Toad Lily Garden Care, LLC

05/22/2025

03/07/2025

If you’re looking to plant this season, please consider using plants that are hosts for butterflies, caterpillars and other pollinators.

A few things to keep in mind-

Not all flowers are created equal in the minds of pollinators. Choose a wide variety of native flowering plants including early and late bloomers. Just because a flower is large and colorful doesn’t mean it is the best choice for pollinators.

Don’t forget about caterpillars 🐛 while providing flowers for butterflies is amazing, making sure caterpillars have host plants is equally important. Many caterpillars have very specific host plants. The most well known of course, is monarch caterpillars and milkweed. Researching specific species of butterflies will often provide a list of their favorite plants for both their larval and adult stages.

Keep an eye out when purchasing host plants during caterpillar season. It is not uncommon to find monarch caterpillars on milkweed and swallowtail caterpillars on fennel. Sometimes even eggs can be found. Before assuming something is a pest, confirm what you’ve found, it could be the eggs or baby caterpillar of something very cool. Baby caterpillars are tiny, think grain of rice size, but will grow quickly if supplied with plenty of food.

And don’t forget about shrubs and trees which are also hosts to many species. Butterflies utilize many different plants throughout their life cycle, not just flowers.

America’s butterflies are disappearing because of insecticides, climate change and habitat loss, with the number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000, a new study finds.

07/23/2024

My pollinator garden is really doing its job this year attracting some great insects. Butterflies, bees, hummingbird moths and hummingbirds are all constant visitors.
This garden is filled with the following-
Bee balm
Milkweed
Crocosmia
Butterfly bush
St. John’s Wort
Nepeta
Phlox
Hummingbird vine
Hyssop
Liatris

07/10/2024

A little before and after photo shoot. This garden got a facelift with a good weeding, some new plants and finished off with mulch.

07/03/2024

This has been an amazing year for hydrangeas. They are bursting with blooms!

07/03/2024

We stepped a little outside our normal work with this pond cleanup and renovation.

07/03/2024

Just about a month’s difference in growth. We have a little tweaking to do after a very hungry rodent had a snack, but it’s filling in nicely.

06/04/2024

06/04/2024

Another transformation- taking a weedy area under a deck and turning it into a usable sitting area.