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Monthly Theme
Gardening
 April is the perfect time to begin thinking about planning a garden. Children love to plant things and watch them grow! Gardening teaches children responsibility, gives them a greater appreciation of nature, and it's loads of fun!
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Build a Butterfly Garden
When planning a butterfly garden you need to plant plants that will provide food for caterpillars and for butterflies! Dill, parsley, fennel, and foxglove are all plants that can attract caterpillars. Conefower, bee balm, butterfly weed, red valerian, heliotrope, nasturtium, and butterfly bush are all plants that can provide nectar for butterflies.
Don't mix different plants together, instead plant them in groups. You will attract more butterflies that way! Select plants that bloom at different times during the growing season so you always have plants to attract butterflies. You also want to provide your butterflies with water and places to sun themselves! Bury bowls in the garden and fill them with water and place some sticks and stones in the water so the butterflies have a place to perch! Place some flat stones around your garden so the butterflies have a place to perch and sun themselves.
What a Butterfly Wants
Different species of butterflies are attracted to different plants. Here is a list of some butterflies that are found in New Hampshire and the plants they like!
Black Swallowtail
- Larval food plant: Queen Anne's Lace, carrot, celery and dill
- Nectar: red clover, milkweed, and thistles
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
- Larval food plant: Leaves of various plants including wild cherry, sweetbay, basswood, tulip tree, birch, ash, cottonwood, mountain ash, and willow
- Nectar: wild cherry and lilac
Great Spangled Fritillary
- Larval food plant: violet
- Nectar: milkweeds, thistles, ironweed, dogbane, mountain laurel, verbena, vetch, bergamot, red clover, joe-pye weed, and purple coneflower.
Monarch
- Larval food plant: milkweed
- Nectar: dogbane, lilac, red clover, lantana, goldenrod, and thistle
Mourning Cloak
- Larval food plant: willow, elm, poplar, aspen, birch, hackberry
- Nectar: rotting fruit, sap, butterfly bush, milkweed, shasta daisy
Painted Lady
- Larval food plant: daisy, hollyhock
- Nectar: goldenrod, aster, zinnia , butterfly bush, milkweed
Red Admiral
- Larval food plant: nettle
- Nectar: rotting fruit and sap, daisy, aster, goldenrod, butterfly bush, milkweed
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