Butterfly Gardens are very important to habitat and ecosystem conservation. Planting a variety of flowers attracts butterflies and provide a safe space for butterflies, and even other life to live, eat, or reproduce. According to SFGate, butterflies serve a very important role in the environment because of their symbiotic relationship with plants. Butterflies are drawn to very bright, scented flowers, and feed off the nectar that flowers produce. They are also very important in the pollination of plants, keeping the plants alive and thriving so that they have a food source. SFGate also reveals that other animals attracted to butterfly gardens can include ladybugs and spiders which make the need for pesticides and insecticides unnecessary because they are natural predators to the damaging insects. Planting the right flowers at the right time is also key. Swamp Milkweed are great flowers for butterflies to get nectar and act as a food source for monarch caterpillars. Salvia is also an attractive flower for not only butterflies but hummingbirds as well, which brings even more biodiversity in the garden.

Building a butterfly garden can foster environmental awareness, and have an impact on impressionable children who are still learning. Learning early about the impacts that such a small thing like butterflies can have on the environment can help children to understand these things and take them into account later in life. It imparts early recognition into children that we need to take care of our environment through both preventing damage and attempting to fix what we have already damaged. These gardens teach that changing even a small piece of land into something like a garden can have huge environmental impacts for those butterflies and other plant and animal species that seek refuge there.

Cass High School has unfinished butterfly gardens located at the front of the school by the retention pond. My AP Environmental Science class is working to finish these gardens as one of our final projects. In our case, we have a lot of soil erosion in this area, and choosing to build the butterfly gardens here helps the soil from eroding so much, as well as provides all the benefits that butterfly gardens bring. The roots of the plants and flowers provide the soil with a lot of support, keeping it in place instead of washing away. Planting the right flowers will help to attract butterflies and any other creatures that will come along with them. Providing these animals with the garden is the hardest part because once we have them built, the animals will be able to support each other in their habitat by pollination and such. Building butterfly gardens isn’t a difficult task either. They can range from very small in your backyard, to a larger scale such as the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The HGTV website gives a quick step by step guide on how to build one of your own. However, if you’re interested in helping build a butterfly garden, you can sign up to help with ours here at Cass through one of your clubs, or by seeing Mr. Bohannon in room 2.131.