If you plant it, they will come

Red Admiral Butterfly

A big theme in the horticultural classes at Brooklyn Botanic and in bee gardening or butterfly gardening in general is that the plants are in control. If you plant the right things and try to maintain or promote healthy soil, the plants and the soil themselves will attract the beneficials, be it mycorrhizal fungi or bacteria or insects. At Floyd Bennett, after some thirty-odd years of community gardening, hopefully more organically-minded than not, we have no lack of butterflies, which is nice. The lightning bugs seem to dig the place too, or maybe they just have a thing for oregano.