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When the first signs became clear that we were able to buy the house we are now living in, I started dreaming creating a big butterfly paradise. During the first year we only mowed some paths and the rest was free to grow. I ordered some blackthorn and hawthorn to create two hedges for birds and with this order I received, by accident, a lot of young beech plants which I was allowed to keep. As these beeches needed to be plant quickly, I decided to create two gardens. One around the solar panels and one for a future larval butterfly garden.  April 2024: The start of the future larval butterfly garden In 2024 nothing happened (except mowing) in this part of the garden as a lot of other jobs needed to be done first. In 2025 I made plans for this garden and looked for garden boxes from steel (to keep snails away). As I needed a lot of boxes steel was no option for my budget so I decided to buy 40 used logistic boxes and to treat them with black stain (to protect them against moisture/rain).
For weeks I was busy staining them and once I was ready I started placing them in the larval butterfly garden, filled them a big layer of cardboard and protected the wood with plastic foil.
The next 'problem' was the amount of soil to fill the boxes as for every box I need 0,3 m3 of soil. We drove to a kind of 'waste' point where everybody from the village can get 1m3 of free soil at a time. The advantage is that it's free, the disadvantage is that the soil is made of collected garden waste and that it contains a lot of plastic and glass pieces.  The first part of the larval butterfly garden The first boxes are filled with soil and planted with larval foodplants for some butterfly species alternated with flowering plants.
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Last year, when I started creating the first flower bed I bought two Purple Top Vervain plants (verbena bonariensis). In the past I often lost them due to frost but this year they spread through my garden and I replanted a lot of them in my new flower beds….and they attracts a lot of insects including butterflies. Mid-August I noticed the first Swallowtail visiting my garden and for some weeks this species was a regular visitor, especially they liked the Purple Top Vervain:  Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) Comparing to last year, this year I had more butterflies in my garden but a big part of the garden is still grass/wild and a lot of work needs to be done. At the moment I’m busy creating a ‘larval butterfly garden’ for a lot of species. In my next blog I will write more about this special part of my garden.
A big part of my garden is wild and as on some pieces little hop clover (Trifolium dubium) is growing (one of their larval foodplants) I was wondering if and when I would find the first Common Blues. On the third of August it was bingo…a female visited one of my flower beds. Two weeks later I found the first roosting Common Blue in my garden and since then I found regularly one or two roosting butterflies. My ‘sport’ is to catch them with open wings and the last weeks I learnt that the male butterflies are much easier and more cooperative (= the females flew away immediately):  Common Blue - Polyommatus icarus This autumn I will create a big clover bed to attract more blue butterflies like the Short-Tailed Blue, this rare species is found in a nature area nearby and it would be nice to have this species in my own garden :-).
Not rare or endangered, no spectaculair colours and not difficult to find....the unwanted and unhunted Meadow Brown. The only thing about this species is that they always have a keen eye when they are roosting....not the easiest species to photograph. I'm very happy to have this species around my house this year and a few weeks ago I found a roosting one in the grass:  Meadow Brown My next blog will be about a critically endagered and very wanted and hunted species...
The last weeks we were busy outside, creating new flower and vegetable beds, building an insect hotel, planting water lilies in our pond and enjoying fluttering butterflies. Yesterday I noticed the first Map Butterfly and this morning my butterfly season started when everything came together:  After this start I hope to find more butterflies in my garden....a few days ago I created a new vegetable garden with cabbage plants so at least some whites species must come soon.
Today my Christmas Holiday started and it's time to slow down a bit and to choose a butterfly photo from my 2024 album. The 2024 album is an album with the fewest butterfly images ever.....not much butterflies in Aosta/Italy, not much in the Eifel/Germany nor in my own garden. The absence of butterflies is disturbing and the decline of insects must be stopped!  Brown Argus (the one and only) in my garden in July 2024 I hope that better days are coming soon and I wish you all Merry Christmas and the very best for 2025! Merry Christmas - Prettige kerstdagen - Frohe Weihnachten - Joyeux Noël!!
This year I realized one of my long-cherised dreams, which was 'seeing fluttering butterflies from my bed after waking up'. This spring I created two butterfly beds, one in front of the house and one in front of the bedroom. The quality of ground in front of the bedroom was a problem as it all was hard rubble/stone with yellow sand and not removable. I bought fertilized garden soil and put a layer of max 10 cm on top of it; after this job was done I bought plants which can be found 'in the wild' on places without much soil. The growth started slowly but after my return from Aosta I found fluttering butterflies:  In the weekends during the summer it was wonderful to wake up and to sit in bed with a cup of coffee and enjoy the fluttering butterflies.
Two weeks ago I collected again a big lot of stones for free, to built the next butterfly bed in spring. In a few years the complete garden will be transformed into a nature/butterfly paradise with a lot of wildlife. A lot of work needs to be done and that is the reason why I'm not posting here regularly at the moment. But, my garden has much to photograph so as soon as I have more time available I will share some stories here!
The last six months I was very quiet on the internet because my partner and I bought an old farm house and we had to move all our stuff. Since we moved in, a lot of jobs had to be done as it’s an old house with thick (not isolated) walls and single (not double) glass windows. We have a big garden which we want to change into a butterfly paradise and we want to grow our own vegetables. The first step we took is not mowing the grass/flowers anymore as I noticed that a lot of other plants like thistles are growing in-between. The second step was that we planted a lot of hedges and fruit trees. Due to the cold and wet spring season and the jobs which needed to be done I was not in the mood to go out and search for Orange-tips and other butterflies. Two weeks ago we had a sunny weekend in the Netherlands and in the evening I found a roosting Orange-tip in the garden so it was time to charge my batteries again!
The next morning I tried to catch the butterfly with sunrise but a big forest nearby unfortunately blocks the sunrise completely. But I will not complain as I’m happy with my new home.....and the little present the Orange-tip left.  Female Orange-tip |
Jibt dir dit Leben mal een Buff, denn weene keene Träne. Lach Dir'n Ast und setz Dir druff und baumle mit de Beene.
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