Hallberg Butterfly Gardens

This is a truly special place. We saw and learned about butterflies, caterpillars, dragon flies, and the plants that form their habitat. It’s wondrous what one person can create through incremental effort and dedication. Many thanks to Miss Hallberg for sharing her lovely garden. We’ll be back again soon!

How sweet it is!!! Well worth the day trip from CCC. I was getting a little turned around heading the direction, so I called the women, and she guided. It’s best to call prior to a visit, highly reccomend that.
Butterflies are beautiful, I’d have to say that they are my favorite insect. Just the colors and the whole process of going from being a caterpillar to a butterfly.
This is basically along a dirt road.
One thing you definetely want to keep in mind, when there are butterflies and flowers there also tends to be BEE’S, so be careful, no pun intended.
Have a great time when you come here in this gorgeous gardens, butterflies are amazing, and the women that runs this place rocks.

Sweet spot, beautiful butterflies, but the grounds are wildly overgrown and need a lot of care. My 2 young children really enjoyed discovering the butterflies and caterpillars.

I have been wanting to photograph different species of butterflies and was trying to find a place the could produce as many photo opportunities as possible. I found the Hallberg Butterfly Gardens website and called to make an appointment. I spoke to Louise and she was happy to fit me into my schedule even when one of their tours was full. Louise took the time to talk to me about everything that was going on at the gardens. She also filled me in on the Swift birds that were trying to build nests in her Chimney. Then I ran into Leah and she was a delight — very helpful and knowledgeable — she guides the tours. She suggested that if I was taking photos I should get ahead of the group and do a self guided tour. I ended up with a lot of nice photos and they can be viewed on
. This is a great place to bring kids to learn about nature in general.

We were so looking forward to the Butterfly Garden, but alas it was a disappointment. We only saw about 6 butterflies which by no means is that the owner’s fault… more of a statement about the environment.
Louise was our guide and this is where she has lived all of her life. She is well into her 90s and it is very impressive that she is still able to provide tours. However, she was unable to answer many of our questions due to poor hearing and eyesight.
I’m sure the gardens were very impressive at one point, but that is no longer the case. Much of the vegetation is overgrown, the trails are no longer well defined and you had to be very careful where you were walking.

I want to be Louise Hallberg when I grow up. She started her garden in 1990 when she was in her 70’s and she is still going strong, planning a complete ecosystem and planting habitat in her 90’s.
Louise isn’t just tracking butterflies. She also tracks the birds (quail, woodpeckers), foxes, bees, dragonflies — the whole system. She has all the statistics on how many butterflies she saw, what kind and which years. The downward trend in the number of butterflies in her garden, which get additional habitat planted each year, is alarming.
If you like native plants, native fauna and/​or native systems, please consider making an appointment to visit this garden while Louise makes it available.
Don’t let the Financial Times scary article, «A Matter of Good Breeding» by Sophy Roberts, 6÷6÷2010, come true on butterflies only being the province of the very rich.

Louise Hallberg is amazing and makes a side trek to Hallberg Butterfly Gardens worth it if you are in the area. Louise took a group of 10 ladies this past weekend meandering, telling us about the different types of butterflies that frequent her sanctuary and the impact of global warming. Louise older than 90 (according to the brochure and website), and despite her arthritic hands and slow pace, she’s engaging and much more spry that you would think. She pointed to small monarch eggs (the size of a period) on the back of some milkweed.
That said, it’s not the gardens you would imagine from a story book, with butterflies floating everywhere. The reality a lot of the plants that the various species of butterflies prefer are not so beautiful. It’s not huge, but I can imagine in the spring it’s much more full of life.
You can do a self-​guided tour, but it was much more pleasurable to have Louise guide us. We did call in advance for our group of 10 and she was quite flexible with our ever changing schedule.
Be aware that because it’s set up for butterflies other pollinators (such as bees) are plentiful. If you have allergies to either bees or pollen, you might want to be forewarned.
I imagine this would be great for kids, it was a nice place to sit and look around and Louise can tell stories of the wild turkeys that have come onto the property as well as the Anise butterfly that wouldn’t nest in the fennel plants some professor planted.
A review of the website shows that there are no prices — as it is entirely up to you to make a donation. For our group, the suggested donation was $ 25. A bargain, considering this gem of a lady and a place.

This place is a total gem. I wont give it a 5 star because although it is lovely, it is small and type of side trip, not a all day or even half day adventure. 1 hour tour is nice, but limiting. Nothing like going some place you can spend endless hours at enjoying what sparks your fancy. So now that we have that out of the way.
Took a tour with a group of homeschoolers recently. It was delightful and the weather was perfect. We identified 9 types of butterflies and observed eggs on the pipevines. Was a delightful time had by all I do believe. Our group was too large and the age range too vast. That made the discussions a bit juvinile for my already out of the little kid mode and onto the teen mode.
We will go back before winter though. Nice. One note, even though we did not have Louise as our docent, she is still there giving tours at 92 she stated she was. Very cool indeed.