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| Last summer's roses benefited from warm weather and plenteous rain. |
Here are some inexpensive tools for gardening. Some are free - examples of recycling.
We throw our cardboard boxes out - the back door. Flattened boxes are ideal for blocking weed growth. They need to stay in place at first, so we use water jugs and small logs to hold them down. At the end of summer, birds have pooped various unwelcome plants into the soil - fertilized in advance - to wreck a future garden. I have one area reserved for Hostas, and pine needles keep that mostly weed free. Another area is saved for the bird feeding area. There we get lots of Morning Glory plants plus various weeds from cheap bird food (that I do not use).
We used gallon water jugs for a long time, for making coffee and certain foods. When they were empty, I filled them with tapwater for weights and for emergency water. We soon had 20 gallons of water in the backyard. Twice creatures have chewed into the plastic to drink the water jugs dry, even though I keep kiddie pools with water in the backyard. Nevertheless, I am pleased they had some relief from thirst, even if they were trash pandas (raccoons).
When I mulch with cardboard or newspapers, small logs and water jugs are handy and mobile for keeping the mulch in place.
I also get heavily mulched areas in the Wild Garden that begin growing grassy weeds. All I do is throw cardboard on them and weigh the mass down with logs and bottles. The weeds and wood products become fertilizer. Logs always promote beneficial fungus in the soil
Small logs also help in propping up new plants that want to lean over. No sticks for tying up plants? Gently roll a log or two against them to help straighten them in the early stages of growth.
When my supply of small logs became a burden for the weed crew working the front yard, they gathered them and used the extras for firewood.
The rotting of a log is fascinating. When a hardwood log is cut, the bark slowly pulls away. I use the bark for mulch and beneficial creatures' shade (toads, soil creatures). When chunks fall from hardwood trees, they are already well rotted, lightweight, and full of holes. Sometimes it is like picking up a fragile chunk of sawdust barely stuck together. That is a good indication of the work of Creation in reclaiming the elements. Bacteria does the rotting of juicy, soft tissue, but fungus has incredible power in eating away wood products. Those wood products are moved to plant roots in exchange for the carbon fungus must have to grow.
My favorite log fell from the maple, full of holes from various animals and rotting. I keep it near the water faucet to facilitate the rot. Every log is a soil-fertilizer station, a creature shelter, and a bird feeder. The same log that feeds the creatures of rot will attract those animals that prey upon the creatures of rot.
How can anyone observe these things without recognizing the Creation, engineering, and management of God?
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| These two collars are much larger than the ones I am using. |
Rose Collars
Mrs. Ichabod asked about this post, so I mentioned low cost tools for the garden. She said, "Be sure to mention rose collars."
They just came and I already installed them on some Crepe Myrtle starts. Each collar has four holes and two snaps to put through them to form the collar. I can see various benefits from them:
- Protection from nibbling rabbits and electric weed-eaters.
- Help in keeping them growing straight.
- Insulation against bitter, dry, cold weather.
- Funnel to feed organic matter to the plant until spring.
Two Crepe Myrtles came with bonus plants so I could grow three colors that merge into one bush. I used gardener's tape, a thin plastic tape, to gently pull the plants together. The collar will keep the parts together while they form one plant, one rootball, one glorious Crepe Myrtle.
I bought a few bags of Peat Humus (Stinky Peat) to pour into each collar. The organic material keeps the plant warm and also works into the soil during the fall, winter, and early spring. The top layer will be additional insulation/food in the form of leaves and wood mulch.
Gardeners should mulch heavily just to see how much food the soil will devour over the winter. I have been knee-deep in leaves in many parts of our yard - where we put dozens of extra bags. I have never cleaned them up in the spring. Instead, by summer, they are all gone, reduced to soil food by mites, earthworms, slugs, and other recycling creatures.
My first winter mulching adventure in this yard was aimed at the sickly Crepe Myrtle near the mailbox. Although it stood in the sun, which CMs love, the bush was not impressive. I began building pyramids of organic matter under it -
- Extra bags of mushroom compost - a nice name for manure.
- Piles of wet leaves.
- Clumps of grass from underneath the mower - mower manure.
- Clippings and flowers from the bush.
No matter what I put there or how high the leaf pyramid was, the food flattened out and disappeared. The Crepe Myrtle bloomed unlike any other in the neighborhood.
When a mole discovered the unbelievable riches of earthworms under the bush, he made food runs under it until the entire base was turned over by his digging. No gardener could do that so gently and effectively. Rather than curse his work, I watched it develop.
Organic matter is the least expensive and most effective tool for gardening. Neighbors gather autumn leaves and put them in neat, green bags to be picked up. Thanks. Supply stores sell chemical fertilizer for tons of money - no thanks - but organic bags for very little. Stinky Peat is only $1.65 a bag, for 40 pounds.
I can get an endless supply of cardboard and newspaper from the neighborhood and beyond. Once we raided a construction dumpster full of gigantic cardboard boxes. The boxes literally carpeted the Wild Garden, which was previously grassy, and turned it into a leaf-covered area with cardboard beneath. The only cost was labor and my dignity. My helper and I laughed as we carted the material home.
"There is no room in the car for me!"
GJ - "OK. Walk home. The cardboard must come first." I was kidding. We drove back laughing, twice, from a few blocks away.
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| Calladiums in the shade make the Crepe Myrtle that much more colorful. |
