Each day you can create a new garden or add native plants to an existing one in your yard or on your balcony. These gardens could include plant varieties that bloom at different times from spring to fall to attract butterflies and other pollinators. Look to provide host plants for butterflies like monarchs to lay eggs on and their caterpillars to feed on. Choose plants with colour, like purple and red to attract the bees and bright white yellow, orange, reds for other species.

A great feature you should have is a shallow water source with landing pads. The use of flat stones is great for butterflies to rest and bask in the sun and bear patches free of mulch on the ground for native ground nesting bees.

To educate yourself on a monarch butterfly and to understand the egg laying habits, hatching, “J” hanging to chrysalis stages is fun and to see a caterpillar molt four times before it becomes a chrysalis is amazing. This whole process takes about four weeks from egg to butterfly and waiting on the chrysalis to enclose, which means it is ready to emerge as a butterfly.

Did you ever think about learning about the process of egg laying to hatching to releasing your own monarch? Your chance is coming in July in Kingsville as the Kingsville Horticultural society will hold an “Egg to Butterfly” workshop.

Educate yourself and a friend about what plants to put in to create a pollinator garden, which ones will help attract monarchs to your place, how to locate eggs and to care for them until they hatch, what containers and cages to use for them, keeping them clean and safe and what to feed them. Also, what are the hatching times, what are their predators, what diseases, what about migration, learning to tag your butterfly and release it. You can help save the monarchs in this one afternoon event. Saturday, July 5th from 10 – 2 pm.at Lion’s Hall, 21 Street West, Kingsville. Our workshop will include two speakers, refreshments & snacks, a full Capri lunch, dessert, door prizes and silent auction items. Registration mandatory: e-mail: horticulturalsociety@mdirect.net. Cost $15 for members of horticultural societies and $20 for non-members. Hope to see you there, bring a friend. Register to save your seat today.