If you have planted a variety trees, shrubs and flowers to attract different butterflies to your garden, you not only want to be able to easily see the butterflies yourself. You probably also want to share the glorious site of your beautiful visitors with friends and family.
Garden paths made with sturdy paving stone make all your flowers, butterflies and other garden features more accessible. They create firm, even footing for those who are not so steady on their feet, like elderly friends and relatives, and for toddlers, too. Good garden paths allow the use of a walker or wheelchair.
Paving stones also make it easy to use a wheelbarrow to carry topsoils, new plants and trees, and other garden tools and supplies where they are needed. If you are like most gardeners, maintenance and updates are at least an annual task. In some climates, they are need quite frequently. One thing that will not require much maintenance is a path made of stone garden pavers.
Paved stone paths keep your feet dry after rainstorms. They also provide safer footing than grass, which can often be slippery when wet with rain or dew.
That makes paved paths a safety feature. And unlike gravel paths, stone pavers do not sink down in to the wet soil or wander off into the grass where they can damage—or be thrown by—lawn mowers.
And that brings us to the importance of good garden lighting. While butterflies may retire for the night, their shyer cousins, the moths, come out after dark to many of the same plants that attract butterflies.
Moths can be quite spectacular. Now that you have good, safe paths to walk on, why not show off your nighttime beauties to human guests?
Garden lighting is important for security, but a well designed landscape lighting installation can do much. much more. It can highlight your garden’s best features with what appears to be natural moonlight, creating a beautiful, romantic ambiance. It can also provide indirect lighting on plants that attract night-flying moths such as the spectacular luna moth, which is breathtakingly beautiful and rarely seen by people these days.
Now that you have created a wonderful environment for butterflies or moths-–or if you are still in the planning stage—shouldn’t you make sure that all those gorgeous creatures can be easily seen up close?
Of course, you should. And with beautiful garden paths and well-planned garden lighting, you can.
Tags: paved garden paths, Butterfly Gardening, garden safety, garden lighting, night-flying moths, plants that attract butterflies, garden design, making it easier to watch butterflies and moths in your garden
Before you even begin your butterfly garden, find out which species of butterflies are in your area. Consider taking an exploratory hike around your location with a butterfly identification book. This may take a little extra time and effort, but the results will be worth it.
Delight your family and visitors with beautiful butterflies, but be sure to create a safe habitat for them. If you have cats, rethink your plans, because it would be a shame to attract these lovely insects to their death.
