Backyard Habitats

Assisting fellow members of our community in creating backyard habitats and butterfly friendly gardens is the third essential part of our mission. 

Plant Donation Application

We donate plants to parks, schools, nonprofits, organizations, and HOAs.

Tours

We offer tours of our habitat May through September. We can accommodate groups of 15 or fewer people.

Yard Consultation

We can help you create your own backyard butterfly and moth habitat.

Caring for Our Habitat

We acknowledge that human activity, such as climate change and habitat destruction, has had a detrimental effect on numerous insect species resulting in population endangerment and extinction. We thoughtfully care for our habitat by following Nature’s lead, providing limited intervention only when deemed beneficial. We respect all organisms within our habitat as they all have an important role or function.

What is a backyard habitat?

A backyard habitat is an intentionally created space where plants and animals are provided a place to live and grow. The space must do all of the following:

provide food

In our habitat we use a combination of primarily native (and some non-native) plants as sources of food for a variety of insects, birds, and other small animals.

Provide Shelter

Insects, birds, and other small animals need safe places to live. Trees, shrubs, and weedy grass are home to hundreds of different species. In our habitat we mow only every 6-8 weeks. In the fall we allow leaves to remain as they are shelters for caterpillars and insects. 

Sustainable

We are "lazy" or "messy" gardeners. We clean up our habitat in the late spring after most of our perennial plants have broken dormancy. This allows us to easily identify returning or missing plants as well as to allow hibernating insects to emerge from overwintering.

Habitat Stats

species
1

of caterpillars hand raised

species
1

of butterflies sighted in the habitat

species
1

of moths sighted in the habitat

species
1 +

of native and beneficial non-native plants

acres
1

of butterfly & moth habitat

© 2024 Backyard Butterflies

Made with ❤ with Elementor​

© 2024 Backyard Butterflies

Made with ❤ with Elementor​

Contact US

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Text

(919) 241-7865
Our preferred method of contact

Text

Our preferred method of contact

Email

hello@backyardbutterflies.org
When a slower response is ok

Email

When a slower response is ok

Phone

(919) 241-7865
Please leave a voice message

Phone

Please leave a voice message

FINAL DAYS TO SHOP
May 25 - 27
12 - 5 PM

Plants are available for in-person shopping only at our location in Hillsborough.