the butterfly mandala

The initial idea was to make a horse-shoe shaped veggie bed with a wild flower bed around it. With the summerhouse being far away and the urge for low maintenance garden, I first want to make a butterfly mandala shaped bed and add veggies later on. I love butterflies. One of my main goals for this garden is to attract many of them and this includes providing for host plants for their eggs and caterpillars. Many of the host plants, like nettle, are regarded as weed, but I intend to make sure they will have a space somewhere.  

Butterflies love to flutter from one plant to another while being protected from wind. The north-western wind will find a barrier with our maples, firs, and elderberries. I will increase the barrier with two extra fruit trees which will be planted later in what is now designed as our wild flower area. In addition, they prefer flowers in several heights, like in steps. Finally, the more species of flowers, the more butterflies and species one will attract. 

Mandala flower bed almost ready to sow

The challenge was to create the bed and sow the seeds before the summer. I did not opt for a mulch layer, because that would take to much time to decompose and make the soil right to sow. We simply removed the grass surface. All the grass sods were used for our hedgehog hill, which I will show in another post.  

During the past months, I had carefully collected some seeds beneficial for butterflies. I made a first sketch to place all the lower flowers on the south-east side and making the mandala gradually higher towards the north-western side.   



Sketch in my notebook of the future flower mandala

The plants I have selected for the mandala are the following:

- spring vetch (1)
- flax (2)
- red clover (3)
- flax, different from (2) and slightly higher variety (4)
- cornflower (5)
- common vervain (Verbena officinalis, ijzerhard, læge-jernurt)(6)
- sea holly (Eryngium) (7)
- echinops (8)
- borage (9)
- purple coneflower, (echinacea purpurea) (10)
- cornflower (11)
- white coneflower, (Echinacea alba) (12)
- yarrow (a. millefolium) (13)
- echinops ritro (14)

echinacea purpurea, photo: ©Janus

The numbers between brackets correspond with the area numbers in the drawing above. I also have added some white clover in those beds where the seeds were scarcely spread. I hope this will keep the unwanted weed, like grass, at bay. Around the entire mandala, my daughter planted giant sunflowers which will follow the sun with their pretty heads. I doubt the bed will ever look like the drawing...

verbena officinalis, photo:©Janus

I admit, I have no idea, whether this flower bed will be successful. There are many challenges in leaving such a freshly sown bed on its own for two months: drought, birds, slugs, cats, and invasive weeds, just to mention a few. But there is nothing I can do about it and I will just need to let go! With a bit of luck, I might be able to sit in the midst of my butterflies and flowers during the summer months. In my mind, I am already sitting there...