants actually double up as both nectar plants and larval foodplants. I call these VIP: very important plants, being as they are performing both the tasks needed to keep our butterflies happy. To the left is pictured one of these: Dame's-violet (Hesperis matronalis) - used by Green-veined White and Orange Tip.

The other VIPs are: Honesty (Lunaria annua) - used by Green-veined White and Orange Tip. Bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) - used by Common Blue, and elsewhere many other species including Dingy Skipper, Green Hairstreak, and Burnet moths, . A true classic plant. Clover (Trifolium spp.) - used by Common Blue and Clouded Yellow. Marjoram (Oregano vulgare) - used by the delightful day-flying Pyralid moth Pyrausta aurata. Marjoram is one of the very best nectar plants.