Grow a Butterfly Nursery

Gottcha! Butterfly Nurseries are also known as Nettle Patches, which don't sound as exciting. We know you might not like nettles but don't leave just yet... hear us out...

Nettles are absolutely essential for butterflies. A butterfly needs to lay its eggs on a leaf. These eggs will hatch into tiny caterpillars which will eat the leaf to grow. However, they can't just eat any leaf, they need very specific leaves. Each butterfly has its own special leaf, called its food plant.

The Nettle is the specific food plant for some of the most gorgeous, amazing, beautiful butterflies: Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Red Admiral and Peacock. Therefore, without nettles we simply wouldn't have these butterflies. Nettles = Beautiful Butterflies.

So, how can the school help? We know nettles sting so we don't expect you to put them in window boxes or in the school yard! Simply allow a nettle patch to grow in a quiet area; perhaps the corner of a field or along a hedge - somewhere the children don't go very often. There you have it - a simple, free butterfly nursery for your school! Also, perhaps you could make a simple sign to tell everyone what you're doing so the nettles don't get the chop!

The Nettles will also attract other beneficial insects such as ladybirds as well as hungry birds looking for seeds and aphids.

Comma

Nettle patch

Red Admiral

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell