It's late fall, early winter.
Which of these chores should you be doing at this time?

A) Till the garden.
B) Cut back all plants and perennials to ground level.
C) Remove all dead plant material, rake, shred and bag for trash removal.
D) Grab your favorite beverage and watch football.

While almost all gardening books will recommend answers A, B and C, my "correct" answer is actually "D". . . "Grab your favorite beverage and watch football."

To non-butterfly gardening people, butterflies are a magic act of nature. They magically appear in spring and vanish in winter. What they don't realize is that many butterflies stay in the garden over the winter. They may hide under leaf litter or attach their chrysalises to a dead perennial. They can overwinter in the egg, larva, pupa or adult stage depending on the species. When you're cleaning up the garden, doing activities A, B, and C, you are probably throwing away butterflies in some form or another.

One day I was watching the TV show "Victory Garden" and in one perennial garden they were visiting that fall, the person in charge said, "I go around with a string trimmer or brush cutter with a blade and whack everything down to ground level. That's all raked away and put into the compost heap or through a shredding machine and then I compost that. In the latter part of the season, the garden is an absolute graveyard." Graveyard is an appropriate term for this particular garden. Any butterflies, larva or chrysalises which might have decided to hang around until next year will end up diced and sliced. Please fight off that urge for cleanliness and perfection until late next spring.

Remember Felix and Oscar of the "Odd Couple" play, movie and TV show?
Felix Ungar was the Neatnick and Oscar was the Slob. Which do most gardeners prefer - neat and tidy or sloppy and messy? Neat and tidy is usually always preferred. It makes us feel good to see everything all cleaned up, no leaf litter on the ground and no stray twigs lying about. The problem is that butterflies use litter, twigs and leaves to hide in and form their chrysalises. So every time you start tidying up the garden, remember you may be throwing out the butterflies with the trash. I saw five generations of Black Swallowtails last year in my yard. That means five sets of chrysalises were hanging somewhere during the year and it's usually not on their host plant. Black Swallowtail chrysalises even have the ability to blend in with their surroundings. They may be green on a green plant or brown on a twig.
This makes them extremely difficult to see in their natural setting.

Butterflies can even overwinter on the firewood you have piled up outside. So before you throw that log into the fire, you might give it a once over looking for butterflies and chrysalises. I'd even consider creating a log or brush pile in some corner of the garden where butterflies can overwinter. I bring my firewood into the garage, so that I'm sure butterflies aren't using it as a hibernation spot.

To sum up, now is the time to put away your shears, pruners, trimmers, shredders and rakes.
I admit, my garden looks messy during the winter, but I can relax with the knowledge that my butterflies are safe. Go ahead, grab your favorite beverage and watch a football game. You're not being lazy . .
. you're protecting butterflies for next spring.