Thread | Brutkey

This outstanding article related to #NativePlants has many useful points for preparing for the next growing season and improving the #environment in general. I'll pull out some main ideas in a threaded series this week.

First up: Insects are the primary conduits for energy to get from plants to animals. And lowly caterpillars turn out to be the most important.

Our job, gardeners, is to plant more caterpillar food!

1/🧵

#Gardening #Urbanism #Biodiversity #Science

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-you-should-cultivate-native-plants-in-your-garden-180982823/

Per the article☝️, the population of American birds has declined by 30% since the 1970s. To help, you must support the bugs that the birds need to reproduce. But only 14% of #NativePlants generate 90% of the yummy caterpillars that drive food webs!

So are you planting these?

At the link provided, you can pull up a list of what you need to plant in your ecoregion. Scroll down and click on your list.

2/🧵
#Gardening #Environment #Birds #Biodiversity #Science

https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/keystone-plants-by-ecoregion