Epic Rose Garden Adventures - Another Thousand Worms Arrive

This cartoon was suggested by a WELS leader, who abandoned ship.

One reader asked me to write more about gardening and Sassy. No, he was not a DP or Mark Schroeder. They no longer write to me.

My first post was going to be about my new rose garden, but I had a backlog of material. I consider doctrinal posts an obligation of the teaching office. Creation, gardening, and our wonder-dog- those are fun posts.

Last week I dug in the rose garden and that was easy. I was able to buy eight bare-root roses for $70 - free shipping. I have sticker shock with roses. The ones I want to buy are $25-30 each, so getting a bunch of those was out of the question. I have bought from Jackson and Perkins before, just to get their bargains at the end of buying season, such as tree roses for $10 each. A tree rose is normally $50.

Digging in the roses was easy. I bypass a lot of advice from others about soaking them first. I cut back the roots, surround them with good soil, and start watering. Mine were already out of dormancy (hence the sale) so I only wanted to give them a good place to form their permanent roots. The key to plant health are those delicate root hairs that extend from the root and carry out essential functions, drawing in water, minerals, and nutrition.

Jostling the roots will harm the root hairs, so I want the roses firmly planted and watered generously. I used Miracle Gro potting soil because my mother had great results with that and her roses. In fact, everyone stopped to see how she did it.

My helper and I covered the entire bed with newspapers, covering the newsprint with black wood-shreds mulch. Earthworms love newsprint and rotting organic matter. They also love shade and damp soil. My purpose was to establish the ideal wormhaven so they would work for me night and day.

Uncle Jim sent me 2,000 worms since the first supply of 1,000 never arrived. That marked one of those rare moments when a gardener had too many earthworms. I distributed them all over the yard again, putting a generous amount on the roses (a second time) and the compost pile (ditto). The next day, the worm mulch was empty and the worms were far below at work. 

Composting works this way. Nitrogen loving bacterial heat it up and break it down initially. Mold also helps. A pile of green grass will get quite hot but a pile of dead leaves (low in nitrogen) will reduce much more slowly. Nevertheless, I have two years of leaves in a mesh-surrounded pile, which keeps sinking downward as creatures work their magic. 

Creatures from below invade the compost, according to their needs and the temperature of the pile.

The purpose of the finished compost is to distribute organic material, earthworms, worm manure, and worm eggs to the gardening areas. My heavy clay soil is packed with minerals but needs organic matter and worm tunneling to lighten it for roots of the plants.

Where does mulch go?

Organic mulch (grass, leaves, sawdust, shredded wood, newsprint) will decompose from the action of soil creatures, notably earthworms. Wood does not take away nitrogen, but soaks it up chemically and lets it go later. 

The disappearing of the mulch means the worms are feeding in the dark, which they love, and enjoying the  moisture, which benefits all soil creatures and the plants.

Mulch almost eliminates weeding. If a few weeds break out into the sunlight, I pull them up and let them add to the mulch layer on top. A wood mulch is attractive and useful, holding down soil in strong winds. 

I used 10 large bags of mulch for eight roses. My neighbor came over to tell me his wife now really wants a rose garden. She visited the new garden soon after and loved it. He noted that he had rototilled the area for the previous resident. No wonder the initial digging was so easy.

Solar Lights and Storms

I had four solar lights left from Arizona. I have been using them in the back yard. Now they are planted in the rose garden. We have a little porch, cement floor, roof above, adjacent to the roses. My wife Chris has already planned relaxing time out there with our cul-de-sac neighbors, Sassy, and me - but not all at once. It is more of a two persons and a dog porch.

The solar lights illuminate for a few hours after sunset. Another one lights at a very low level until activated by movement. Then it goes on for a period of time.

We had our first sod-soaking storm after the roses were planted. The timing was perfect, since rain brings down nitrogen compounds that green up the grass and activate plants. The heavy rain also settled the soil around the roses. We have a second storm on the docket today. The roses have leafed out in green and will soon grow fast.

That has me trimming the tree to increase their sunlight. I find roses love morning sun and afternoon shade. 

A gardener only has to observe the infinite dependencies built into Creation by the Creating Word - "All things were made by Him and nothing that was made, was made apart from Him." John 1 Jackson Revision Version

Gardeners do almost no work, no matter how much they complain. They may contribute 1%. The rest is gracefully accomplished by the energy of the sun, the washing and regeneration of the rain, the soil renewal and recycling of the creatures underground.