The growing season is defined as the time after the latest frost in the spring and the earliest frost in the fall . The number of days for crop growth varies according to the local geography, with less being available where the elevation is higher. In the northern states, many gardeners plant seeds indoors before the last frost to give the plants an added edge in growing and producing food. This is not practical for farmers who plant much more then a single row or two of vegetables. Seed packets often have the growing days listed on them as well as a guideline for when to plant. It is a good idea to take advantage of the websites that give specific details about your area of the country.

Many plants have a certain time they become ripe for harvest and with fruit trees and vines, they require care during the off season. This can include pruning and the addition of compost to the soil to replenish nutrients that were used by the plants during the growing season. One of the most important things to keep in mind when growing plants is to have the best plants for the type of climate you live in. This will help your garden to be more bountiful and produce more if you pay attention the climate and growing conditions recommended for your area.

If the garden itself is the meal, then the colors and the textures are the flavors that mingle in that “meal”.

Successfully landscaping a small garden means creating elements that can be used to a specific purpose, such as screening you from the neighbors, hiding some unsightly thing, or  shading an area, or even controlling erosion of the soil in your small space.

Choose plants for your small garden space based on several aspects of the plant:

The first way to choose plants is by their  growth  habits and the plant  characteristics. Many people don’t take into account the growth that the plants will reach at full size, how far they will reach, what they need for light and how well they will tolerate light, heat,  and what kind of soil is going to work best for them.

If your small garden is largely in full sun and sandy soil  in Nebraska, and you plant it full of  plants that only do well in full shade and under trees, such as the Lady Slipper, chances are its not going to do well.

Likewise, if you want to plant a large oak tree within a few feet of your back wall, when the tree achieves full growth, the roots are going to interfere with pipes, and sometimes even with the homes foundation.

Planting something when its a tiny cute little sprout, without considering what’s going to happen when its not that little sprout, what the characteristics of the plant or tree are when its achieved its full growth is going to mean that when it does reach that full growth, its not going to work for you, but may in fact work against you.

Avoid buying for your small garden on impulse.  Small garden spaces take a bit of planning and consideration before you put in that giant oak tree. What might work better for you is a flowering shrub, or a smaller tree that has a less invasive root system.

Rule #1 – Don’t plan your garden or landscaping at the nursery or garden center. Do a little homework. Know a little about the plants before you buy them and take them home.

You can use the plant databases page for reference and get yourself a good plant encyclopedia in your library. You’ll save a lot of time and frustration being able to look up plants according to your specific zone, type of plant, color, characteristics, by name, and so on. They’re also very handy to carry with you into the garden or to the nursery.

Another common mistake in choosing the right plants and propagation is made in the area of zoning. Its extremely important to know which planting zone you live in and plant accordingly.

I am amazed at the number of nurseries and garden supply centers that carry plants that aren’t even zoned for their area. Now, some of these plants are great for placing outdoors in pots during the summer but they have to be moved indoors during the winter. Unfortunately nobody tells you that.

Most generally you can trust the little plant selection tags that come with the plants but sometimes you can’t. Its best to check with the plant databases or your plant encyclopedia for specific zoning in selecting plants.

Primary considerations for selecting landscape plants

# Height and Width are figured by the mature size a plant will reach in both upward and outward directions. Not calculating this can cause serious problems in the future.
# Form is the shape of the plant and how it will occupy and accent space. Form and shape are considered as columnar, round, vase, weeping, oval, creeping, etc.
# Texture is the fineness or roughness of plants. It can also be categorized in terms of leaf thickness and shade(light or dark) of plants. As a rule, plants with finer textures should be used in greater numbers than plants with coarse textures.
# Seasonal interest and color are figured by the special features a plant has at different times of the year. Foliage, fruit, flowers, Winter color, changing colors, etc.

Secondary considerations for selecting landscaping plants

# Insect and disease resistance
# Sun or Shade
# Moisture tolerance
# Drought Resistance
# Soil Type

Plant selection for best design and effect.

A few well-selected plant varieties can have more impact and appeal than a mix match selection of one of these here and one of those there. Unity is achieved in garden design by consistency.

Planting in groups of 3′s, 5′s, 7′s, etc. also gives a sense of intentional design, balance, and unity.

The smallest water featured garden I’ve personally built housed a full fledged pond, and was its own little ecosystem. It was complete with visiting frogs and toads, butterflies and dragonflies, even though the pond was only about 30 inches in diameter. It did not take up a lot of space, wasn’t vastly difficult to accomplish an in time, over the course of about two years, the hardest I worked on it was to remove some overgrowth of the water lilies we’d planted. (which did teach me to sink them in pots as opposed to permitting them to run rampant in the water garden)

My first water garden was accomplished by means of a small submersible pump, a lovely blue colored tote, a plastic container with a lid, that will hold about forty gallons of water for the larger sized ones, or a bit smaller, about twenty or twenty five gallon sized, such as the ones you purchase at Walmart, some rocks to line the top of it and to build the steps down to it, and a few small goldfish, as well as some water lilies purchased from Earl May Garden Center.

It worked well for what it was, grew the plants admirably although there weren’t many of them, and the fish lived through summer of 100+ degrees and a subzero winter, so apparently it was good enough. It wasn’t perfect but it was lovely and we all like the sound of moving water right? Frankly if that’s the space you have available to you, its going to suffice and you can use your imagination and make that small buried tote the perfect mini water garden.

A year later I decided that I wanted something a bit more fleshed out, with some extra plants, a few lovely fish and a bit more room to grow the things I liked and so we upgraded, got the shovels out and began to dig.

The hole ended up about 3 feet deep, and probably six feet by six feet, took some real time to excavate and more to line and ready for the plants.

I highly recommend the small pond liners that can be found at nearly any gardening store (Plants and Things, Earl May Garden Center) as well as at department stores such as Shopko and Walmart Garden Centers. To this you add the pump, the mud or gravel that you line with, (I found that the small amount of dirt that gathers in the pond is a necessary evil for a real ecosystem to develop, where the frogs, fish and plants coexist in real harmony and create their own little world. The plants seem to grown better when the dirt sifts into the bottom, the frogs leave eggs and the dragonflies appear more often, strangely enough. As it rained and my pond overfilled, some dirt from the surrounding area sifted in, and made a small muddy area on the bottom of it, that was perhaps an inch deep. This has in fact greatly enhanced the pond, and I tend to leave it there.

If there aren’t a lot of rocks in your area, try contacting one of the construction companies, or perhaps the power or gas company who are always raking them out when they dig and always too, want to get rid of them.

Certain types of plants will make an attractive lure for certain types of butterflies and if you plant those the butterflies won’t be able to resist, regardless of whether you have a large area, or a small one.

Butterflies will come by the hordes to your garden to sit and sip on the sweet nectar of the plants that you’ve placed there.

Using this kind of thinking, a butterfly garden can be incorporated into nearly any landscape, climate or a design in your yard that is currently in place.

The most important part of your garden, won’t be the landscaping itself, but rather, the kinds of plants that you place to attract the butterflies, things that will serve as a food source.

Along the way you’re going to be helping to save the environment, because much of what attracts butterflies has been phased out or is in fact in danger because of the urbanization of most areas, where the wild blooms and flowers are being removed to make way for home landscaping.

As factories and homes are on the rise, natural habitats for butterflies, which can be as attractive as they are useful, have been primarily removed, or become much scarcer.

It is easy to raise the number and types of butterflies that you see in your garden or yard simply by planting the plants that they like to feed on and plants on which they like to lay eggs.
Caterpillar friendly plants are also an important aspect of butterfly gardens..

YOu are going to need various plants that will cycle with the seasons, some that work well when placed together to make sure that the garden will be blooming from the early part of spring, to as late in the fall as your climate permits.

A butterfly garden can be any size at all, even down to a window box on your sill, or as great as an entire field of untended wildflowers left to grow at will on your property.
WHen you begin to plan your garden try to stay within the realm of plants that occur in nature in your area..
Things such as milkweed will be great draws to nearly any type of butterfly, however another tip might be, to learn what butterflies are most common in your area. What will naturally be drawn to your area is what you might like to plant for when choosing plants to incorporate into your garden.

Butterflies don’t need anything fancy or expensive. Just an open, sun-filled area; some flowers, for adults; some food sources, for caterpillars; shelter; puddles; and rocks. You might consider planting an herb garden if you enjoy herbs – many butterfly species do too.

Reserving a section of your yard for native flowering plants and for weeds like dandelion, nettle, and milkweed should also help guarantee a good variety of butterflies. It’s best to avoid using any pesticides at all.

One note for dedicated gardeners who may be appalled at the idea of actually inviting caterpillars in for lunch: very few butterfly species cause harm to garden plants. If they do become a nuisance – for instance, if cabbage whites are decimating your nasturtiums – picking the larvae off by hand is a simple task.

About puddles. Butterflies can’t drink from birdbaths or other open water. But give them a damp spot of wet sand or dirt and they’ll often flock around it. In some species, young bachelor butterflies most commonly exhibit this “puddling” behavior – perhaps the equivalent of visiting the local pub after work.

If you want to be more specific, here are a few plants, and the kinds of butterflies they will attract.

Alfalfa-Eastern black swallowtail, orange sulphur, dogface, large wood nymph

Aster- Checkered white, common & orange sulphur, question mark, painted ladies, red admiral, buckeye

Black-eyed Susan-Great spangled fritillary, pearly crescentspot

Butterfly Bush- Swallowtails, mourning cloak, comma anglewing, painted ladies, red admiral

Daisy- Pearly crescentspot, red admiral, queen

Dandelion-Cabbage shite, common sulphur, comma anglewing, red admiral

Dogbane- Spicebush swallowtail, checkered white, common & orange sulphur, gray hairstreak, spring azure, pearly crescentspot, mourning cloak, American painted lady, buckeye

Goldenrod-Common & orange sulphur, gray hairstreak, American painted lady, red admiral, viceroy Lantana Swallowtails, cabbage white, Gulf fritillary

Lupine- Common blue

Marigold-Milbert’s tortoiseshell, American painted lady

Milkweed-Swallowtails, checkered & cabbage white, common & orange sulphur, gray hairstreak, spring azure, pearly crescentspot, common blue, great spangled fritillary, question mark, mourning cloak, painted ladies, red admiral, viceroy, monarch, queen

Mint- Swallowtails, cabbage whie, gray hairstreak, painted ladies, red admiral, monarch, large wood nymph

Privet- Spring azure, painted ladies, red-spotted purple

Purple Coneflower-Silvery blue, great spangled fritillary

Queen Anne’s Lace-Eastern black swallowtail, gray hairstreak

Red Clover-Cabbage white, great spangled fritillary, painted ladies, red admiral

Scabiosa-Painted ladies

Sweet Pea-Gray hairstreak

Thistle-Swallowtails, dogface, Gulf fritillary, pearly crescentspot, Milbert’s tortoiseshell, American painted lady, red admiral, viceroy, monarch

Verbena-Great spangled fritillary

Winter Cress-Checkered white, gray hairstreak, spring azure, pearly crecentspot

You can order many of these plants from one of my favorite suppliers of native plants, High Country Gardens.

The adult butterflies will stay for longer periods of time if they find plants on which they feel at ease laying eggs as well as nectar plants for food.
If possible, and it won’t make you too crazed, try to permit your lawn to grow dandelions and some clover which are both plants that butterflies are drawn to.
Minimize the use of pesticided and herbicides, both of which can harm not only the ground and the plants but also the butterflies themselves.
Flowers which are provided in sunny places such as around a rock wall or a fenced area will attract more as they will want to sit and bask in the sun as they eat, while also having some bush and shrub areas to provide shade in the heat of the day and to protect them from wind and rain.
As you watch you will see the elaborate routines that butterflies have. Males will drive others away, while females choose so carefully where to lay their eggs.
All it all it is well worth your time and an extra dandelion in the yard isn’t it?
If you want more information on Butterfly gardening, pay a visit to the Butterfly Garden Site

If you are interested in Free Milkweed Seeds, they are available to you from LiveMonarch.org which is a not for profit foundation attempting to see milkweed and native plants put back to increase butterfly habitat.
The seeds will be sent to you if you send a SASE to
Live Monarch Foundation – Seeds
3003-C8 Yamato Road #1015
Boca Raton, Florida 33434

Your donations  to Live Monarch are welcomed and are tax deductible