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| I admit to calling this one Stinkin' Lincoln, but only in admiration for its powerful fragrance. Nothing makes a gardener feel better than a rose growing like Jack's beanstalk. |
Our strange autumn meant leaves were on the trees late, and few people gathered them in their green bags to leave on the curb. Our nursery owner nearby probably felt the same way I did. He admitted to using his truck to gather them all the previous winter, the opposite of the milk route his father ran. That little dairy farm is adjacent to our cul-de-sac and now displays a wonderful, organic, flourishing, tempting nursery. What we called "the park" is the well maintained grassy area that once supported the dairy herds.
Last week our helper asked his neighbor for work in gathering the leaves, knowing how much I wanted them. Our wild garden was paved with cardboard all winter, and the Dogpatch look was difficult to ignore. Besides that, the more organic material ingested by soil creatures, the better the plants would grow.
So we ended up with a dozen large leaf bags to haul away in the Icha-boat, our luxury pick-up, featuring leather seats, AC, and the largest trunk in the Free World. I raised the issue of double-dipping, being paid to gather leaves and then to scatter them a block away. We laugh a lot while plotting these projects. Mr. Gardener did not seem to approve of the Wild Garden. He looked over the fence and asked, "Do you have a plan or are you making it up as you go along?"
Roughly half the backyard will be devoted to plants for birds, hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees.
The project reminds me of a Lutheran pastor who seemed acutely embarrassed that I wrote a gardening book about earthworms. In the course of writing that little book, which began in Midland, Michigan, I gained a lot of knowledge about plants and creatures in the garden, a micro-world far more full of wonders than the places so many spend thousands to visit.
What is embarrassing about the doctrine of Creation and its implications for gardening, agriculture, and the Gospel message of the Scriptures? Martin Luther wrote in his Genesis Commentary about Creation, mice and their fascinating little paws.
If someone does not believe in the power and efficacy of the Word, then he does not believe in Creation. If that is lacking, anything said about the Gospel Promises, the ministry, the Sacraments, and evangelism will be hollow and superficial. That is precisely why so much writing on the Net is insipid, having no substance.
I have a project to finish up, then the new book to start - Creation Gardening - which will focus on roses. If someone can grow roses, which are so easy to grow, he can grow all the other plants as well. Most writing about roses makes them seem too difficult to begin, but that is the result of old fables being constantly recycled to sell books.
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| I dropped off roses at the college, including this one, Falling in Love, one staffer's favorite. We attended her marriage the same year. |
