Everyone loves butterflies and we want to encourage more of them into our town. At the moment we have not developed a way to do this except for encouraging everyone to consider allowing the following plants to grow in their gardens. With luck some butterflies will lay their eggs and you can have your own home-grown population.
Clumps of nettles for red admirals, small tortoiseshell, peacock and comma.
Medium and tall grass for a number of the “Browns” like Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper.
Brassicas. Sacrifice a few of your crop for Large and Small Whites.
Holly and Ivy, both are foodplants of Holly Blue.
Of course the adults need nectar so most flowers will attract butterflies, but ble flowers like buddleia and Lavendar are among the best.
Count how many species you see in your patch each season. Wild Sherborne founder Neil Walker’s record is 20 in his garden so make a note and see if you can beat him… and let us know if you do! Plus tell us immediately of any butterflies you think might be unusual or rare to info@wildsherborne.co.uk
And let us know if you would like to join or form a Butterfly Group.
