Butterfly and Songbird Garden
The Butterfly and Songbird Garden provides food sources and shelter for a variety of butterflies and small birds while providing you with a source of beauty and color. This all California native plant palette requires little water and is easy to maintain. This garden embraces the casual and colorful feel of a classic cottage garden, with a modern and eco-friendly plant palette that gives back to the local environment!
Design plans
Lilac Verbena
Important note: If you live in a fire hazard or wildland-urban interface area, it’s crucial to follow wildfire resilient landscaping practices. These templates offer general inspiration, but they show plant spacing that’s too dense and too close to the house for high fire hazard areas. You can adjust the designs to include wider spacing and lower plant densities, as recommended for fire zones. Be sure to check with your local fire agency before designing or renovating your landscape. Another helpful resource is the Sustainable Defensible Space website.
Description
For maximum support to songbirds, be sure to have at least one elevated birdbath, and ideally change the water daily, especially in warm weather, to keep it clean and sanitary for the birds, and to prevent mosquitos. If you have room for more than one, baths of different sizes or depths will attract a wider range of birds. A more affordable way to provide this is to use ceramic saucers (like what would be underneath a potted plant) placed on top of large logs or anything else to elevate them approximately 2 or so above the ground.
A saucer filled with a combination of sand and gravel, and then filled with water will sometimes be used by butterflies for a drink. However, I have also had gardens where the butterflies never seem to use these when they can find a wet spot of mulch or garden soil for a small drink.
This plant palette is available as an option for the Waterwise Community Center’s Landscape Design Assistance Program. Visit cbwcd.org/design for more details.
Horticultural preferences
The plants in the Butterfly and Songbird Garden palette are easy to grow and are adapted to a wide range of soils, from sand to clay. Most of the plants require full sun, which means six or more hours of direct sunlight throughout the year. One of the plants, creeping barberry, prefers part-day sun or shade. Part shade areas can utilize some of the plants in the group: Lilac verbena, hummingbird sage, creeping barberry, and coffeeberry. North facing areas, up against houses and garages, will be shady much of the year, and full sun in the summer months. For these situations, coffeeberry, creeping barberry, and golden current will be particularly useful. Additional plants that can be added for shady or north-facing areas include yarrow and California strawberry.
The plants in this palette are easy to care for and generally do not require any pruning more than once or twice per year to keep them looking great in the garden, but it is important to do it at the right time of year for each plant. Refer to the “maintenance” entry for each individual plant.
Aesthetic character
The Butterfly and Songbird garden provides a variety of flower and leaf colors and textures as well as colorful berries through a large portion of the year. While this palette focuses on providing resources, including nectar and berries, to wildlife this results in a long season of color for us humans to enjoy as well. Consider contrasting leaf color, leaf shape, and plant form in your design, and setting up views that layer trees and larger shrubs behind medium sized shrubs and grasses, behind the lower perennials from the main views from which you will look at your landscape.
Moisture needs
The Butterfly and Songbird garden provides a variety of flower and leaf colors and textures as well as colorful berries through a large portion of the year. While this palette focuses on providing resources, including nectar and berries, to wildlife this results in a long season of color for us humans to enjoy as well. Consider contrasting leaf color, leaf shape, and plant form in your design, and setting up views that layer trees and larger shrubs behind medium sized shrubs and grasses, behind the lower perennials from the main views from which you will look at your landscape.
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Low Water Use Plants – Irrigation Schedule 2
| Â | Jan* | Feb* | Mar* | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov* | Dec* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs per Month | 0x to 2x | 0x to 2x | 0x to 2x | 1x to 2x | 1x to 2x | 1x to 2x | 1x to 2x | 1x to 2x | 1x to 2x | 1x to 2x | 0x to 2x | 0x to 2x |
| Inches per Run | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ |
| Â | ||||||||||||
| Inches per Month | 0″ to 2″ | 0″ to 2″ | 0″ to 2″ | 1″ to 2″ | 1″ to 2″ | 1″ to 2″ | 1″ to 2″ | 1″ to 2″ | 1″ to 2″ | 1″ to 2″ | 0″ to 2″ | 0″ to 2″ |
Range of supplemental summer water: 7″-14″
Range of supplemental winter water: 0″-10″
| Â | 0″-2″ | 0″-2″ | 0″-2″ | 1″-2″ | 1″-2″ | 1″-2″ | 1″-2″ | 1″-2″ | 1″-2″ | 1″-2″ | 0″-2″ | 0″-2″ |
| Â | Jan* | Feb* | Mar* | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov* | Dec* |
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For more information on how to use this Irrigation Schedule and Graph, follow this link.
For information how to calculate your irrigation system’s schedule and precipitation rate, please follow this link.
