No-mow=Butterfly garden

Most of you know that we have discontinued mowing in parts of our 3.5 acres.  One little spot has morphed into a butterfly garden because I started moving "weeds" there to brighten it up a little (some weeds had already made their home in that spot).  Then one thing led to another and here is a VERY ROUGH and RAGGEDY-looking "butterfly garden to-be".  Most of the plants I put in there are self propagating through runners, self-seeding, etc.  Some will also offer seeds for the birds (they love the seeds from the coneflowers and black-eyed susans.  It is very random with a variety of flowers, "weeds" and grasses.  We will mow down everything but the bushes/woody plants once a year in the winter, and most things will die off on their own.....the hope is that it will be very low maintenance and the butterflies, bees, and birds will like it too.  Here is what it looks like right now from far away (the future vision is much fuller......if you can't find it, it's in the foreground in front of the Althea (Rose of Sharon hedges haha))

These are close-ups of some things transplanted from around the property...

Black-Eyed Susans

Pampas Grass (purchased)  There is another tall grass I transplanted, but no pic...

JoePye Weed (swallowtails love it) Blooms in the Fall

"Wild" Phlox...summer bloomer 

Purple Coneflower....summer bloomer

Shasta Daisy - already bloomed and native "weed"

Pink Japanese Spirea ...woody bush...already bloomed.

Dwarf Fountain grass ...late Summer/Fall bloomer (pale lavender)

Smaller variety of Butterfly Bush - Magenta color - summer bloomer

Native weed - aromatic (sweet) will get taller if not mown....all summer creeper (I hope this makes a ground cover for the whole thing)

This was a gift cutting from a neighbor last year.  It is a HUGE hibiscus flower.  Not like the ones we know from Florida and the tropical areas, but one that dies completely down in the winter and comes back again every year.  The one I transplanted is so wilted I don't know if it will make it, so I took a pic of the one that is "perky"!  Looking at these day lilies makes me think I should put some of them over in the butterfly garden too.  The hummers seem to be attracted to them.

White Yarrow -grows wild on the property

There are also two cranberry colored Wiegelas (flowering bush) that I have no pics of because my batteries died and I have no replacements right now.  The Wiegelas are small, only about a foot high so far.....also transplanted from another part of the property.

I'm thinking I should add a water feature.  A long time ago I saw a butterfly garden that used things just set on the ground (or IN the ground).  They used little pieces of pottery that were flat and dish/bowl like (like a clay pot saucer).  I have plenty of those .. some are plastic.  If the container was too deep, they put a few rocks in it to make elevated places for the butterflies to rest.



update--Added the water.  tomato cage, clay saucer, and "frog" saucer, which is plenty shallow for the butterflies.  There is a lower tier too, so I may try to find another saucer to fit in there and then we'll have a double-decker watering hole!!

You can see the bottom tier in this pic.