Butterfly gardening is the practice of attracting beautiful butterflies to your garden by growing common plants and flowers that they use for food and nectar. This fun and wonderfully simple activity will bring color, light, and beauty to your garden and home. With the relaxing and rewarding qualities of this outdoor hobby, it’s not hard to see why it's sweeping the nation and growing in popularity.

How to Create a Butterfly Garden is a complete, step-by-step guide to gardening for butterflies. You’ll learn about:

• The butterfly life cycle, habitats, and behaviors
• Choosing and obtaining food and nectar sources
• Designing your garden
• Options for country, suburban, and city gardens
• Fifty common garden butterflies and the plants they like
• Butterfly observation and conservation

This guide will teach you everything you need to get started—whether you’re a suburban resident, the owner of a small urban garden, an apartment dweller, or a keeper of a country estate, you can enjoy frequent butterfly visits to your garden or window box. The key, Tekulsky believes, is learning some basic knowledge of butterfly characteristics and behavior and knowing how to meet the needs of the butterfly species most common in your neighborhood.

Not only is butterfly gardening one of the easiest ways to enjoy these enchanting creatures, but it’s also a wonderful way to help conserve natural butterfly populations for generations to come. Learn how to create your own beautiful butterfly garden today!

If you’re interested in homesteading, livestock, natural health, gardening, DIY projects, renewable energy, or cooking, you don’t want to miss this issue! Mother Earth News has compiled more than 45 articles into The Best of Mother Earth News, 3rd Edition to help guide you through whatever project you’re currently tackling or that you plan to take on in the future. From learning how to grow aquaponics aquaculture to building a beehive and keeping bees to making homegrown olive oil, this issue is here for you. The information in this issue is perfect for sitting down and reading cover to cover or for reference when you’re starting a new project.

The Best of Mother Earth News, 3rd Edition will help you create a backyard edible ecosystem, protect and shelter your goats, make your farm or garden certified sustainable, grow lettuce in the winter, build a stone culvert, and so much more!

Other articles in this issue include:

• Small Homes Are Just the Right Size: These homeowners downsized their lives to inhabit hand-built spaces that are easier and cheaper to maintain.
• Homestead Technology for Disaster Preparedness: Add these dynamic tools to your emergency kit. They’ll boost camping trips and come in handy during catastrophes.
• A Little Winter Greenhouse: One reader shares how she created a small urban greenhouse.
• Brew Backyard Root Beer: With a little experimentation, you can learn how to make your own version of this historic, herb-infused soda using foraged ingredients.
• 5 Garden Myths: Unlock your garden’s full potential by learning to avoid and amend these common mistakes.
• Masonry Heaters: These super-efficient fireplaces produce long-lasting warmth.