Butterfly Garden

After several years of attempted vegetable gardening, it was clear that we had a black thumb and did not posses the "know how" to maintain organically.  This winter, we actually did much better growing our veggies in pots. 

So, here lay an empty and overgrown patch in our yard that was getting ready to be covered over with grass. 

Then, I started planning the summer curriculum and realized that we were doing a unit on the lifecycle of a butterfly.  What better way to learn about that, then to "hope to" lure them to our home.  We researched the best plants for our area and today we planted our butterfly garden.

We decorated it with garden accessories too.

We used milkweed...the absolute must have butterfly drawing plant, a butterfly bush, several pentas and, I forget what the yellow plants are called. 

The girls had fun clearing the vegetable garden out last weekend. 

Nathan was fascinated with the rainbow pinwheel I bought at the dollar store.

I love our little garden, it's so pretty!  It will be easier to maintain because we will use weed killer to keep the weeds at bay.  We didn't do that when gardening veggies.  We will not use pest control though because then our little caterpillars would die...and we actually want them to come eat our plants.  I hope we planted enough flowers to attract some butterflies to eat and lay eggs so we can have a real live classroom in our backyard.