There’s plenty to look forward to in the garden as the warmer months approach. Whether it’s harvesting fresh berries planted earlier in the season or watching brightly-coloured flowers coming into bloom, it’s a time of year where gardens transform and come to life.
There’s also plenty of pretty wildlife that you might start noticing in your garden. While some pests like slugs and snails can be a nuisance chomping their way through vulnerable plants, others are a more welcome addition – spotting butterflies fluttering around is one of the telltale signs summer is just around the corner. They’re not only a pretty addition to gardens either, as butterflies are important pollinators that help maintain the general health of plants.
There’s one plant in particular that butterflies flock to thanks to its feathery and aromatic leaves, and that’s dill.
The culinary herb often used to flavour a number of dishes, from fish to tzatziki, produces nectar-rich flowers that attract butterflies.
In particular, the Black Swallowtail, which is often found around the Norfolk Broads, and the Anise Swallowtail butterflies feed on dill leaves and lay their eggs on them in order to feed caterpillars.
If growing dill to your garden, it’s advised to keep the plants used for pollination separate to your own stash of herbs. An excellent host plant for butterflies, caterpillar eggs laid on dill’s leaves will usually hatch in just a few days.
Reaching around 3ft in height, dill’s soft feathery foliage can easily be added to most flowerbeds, either as a butterfly-friendly border mix or as part of a herb garden.
While it’s a short-lived plant, you can continue to sow seeds every two or three weeks.
To plant dill, the Royal Horticultural Society recommends adding the plant to a warm, sunny position with well-draining soil. If you sow the herb in small batches from now to mid-summer, it should last you through into the autumn months.
Mixing dill with other butterfly-friendly plants will make your garden an even more attractive choice for the pollinators, who also enjoy lavender, milkweed and marigolds, and invite different varieties of butterflies too.