Build Your Own Butterfly House

Not only where there not nearly enough BEES last year, there were not nearly enough BUTTERFLIES!

We need Pollinators for our Gardens. 

One again, I searched the internet and found some possible solutions:

Build A Butterfly House & Plant More Flowers that Butterflies Like!  (This is our next project)

Attracting butterflies to your garden starts with having the right plants, but if you want them to stick around, you also need to give them a place to hibernate and lay their eggs. A butterfly house does just that, and it’s easy to build!

What You’ll Need:
Untreated lumber: – a 1″ x 6″ x 8′ board and a 1″ x 10″ x 12″ board
Finishing nails (1-1/2″ long)
Circular saw (or a hand saw)
Jig saw
Drill and 1/2-inch drill bit
Tape measure
Framing square and/or speed square
A Pencil or marker)
Sandpaper

Complete Instructions

Found on Amazon   

Amazon Video

 

My Painted & Completed Butterfly House

 

 

How to Attract Butterflies to a Butterfly House

Step 1

Paint the butterfly house in bright colors. Butterflies are attracted to purple, red, yellows and pink. Try images of flowers or simple designs in a combination of colors to attract their attention.

What color should you paint your butterfly house? Use colors of native flowers for your inspiration. Some good choices are: 

Red, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Blue, or Purple

Step 2

Plant flowers that attract butterflies. Brightly colored flowers like asters, daisies, zinnias and purple coneflower attract butterflies and provide the perfect place to perch. (See Resources for a list of flowers that attract butterflies.)

Step 3

Place your flowerbed in a sunny location. Butterflies feed in the sun and will frequent gardens in full sun. Consider a butterfly feeder filled with sweet nectar or with decaying fruit. Although it may not be appealing to you, butterflies will swarm to soft fruit as it begins to decay.

Step 4

Provide a water source. A shallow saucer provides more than enough water for delicate butterflies. Pour water on flat rocks or on stone walkways. Placing a butterfly house near sources of moisture will encourage them to investigate and will increase the chances they'll choose the house for shelter.

Step 5

Plant host plants, the plants on which butterflies lay their eggs (see Resources). Young caterpillars feed on the foliage when they emerge and may form a chrysalis on the same plant. When butterflies emerge, they are likely to seek shelter in your butterfly house.

Flowers that Attract Butterflies:

Aster, Bee Balm, Black Eyed Susan, Purple Coneflower, Cosmos, Lupine, Pansy, Phlox, Salvia, Sedum, Shasta Daisy Snapdragon, Sunflower, Verbena, Zinnia, Milkweed.

Sprouting Your Own Seeds

Sprouts are rich in a number of important nutrients. While the specific ratio of nutrients varies depending on the type of sprout, they generally contain high levels of folate, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamin K. In fact, they have higher amounts of these nutrients than fully-grown versions of the same plants.

Health benefits of sprouts

1. Sprouts help you fight illness and are anticancer

2. Sprouts help with hormones, acne, and PMS

3. Sprouts support healthy digestion

4. Sprouts improve insulin resistance

5. Sprouts boost the immune system

For More Information on Benefits of Sprouts

Sprouting Equipment

When I first looked into sprouting I discovered that I could spend a ton of money on fancy sprouting gadgets that would do it all for me.  Sprouting for me is about saving money while adding nutrients to our diet, though, so I went with the simplest equipment necessary.

• quart-sized canning jar / use dishwasher & sterilize jars
• wide-mouth canning screen lids (Available on Amazon)

Why does the mason jar need to be sterilized?

We want to grow sprouts that are chemical and pathogen-free. To do this, everything that comes into contact with the seeds must be sterilized.

The safety of sprouts

Food safety and basic hygiene rules in the kitchen should always be followed. How to grow sprouts safely at home is easy if these principles are followed.

One way to eliminate the risk of salmonella and/or bacterial growth is by properly cleaning and disinfecting all equipment before and after each use.

Growing sprouts at home are quick, easy and so very nutritious!

"Food to Live"

Sprouting Seeds available on
Amazon & Ebay.

I use what is called "Salad Mix" with Clover, Alfalfa, Radish & Broccoli

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      My "set up"
  
  
  
  
  

My Simple Sprouting Routine

I spent at least an hour reading multiple pages of sprouting tutorials that made it seem like you’d be in the kitchen forever. Not so. I spend two minutes per day and I have fresh, cheap sprouts. 

 This is how I do it:

1. Soak Sprout Seeds Overnight.

In the evening pour about 1-2 tablespoons of sprouting seeds into the bottom of your quart jar. Put the sprouting screen in place and screw on the canning ring. Pour about two cups of water through the sprout screen. Swirl the seeds, drain, and then cover again with water. Place jar on your counter top until the morning.

2. Drain and Rinse Seeds.

The next morning dump the water out. Repeat the process of rinsing, swirling, and draining, TWICE. Once drained very well place at an angle that will allow the jar to lay upside down at a slight angle. I use plate easel stands.

3. Continue Rinsing and Draining Every Day.

Two to three times per day you will want to pour water through screen, swirl, drain well, and place back in your bowl. Every day your sprouts will grow a bit more until they have filled your entire quart jar and started to turn green. This can take anywhere from 3-5 days.

4. Store Sprouts. (Optional)

When you are satisfied with the length (and greenness) of your sprouts you are ready to store them in the refrigerator. At this point you want your sprouts to be as dry as possible, so make sure you are at the end of a drying cycle. Keeping them dry will stop their growth and slow down spoilage. Sprouts usually keep for up to five days. (I do not store any seeds, I eat them every day, and just grow enough to eat and rotate jars as they grow)

5. Eat Sprouts.

Sprouts are great in soups, sandwiches or mixed with greens as a salad.

Build Your Own Bee House

There were not near enough BEES last year in South Carolina...so I thought I should try to do something about it, and attract bees to my garden for pollination.  I searched the internet and found some possible solutions:

Build A Bee House & Plant More Flowers that Bees Like!

BEE HOUSE:

Cardboard tubes for Solitary Bees offer nesting places

Honeybees and bumblebees live in social colonies, but most wild bee species are solitary. About two-thirds of solitary nesting bees use tunnels in the ground to lay their eggs. About one-third use hollowed out plant stems or tunnels in dead trees or fallen logs.

The Mason bee is a common name for species of bees. They are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood-boring insects. For this specific reason, it is very easy to build a house for the Mason bee, they are not too picky and they would for sure, love to have a place to stay in your yard!

Create litter paper rolls

Measure the length of your container and cut your paper in a way that the length of the paper roll will fit inside the can. The band of paper should be ~5 inches long (half the length of a sheet of paper). The goal is to have a roll of 5 layers minimum. Cut the paper as efficiently as you can.  Roll the paper around a pencil to get the right shape, then tape or glue edge of the paper band to the roll to keep the diameter, remove the pencil. Create rolls of 1/4in up to 1/2in.

Place the rolls inside toilet paper tubes inside the container

Place your toilet paper rolls where you wish inside the can and fill up the empty space with your paper rolls.

Once done shake your can slightly and make sure that everything stays in place. Add more glue at the bottom or more paper rolls to keep things sturdy if needed.

Please note: Bees do not like the color RED, so don't paint your bee box that color!

My Bee House mounted on the end of my Greenhouse:

I rolled every one of those tubes.

Flowers that Attract Bees

Alyssum, Aster, Bee Balm, Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), Borage, Poppies, Chive, Clover, Coneflower, Cow Parsnip, Dahlia, Daisy, Dandelion, Geranium, Goldenrod, Hyssop, Lavender, Lupine, Marigold, Milkweed, Mint, Nasturnum, Pansy, Peony, Petunia, Poppies, Snapdragon, Snowdrops, Sunflower, Flowering Thyme, Zinnia.

 

Planting Season Has Begun ~ March 2021

Planting Season Has Begun!

 

 

 

New Bird Station by Pond Garden

 

 

 

 

Daffodils Coming Up

alongside of Greenhouse

 

 

   

    

    Greenhouse is FULL!

 

 

 

 

 

Velour Green beans planted

in Stackable Pots

 

    250 Tomato Plants Started

 

  Green Beans    Shot Up!