Tuesday, April 11, 2017

New and Old Delights in the Garden

Tachinids look like small houseflies.
They turn larvae into nurseries for their babies,
who eat their way out of childhood, to the everlasting
regret of the host.

I planted elderberries and saw them develop great umbrellas of compound flowers, which turned into tiny black berries. One reader wants to grow them on a large scale on his farm. This year they rose up like sunflowers, and their habit of sending up new shoots may turn the backyard into an elderberry plantation.

Elderflowers turn into elderberries.

I bought two Shasta Daisies because they are reputed to host a wide variety of beneficial insects. Soon after, I saw a "housefly" on one bloom. But lo, that is no housefly. Put down the insecticide. It is a Tachinid. Most of the clan lay eggs inside insect larvae, providing fresh food for the hatching babies.

Beneficial insect plants are significant in the garden and yard, because almost all good insects attack pests when hatching, but feed from flower nectar and pollen when adults. Ladybugs attack pests as adults, too, but that is relatively rare, so I want beneficial insect feeding stations for the parents.

That is a fun world to watch, as Jessica Walliser wrote in her book. On a still, sunny day, bend over close to the flowers (roses, daisies, etc) and look for the Tachinid flies and miniature wasps (Ichneumon) and midget bees (Flower Flies). They are gathering food for themselves and scouting locations for their eggs.

The tiny Ichneumon wasp is the often overlooked
drone that attacks our insect enemies.

Whenever I cut roses for inside, the beneficial insects hover around the vases I perch on the Town Car hood, continuing their work and sometimes coming inside the house.

As I have written too many times to remember, the famous plants for beneficial insects will immediately host them. Last year I showed Almost Eden my gigantic Poison Hemlock, which was in bloom. He said, "It is doing its job. Look at all the ladybug larvae on the blooms." He was right - baby ladybugs, looking like alligators, were all over the blooms - but I did not want to become the gardener who spread Poison Hemlock around the neighborhood.

I found my order for Feverfew, named for its medicine, not for its blooms. Nothing spreads around bare spots in the yard like Feverfew, which is also a favorite for beneficial insects. I bought 5,000 seeds, all inside a tiny glassing envelop in the paper envelop. I told Mrs. Ichabod that I sneezed and planted 500 at once.

I will drop by a feed store and get some buckwheat, one of my favorite beneficial plants. Buckwheat will grow anywhere and bloom quickly -without me doing more than sowing the seeds. Various insects enjoy the low growing white flowers. The plants are so vigorous during their short lives than they can push out unwanted weeds.

Buckwheat on the Net

The Benefits of Growing Buckwheat

1 April 2011, written by Barbara Pleasant

One of the most important green manure crops is buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), which is not a grain but a fast-growing, semi-succulent plant that produces nutritious triangular seeds. Buckwheat deserves frequent sowing in any garden because it attracts hoverflies and other beneficial insects, suppresses weeds, and adds bulk to the compost pile. Small plantings of garden buckwheat are surprisingly easy to handle, too.

Battling Bugs with Buckwheat

Buckwheat flowers attract honeybees and other pollinators with their morning nectar flow, but they also support healthy populations of smaller beneficial insects. Mounting evidence suggests that blooming buckwheat give a significant boost to important beneficial species, particularly hoverflies (properly known as Syrphid flies but commonly called hoverflies because of their seemingly effortless ability to hover). On both sides of the Atlantic, researchers are finding that growing buckwheat nearby can deter pests of potato, broccoli, green beans, and other vegetable crops, in part by providing abundant food for female hoverflies. Most hoverfly larvae are too small to see without a magnifying glass, but they are voracious predators of aphids and other small, soft-bodied insects.

Organic growers who use buckwheat as a primary pest-prevention strategy have found that it’s important to grow buckwheat within about 20 feet (6 meters) of crop plants, which is easily done in a garden. Upright yet spindly, buckwheat plants have such shallow roots that they are easy to pull up with the flick of a wrist. A few buckwheat seeds sown among potatoes are known to confuse potential pests, and a broad band of buckwheat makes a fine beneficial backdrop for strawberries. Throughout the summer, I sow buckwheat in any spot bigger than a dinner plate that won’t be planted for a few weeks. With good weather, buckwheat can go from seed to bloom in a little over a month.

Growing Buckwheat to Control Weeds

Buckwheat’s fast germination makes it a top choice for smothering weeds. A few years ago, a section of my garden was home to a colony of field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), a formidable foe as weeds go. Field bindweed (often called creeping jenny) is a hardy perennial from Eurasia that winds itself around anything in its path and reproduces from root buds and seeds. But my field bindweed is now history thanks to a year of intensive cover cropping with buckwheat.

Taking Care of the New Crepe Myrtles

Crepe Myrtle - Queen's Lace Picotee

As I wrote before, I haul rainwater like a peasant. The best source is in the backyard, so I haul five-gallon buckets to the front where most of the roses are.

Today I visited the new Crepe Myrtles, pictured above. The first one is thriving. Two of the twigs were hard to spot. The last one was leafy but small. I knew they needed protection from me and others walking into them.

First I set up some cardboard squares around each stem. This blocks weed growth, holds in moisture, and helps mark them as future stars. Their big cousin is so heavily mulched that few weeds come up at all, and I have Lily-of-the-Valley and Calladiums for that area.

By weighing down the cardboard squares with little logs, I created a barrier for clumsy foot traffic - plus long term soil improvement. When I get shredded wood mulch for that last bit of lawn (now covered fitfully with cardboard pieces), I will sprinkle some on the cardboard squares.

Evaporation from the Wind
Using cardboard is an education in the effects of the wind. Naturally, every cardboard installment is followed by winds. But even when rain weighs down the cardboard, as I always hope, the cardboard dries out quickly from the wind and later from the sun. That is reason enough to mulch heavily, to hold in moisture and prevent soil erosion from the wind.

I have big fluffy, brilliantly colored blooms on the big Crepe Myrtle because I do not take its food and water needs for granted. The bush tolerates lack of rain - so does a cactus - but flourishes with extra water and thorough cold showers. A plant that sheds from a gardening hose spray needs the cold shower. No harm done and much appreciated. The same can be said for roses.

This is so common around town.
The Crepe Myrtle tolerates it, but that is no excuse.

The soaring branches and bright blooms tell me the bush needs food in the soil. I learned how much when I began putting extra manure (mushroom compost), grass clippings, and leaves underneath. Truly, the earth seemed to swallow the organic matter. So I feed the plant every winter, with the largest possible pile of wood mulch and autumn leaves on top of that, a pyramid of food for the cold season - snow, sleet, rain, and decomposition.

Since I had red wiggler earthworms at the base, the site attracted a mole last year. The feeding tunnels formed a perfect circle under the plant, the same zone where all the mulch was rotting down into the soil.

Natural Law
I am teaching graduate students in Old Testament about the Exodus this week.

The Ten Commandments are called Natural Law, because God commands what is good for us. These are universal truths found in all societies, all systems of law, based on Creation. In America's past, the law connected God and human behavior, but that has been removed by the activism of a few and the passivity of the majority.

The truly bad ideas about gardening are relatively new, also. I went to a gardening club where the speaker described how he spread pre-emergent toxins around his garden early each spring. He controlled weeds with poison, and the results probably look good to him. I did not want to sample his carrots or corn.

When gardening experts gave up on their modern cures, which always needed more expensive cures, they found that persistent problems simply went away.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Tombstones

One reader said I must take a lot of time to find photos.
I found this one in a few seconds.

My search reminded me of this one,
which someone else designed - quite appropriate for this year.
Mequon cornerstone - Grace alone, Scripture alone, Without faith.

Prophetic!

The ad Knapp Defense of Universal Objective Justification

The Calvinist translator used ambiguous language -
as WELS loves to say - "It caaaaan be understood correctly."
"Error loves ambiguities."
Now Lutherans top-dog each other with their extreme statements,
revealing the inherent weakness of the initial error:
guilt-free saints in Hell, etc.

One long-time family (and FB) friend thought this graphic was misleading. His fellow pastors are always asking him (but not me) what I am trying to say when I write about Universal Objective Justification, which is the Helen of Troy for the WELS-ELS-LCMS and ELCA leaders. I am emphasizing leaders because the historical documents show just the opposite, even in those synods.

We should have some kind of award for 100% of the Lutheran leaders endorsing the opposite of what Luther taught, just in time for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Following is the issue with the graphic above - The words are not Knapp's but the translator's, explaining what Knapp was trying to say. I have probably explained that a few dozen times. I have posted about UOJ over a thousand times.

Actually, the critic makes my point for me, because the translator (clearly identified as Protestant rock star Leonard Woods Junior was a Calvinist. Thus we have the hybrid formula embraced by the ELS-WELS-LCMS, from a Calvinist translating a Halle Pietist:

God has forgiven the entire world its sins - Objective Justification.
Man must agree with this state of affairs - Subjective Justification.

According to what I have read, these two terms made their way to Germany, became part of the literature, and delighted Walther. Most of the Missourians would have their German copies of Knapp, but perhaps also came upon the English translation. The English version of Knapp dominated Protestant theology for 90 years, finding a place in all libraries. During that era, Pietism was highly praised by all Protestants during - including the Lutherans. Spener, Halle, and Pietism were as untouchable then as Fuller Seminary is now.

From what I have read, Halle emphasized its Easter absolution of the entire world, backed by their false exegesis of 1 Timothy 3:16, which Jay Webber prefers over Martin Chemnitz' exegesis. Litmus test? I think so.

Agreeing with the Halle Pietist Rambach, Walther also taught the Easter absolution of the world, which he learned from Bishop Martin Stephan.

Oddly enough, WELS and the Little Sect on the Prairie have adopted the OJ and SJ of the Calvinist Woods. He may not have invented the terms, but that book certainly popularized the concept and the terms in 19th century American Protestantism. The English translation was already in print before Walther swore life-long allegiance to Bishop Stephan, on the muddy shores of New Orleans. I wonder if Stephan's mistress, who came along on Stephan's ship, attended the enthronement.

As I explained to the pastor, I have been meticulous in reporting how all this developed. In fact, since the Calvinist translation of Knapp is the English version, there is little to distinguish Knapp the theologian from Woods the theological translator. What made Knapp so important to a Calvinist leader that the book had to be translated? I find no difference between the two men. Are there letters extant where Knapp called Woods a fool for introducing Objective and Subjective Justification?

The anti-UOJ quotations in Justification and Rome
make me think these theologians were arguing against
the UOJ rationalism of Halle University.

Calvinism is the unspoken secret of the Synodical Conference. LCMS pastors from the Bronze Age were fond of citing their favorite Calvinist sources for the inerrancy of the Scriptures. The rationalist approach of Calvinist is a greater threat to the Christian Faith than the depredations of outspoken atheist groups. Pietism and Calvinism had Lutheran pastors looking up the wrong sources, the wrong doctrine, enhancing the wrong attitude toward the Holy Spirit's efficacy in the Word.

For example, Professor John Brug's Ministry of the Word, which Otten loved, is unLutheran enough to appeal to any Protestant.

Some days, gardeners pull weeds. On other days they water and prune for growth. One Lutheran wrote to thank me for exposing UOJ but also to say it brought great disturbance into her thinking. Now she is aware of the falsehood in WELS/ELS.

Luther wrote about the sign spoken against in Volume 1 of his sermons:

44. From this we learn to be assured that we may comfort ourselves and cheerfully bear up when many people stumble at our Word and speak against our faith, especially the great, the learned, and the priests. This is a sign that our message and faith is right, for it receives the treatment foretold by Simeon and all the prophets. They must take offense at it, stumble over it, rise by it, and speak against it; it cannot be otherwise. He who would have it otherwise must look for another Christ. Christ is set for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against; consequently his members, or every Christian, must be like him on account of his faith and his message. He is called “antilegumenous,” he who is spoken against.

His doctrine must be rejected, condemned and execrated as the worst heresy, error and foolishness. It is treated rightly when this is done; but when this does not take place, then we have neither Christ, nor his mother, nor Simeon, nor the prophets, nor faith, nor the Gospel nor any Christians. For what does speaking against mean but to deny, blaspheme, curse, condemn, reject, prohibit and persecute with all disgrace and ignominy as the worst heresy?

Why Water Before the Rain?

We are destined for another rain today, and I am very happy indeed. I planted the Shasta Daisies and two little Bee Balms yesterday. They were soaked, yea even immersed, in rainwater for a day before planting. I would rather risk fishing something out of the bottom of a rainbarrel (deep, cold, murky) than plant it dry.

I water plants before rain because those barrels are going to fill again. This keeps the barrels fresh and really grants a bonus to plants. Roses coming back from the winter appreciate the extra moisture and fertilizer in rain, and the soil life also gets a boost. Without the soil life of fungi, bacteria, protozoa, earthworms, and such, the roses would be dying. So I water the roses and hydrate other plants to boost the soil too.

My argument that Creation Gardening works well.

Publishing
The Luther's Sermons project is going well. Some might ask, "But why start a new printing when anyone can buy or Google Luther's sermons?"

The reason is - this gets Luther's Sermons into a new group of people. I was thinking about Matt Harrison waving his copy of Luther's Sermons on a video. "He must be feeling the pain of those Here I Stand socks at CPH," I mused.

The project is only slightly connected with the anniversary of the Reformation. I just got angry that a good set of his sermons are priced so high, even on the used market. Publishing houses have the resources to print economy editions, but they do not. Look at a franchise bookstore. They sell economy editions of great literature for almost nothing because the books are open source and easily printed by the thousands. People will always buy Moby Dick, even if they do not read it.

So we are watering the roses. Lutherans have Luther's Sermons, but more copies will not hurt - and only help. I know the initial volunteer efforts have provoked cries of "I am learning so much!" - not a bad result.

One proof-reader, Virginia Roberts, named a new book unawares. She kept mentioning "gems" she found in Volume 1. I was going to put some best quotes in each volume. But no, I will call them "Gems from Luther's Sermons, Volume 1" and so forth. At the end, we will have a separate book called Gems from Luther's Sermons, about 100 pages.

Some other Luther projects are planned, but I will keep them secret for now, since secrets generate interest.

An essay that needs to be written is - Two Felons and a Christian Leader: A Critical History of the LCMS and the Synodical Conference. The felons are Stephan and Walther. The leader is Loehe. That could be 20 volumes, but instead it will be about 50 pages or so, just an indication of what could be done if the "conservative" Lutherans would get over their worship of Walther the Anti-Luther. That will be done in my normal irenic style.

Did I mean polemical instead? The false profits* of today say "peace, peace" where there is no peace. They only seek silence and abject obedience to their agenda, which is ever-shifting and never Luther. True peace comes from Justification by Faith, not from Stalinistic management efforts.

Work
My work situation is always changing, and I think a good solution is around the corner. As I mentioned to two social friends, the main thing is keeping the publishing going, which is fun and worthwhile. Thanks to various factors and Social Security, it only takes a little extra work to balance costs and income.

*Yes, I know how to spell, typos being no argument against my spelling skills.