Linwood Arboretum

06/13/2026

06/11/2026

https://www.today.com/video/how-to-rewild-your-lawn-and-restore-its-biodiversity-264877125702?fbclid=IwZnRzaASX6mRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeHjLOr3OSMOaWr71DYlnffGuQVZWtsGiBvAlAPprynRCdmfVMxwM_2Z1hGaQ_aem_cRDIStDkcx36yGsEC3lUTA

Joanna Hall, CEO of Wilder Places, and Murray Fisher, a partner in the company, join TODAY to discuss the Less Lawn More Life Campaign to restore nature to our own backyards. They also share how small changes you can make to rewild and restore nature to your lawn.

06/10/2026

https://shorelocalnews.com/gardeners-eagerly-anticipate-27th-little-gardens-club-summer-tour/?fbclid=IwZnRzaASWKTRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEel_HFdfsq7qL1htDidHGEWEPSd6OEpiygsnVz0I7AVzOdwSb-42-9qODIezg_aem_fUSz0xF4yXhWJpopDws6Ng

Continuing their long tradition, The Little Gardens Club of Atlantic City has announced its 27th annual summer garden tour to be held Sunday, July 12, from 9

06/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17ei6d7S6a/?mibextid=wwXIfr

You don't need to save the Amazon. You need to save the 40 feet behind your house.

Your backyard IS the ecosystem.

THE MATH:

→ There are 40+ million acres of lawn in the US
→ That's larger than any national park
→ If even 10% were converted to native habitat: game-changing
→ Your yard is part of a network — or a gap in one

WHO LIVES THERE:

→ A toad: your yard is its ENTIRE range
→ A box turtle: may live in your yard for 20-50 YEARS
→ A hummingbird: stops at your flowers during a 2,000-mile migration
→ A chimney swift: nests in your chimney, returns from Peru every spring
→ A firefly: survives or goes extinct based on YOUR pesticide decisions

THE MINIMUM:

→ 1 native tree (oak = 500+ caterpillar species = bird food)
→ 3-5 native flowering plants (bloom spring through fall)
→ 1 water source (dish, birdbath, or small pond)
→ 1 brush pile or leaf litter area (shelter)
→ Zero pesticides

CERTIFY IT:

→ National Wildlife Federation: Certified Wildlife Habitat
→ Audubon: Plants for Birds program
→ Xerces Society: Pollinator Habitat certification
→ Put the sign in your yard. Let your neighbors ask questions.

You are not too small to matter.

Your yard is someone's entire world.

Make it count.

05/28/2026

Ken is a Linwood boy

05/27/2026

TBT Memorial Day - Citizen of the year 2013. Allen Lacy🌳

05/26/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/18uCujgsBz/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Caterpillar availability in the eastern canopy peaks this week. The timing is not coincidence. Every nesting bird that feeds chicks is running the same supply chain.

The peak of caterpillar biomass in the oak canopy coincides almost exactly with the peak of nestling demand. Both events are triggered by the same cue — photoperiod and temperature — ensuring that the food is available when the chicks need it most.

The numbers: 🌿

A chickadee clutch of six requires roughly fifty thousand caterpillars in sixteen days.
A warbler clutch of four requires roughly nine thousand caterpillars.
A robin brood requires a combination of caterpillars and earthworms — over a hundred feeding trips daily.

The caterpillars are on native trees. Oak alone supports over five hundred caterpillar species. Cherry supports over four hundred. Willow supports over four hundred. A Bradford pear supports fewer than five.

If the tree in the yard is non-native, it produces almost no caterpillars. The birds nesting in or near that tree must fly farther to find food — burning more energy per trip, delivering less per chick, fledging lighter young with lower survival.

🐾 What this means right now:

- The caterpillars on the oak leaves are the food pipeline for every nesting bird on the block
- Spraying the oak for caterpillars removes the food supply that dozens of species depend on during peak demand
- The defoliation from caterpillars is temporary — healthy oaks releaf within weeks
- One native oak produces more nestling food than every ornamental on the block combined

The caterpillars peak this week. The chicks need them this week. The schedule is not a coincidence. It's co-evolution.

05/22/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1F2eReK7vA/?mibextid=wwXIfr

A neighborhood full of trees and no songbirds often has the wrong trees.

Native oaks, cherries, willows, and birches host caterpillars in numbers that ornamental trees can't match. Nearly all backyard songbirds feed their chicks on caterpillars during nesting season — regardless of what the adults eat the rest of the year.

A single mature native oak in a yard can host more caterpillar species than every ornamental on the block combined. The caterpillars don't harm healthy trees — the herbivory is part of the system.

🌿 What the food chain needs:

- At least one native canopy tree — oak, cherry, willow, birch, or maple
- Understory native shrubs that host additional species
- No broad-spectrum pesticide on the canopy during nesting season
- Patience — a newly planted native tree takes a few years to build its caterpillar community

The trees look the same from the street. The food web underneath them is completely different 🌿

05/15/2026

A walk through our garden this evening