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Butterflies Can't Resist This Adorable Garden Water Feature
By NAOMI MEZA
You can attract butterflies by planting the flowers they get nectar from, but adding a puddler to your garden also provides them with the minerals they need and a mating meetup.
With a puddler, you can facilitate a behavior called puddling, where male butterflies gather on damp areas like soil, puddles, or animal feces to hydrate and extract minerals.
You'll need a shallow saucer, sand, composted manure, and water — rocks, salt, and overripe fruit are optional. Fill the saucer with sand and mix in 2 tablespoons of the manure.
Next, dampen the soil mixture with water so the surface of the soil is barely covered. You can enhance your puddler by adding stones or pebbles as perches for the butterflies.
To add to its allure, sprinkle salt on the water's surface and add overripe bananas, oranges, or apples. Once complete, place the puddler near a flower bed for butterflies to find.
Maintain your butterflies’ puddler by adding water as the soil dries out. Every month, dump out the entire saucer, put in fresh sand and composted manure, and replace the fruit.