Hats off to you, Ladybarber! I'll just confirm the previous posts: START SMALL. Our school developed an extremely large habitat for wildlife, complete with native plants for butterflies and birds. While it's worth every smile on a child's face, it's a huge time commitment to keep more aggressive plants from running amok, weeding, watering, etc. I will second that you'll be surprised at the grants and donations that are available. I donated several native plants from my garden, including all the milkweed, so you may want to tap into the parents. You may also want to see if any scout troops are willing to take on the garden for a service project. Our school even ventured into seed starting. I still help with our habitat, even though my kids are now in highschool. One teacher takes the kids into the garden to help. Wow! That's a lot of energy. While some plants may get smashed or mistakenly pulled to see their excitement and interest is well worth the effort. Three last things. 1. Our teacher created an observation book so that visitors or children can write about their visit and what they saw. There are some priceless notes about worms. 2. We sold stone paver kits to raise money. The kids/family could then make the stone with their own decorations to be used for a memory path in the school garden. 3. Our school also built a shed to house all of the tools, etc. with a combination lock. Good luck! Cathy in SWPA

I grow the flowers/plants listed above too, but one I didn't see listed (maybe just missed seeing) is SALVIA - all of mine are butterfly magnets big time. Black and blue Salvia and Sages of all kinds attract butterflies and feed Hummingbirds. Garden Phlox of any kind is also another butterfly magnet in my yard - BIG TIME! I have several kinds of willow trees and Hackberry trees which are also good for butterly nurseries. This won't help you in zone 4, but for those on here who may live in the desert or other arid regions of N. America, who want to have butterflies and hummers, may I also suggest these: the Mexican Bird of Paradise bush (Caesalpinia gilliesii or Poinciana pulcherrima) is beautiful and attracts hummers and butterflies. I just love them. Chaste trees with their beautiful blue-violet flowers, Red flowering Yucca is gorgeous - beautiful. Cactus flowers, flowering shrubs & Tamarask Trees (Salt Cedars) attract butterflies and hummers too. These will all grow here in zone 6b-7, but the cactus must be brought indoors in winter. Hollyhocks attract butterflies. Coneflowers Butterfly Weeds Milkweeds Dills Parsley Fennels Asters Sunflowers Bachelor Buttons Pentas (big time butterfly magnets) Besides Zinnias and Petunias of all sizes, varieties and colors, don't forget Marigolds of all sizes, Sweet Allysum, and Periwinkles for three other inexpensive annuals that butterflies just adore! That's a few more. ~Annie

You have the PERFECT spot for a natural looking butterfly garden, meadow-style. I love it, and can't wait to watch your progress, Heather. I never have the patience to wait for the smother method to work in a bed, possibly because I'm not doing it right. (Ill, I need more help from you in that regard...my front yard bed where I want to put the mushroom compost has a lot of puny, scraggly grassy stuff that needs to go.) I would probably start with a heavy duty rake and scuffle hoe in that sandy area and begin to clear a small patch about 4 or 5 feet square or so. I'd put down my compost, rake it in and start planting there. Then maybe I'd try the smother method across the rest of the area, if I had actually learned the correct way to do it by then. But no matter how you prepare, just go for it, and start filling up that area with good nectar and host plants. In your last photo, I could envision a long, curvy bed along the left side, coming down towards the cleared pathway area (is that going to stay a path/road?) and looking very natural, as though the flowers had sprung up along the edges of the woodland all by themselves. Yes to all the wonderful plants mentioned above, but one word of caution. When buying HOST plants, you have to be sure that they have not been sprayed at the nursery, before arriving in the stores. I once bought some fantastic looking (that should have been a CLUE) milkweed at Home Depot for my larva which had eaten almost all of mine, and within ten minutes of them moving over to the new plants, every single caterpillar was dead on the ground! Good sources for pesticide free host plants include Lukas nursery, Biosphere, and Seminole Springs Herb & Antique Roses. I'm sure there are others. But you never know at the big stores. They are great for some things, but not necessarily for host butterfly plants. (Except for the herbs, of course, which are sold for human consumption, so presumably are safe.) Good luck with it all, and please keep us posted! Marcia

How about Silene regia for dry sun, or Silene virginica for a somewhat more shaded section? I haven't grown them myself, and I'm not sure they're as easy as some wildflowers, but I don't think they're difficult. They're definitely hummer flowers. Maybe Monarda punctata or Monarda fistulosa would also be possibilities, but probably require some moisture to do well. Like Monardas in general, I've read that fistulosa can get really ratty looking from mildew, but I don't suppose that matters in a wildflower garden. Maybe someone out there has actually grown the Silenes or Monardas from seed and can give you some first hand advice. From your other plant selections, it sounds like you may be dealing with a sunny, dry place. You didn't say where you live, so it's a little hard to come up with geographically appropriate selections. Another thought is Salvia coccinea. Hummingbirds do visit mine, and although I bought them as plants, I know they are not hard to grow from seed. I'm not sure if they're native to the United States, or further south, but they're definitely appreciated by hummingbirds. I don't know if Easy Wildflowers is a good company, but I found them (and many other wildflower seed suppliers!) through google. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Easy Wildflowers.com