My parents and their neighbours had plenty of flowers and suitable plants growing in their gardens. They live in a small tourist town in south west Ireland. I

My parents and their neighbours had plenty of flowers and suitable plants growing in their gardens. They live in a small tourist town in south west Ireland. I have vivid memories as a child of what was likely thousands of monarch butterflies every summer, probably until I was 10 or so, in and around the flowers and plants. Then then open pastures behind my parents house were bulldozed and a private housing estate was built and at the same time my parents also tarred their front drive. From then on the butterflies started to dwindle significantly. Those two events were the only great change in the immediate surroundings until twelve-or-so years later when a brutal winter killed a lot of the trees and plants. Never again have I see as many in a single place.