Butterflies in saughall
Wow, what a wonderful summer 2019 has been for watching butterflies. The buddleia has certainly lived up to its other name the butterfly bush this year. Huge numbers of Commas, Painted Ladies, Peacocks, Red Admirals and Tortoiseshells have descended on the flowers spending hours drinking the nectar. Admittedly the buddleia is a bit of a bully in the garden border and does tend to take over but it gives so much back in return. Ours is hacked right back every spring in an effort to control it and then survives on a lot of neglect through the season. Then what a treat we get - magnificent cones of flowers, with a heavy fragrance - the flowers just keep coming and coming providing meal after meal for the bees and butterflies and of course not forgetting the moths!
the peacock
Not one, but two sharing the same flower.
The huge flowers of the buddleia provide plenty of room for any passing insects in need of a feed!
friend or foe
The commonly known Cabbage White - is it a friend or the gardeners enemy?
The caterpillars can quickly devastate plants especially brassicas but with a little vigilance the eggs can be scrapped off the leaves and young caterpillars picked off before they have chance to do too much damage. Covering veg is the best option.
I always grow my salad leaves in containers and once they start to bolt I let the caterpillars have a feast.
All photos have been taken in Saughall and show just some of the many species of butterfly we are lucky enough to be seeing in our village.
If you want more hints and tips about gardening for butterlies check out the Butterfly Conservation website which is full of information and also Saughall Gardening Club programme of events which has some excellent speakers on a good range of topics.
