Local authors, Lindsay Gray and Steve Woodhall, have just released their beautifully-illustrated and informative new book, Gardening for Butterflies – Planning and planting an insect-friendly garden in South Africa.
Gray is a well-known member of the Hillcrest community and is principal of The School of Garden Design, South Africa’s longest-serving private garden design school. Her school offers regular in-house courses on a variety of gardening skills as well as a successful correspondence programme to gardeners worldwide.
Woodhall lives in Gillitts with his wife, Jayne, and their three dogs. He is a renowned lepidopterist and is President of the Lepidopterist Society of Africa.
They decided to write the book as most of the books concerning butterflies have, to date, taken the form of field guides only. They identified a gap in the market for a book that would offer practical guidance to gardeners as to how to create a variety of different habitats for butterflies to enjoy that include both food and nectar plants. The book also showcases gardens around South Africa that were designed to attract butterflies.
“This book not only demonstrates basic garden design principles, it illustrates a practical scenario where I redesigned a section of Steve and Jayne’s garden. Steve is delighted that both the species varieties and numbers of species have increased dramatically in his garden since its transformation,” said Gray.
Neither are novice authors. Woodhall has authored and co-authored six other books on butterflies, including the Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa and the Pocket Guide: Butterflies of South Africa, and this is Gray’s third book. She co-authored the original and first revision of Making Sense of Garden Design and authored A Sense of Space: The Gardens of Jan Blok.
The book took about a year to compile and most of Steve’s weekends revolved around travelling around the country, sourcing butterflies that he could record with his camera. The book showcases 95 garden butterflies and moths.
Woodhall said, “The hardest part of the book was getting all the life history material together in time – eggs, larvae, pupae and adult, as well as the correct host plant.”
Gray added, “As with any book that is heavily weighted by images, this is always the most laborious part. The text is easy as we are both skilled in our respective disciplines, but to get all the photographs together takes a while.”
For Woodhall, the best part about writing the book was being a part of the planning and planting of his own garden, then seeing it come alive during the project and taking some of the best pictures in the actual garden itself.
For Gray it was working with and learning from Woodhall, who is an expert in his field, and being able to pool their knowledge to create a book for enthusiastic gardeners.
“There were no egos involved, just a passion for our respective disciplines and a willingness to share our knowledge. I also enjoyed transforming Steve’s garden with the help of my colleague, Neville Chapman, into a garden that he and his wife can now enjoy.”
They have already received positive feedback about the book and will definitely consider working together again on another book.
Gray said, “Collaborative efforts are always fun and we both enjoyed this journey tremendously.” Woodhall added, “I would definitely do another project with Lindsay.”
The book retails for R230 and is available from most bookstores, or visit www.randomstruik.co.za. (https://www.randomstruik.co.za/books/gardening-for-butterflies-/5824) or visit their stand at the Sustainable Living Fair at the Durban Exhibition Centre from 14 to 16 August.
