June 2022 Beauty Spot Awardee Jim Linder

Lauren Rush LIB Beauty Spot Committee with Jim Linder

Jim started his garden 7 years ago when he first moved into the Senator’s community in Lewes and as with most gardeners, it continues to be a work in progress. His goal has been to establish a Perennial Pollinator Garden, consisting mostly of native plants, that establishes a biodiverse environment that not only supports the various pollinators but also a variety of animals and insects including birds, butterflies, moths, bees, dragon flies along with other living creatures that all make up the environment in and around the soil such as worms and insects, toads and snakes. Being a member of the Lewes Beekeeping Club, he has an affinity for utilizing plants that benefit honey bees, but also benefit a wide range of native bees, those that are very small up to and including bumble bees.

To establish this biodiverse environment, it is important to provide food sources throughout the year. He avoids the use of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides and feed my gardens with organic materials, creating a microbiome that supports not only the plants but all supports the beneficial insects and microbes in the soil. His plantings include plants that support the animals and insects throughout all 4 seasons, with plants that bloom early in the spring, starting with the flowers from Hellebores, Laurels and Azaleas to Columbines and Primrose. Then both spring and early summer plants and flowers that provide pollen and nectar along with plants that produce seeds such as cone flowers and those flowers that bloom in the fall months. In addition, his garden also includes various bushes that produce berries that can feed the birds throughout the winter months. The garden also includes a fresh water source for the birds in all seasons and he maintains various dead or dying plant stems throughout the garden in the fall and winter to provide a home for various insects throughout the winter months.

Not only is it his pleasure to work in the garden, but he particularly enjoys sitting on the back patio or front porch and enjoy all the birds and insects that visit his garden during the day. These will include hummingbirds seeking nectar, gold finches and other finches eating the seeds from the flowers and blueberry bushes, various native bees, honey bees and bumble bees seeking pollen and nectar and small wasps drinking the dew from the leaves of the laurel bushes. He also enjoys the visits by a wide variety of butterflies and the occasional hummingbird moth that visit the flowers and the Monarch butterflies that leave their eggs on the milkweed plants where he then find various stages of caterpillars and their chrysalis waiting to erupt into a new, beautiful Monarch butterfly ready for its first flight.