Two Shasta Daisies Are Now Twelve. Sun and Rain Have the Rose Garden Bursting

Shasta Daisies multiply and yet are easily divided.
They host beneficial insects and bloom all summer.

Last year our Laotian neighbors pointed at the Buckwheat plants literally engulfing the roses - and laughed. I could spot the rose bushes in that jungle with some effort. Our crew carefully mowed down the Buckwheat with their weed-eater, just in time to scatter the mature BW seeds for a second crop. And now the cold sensitive (?) seeds have sprung again. Nevertheless, the two cover crops last year added even more fertility to the soil.

 The foreground is the infamous Joplin tornado damage, which was 50 miles from our home.

Our biggest challenge is keeping up with the unwanted growth bursting around the roses. The Easy Does It Roses, some from the first bargain buys, have about 100 orange blooms. Many others besides the ones named below are blooming and budding.

We are dwelling in a garden of roses. On Mother's Day, for the third year, every home on our block got a rose at 6 AM. Today we took roses to a friend who works at Cracker Barrel. I picked these:

1. Mr. Lincoln - tall, red, and very fragrant.
2. Veterans Honor - small, glowing red, fragrant, perfection on the bush and lasting in the vast.
3. Fragrant Cloud - orange-red and very fragrant.
4. Peace - yellow with pink edges as it ages. No fragrance.
5. Easy Does It - orange colors with a light scent. Absurd blooming.
6. Pink Peace - related to Peace, deep pink, blooms well.

On Mother's Day, I predicted our roses would bloom in two weeks. Warm temperatures and plenty of rain changed my pessimism into alarm - now I had to get serious about mulching and planting the divided plants (daisies and mint). Sassy watched me work on the daisies so they would be growing in the midst of the roses, like the Joe Pye and mint. 

I told our main helper that I installed an auto-pooper for the birds. They love it. I had to dig it into the ground to stabilize it. Many branches came off this piece and were cut off. The trimmers wanted it smoother, but I saw its value as a perch, with branches reaching out in each direction.

Birds love to find a place where they can look for food and preen. Any perch will lead to planting their favorite foods. In our yard, the spread of Wild Strawberry is supported and encouraged. The birds do their share, planting this colorful groundcover all over. This hardy plant  starts early in the spring, blooms and fruits in the shade, and feeds many creatures early, long before other fruits.

Mrs. Robin makes this perch her favorite stopping point between the Crepe Myrtle and her daily tasks. She admonishes me if I get near her nest. She is far more vigilant than most synod leaders and many pastors.

Our yards, front and back, are a constant source of delight: the pleasure of Creation and the fulfillment of work bearing fruit. Little Ichabod said, "Yours is the only home with a shovel behind the front door." I could add, "And other in the Town Car trunk." Rose shears are here and there in the house and car, always being used to prune and to share more roses. Likewise, I have 15 rose vases, because I hint at rose lovers - "I have more roses than vases." They keep me in vases and I keep them in roses.

The painter knows I can always use more five-gallon buckets, some of them moving onto gardening friends. My latest example of rain on new plants gave me young Crepe Myrtles that burst into growth from the combination of God's rain and my stored rain in buckets, used a little later. 

Last year I experimented on a new Crepe Myrtle and shamelessly spoiled it with mulch, stored rain, and extra water. Its faster growth compared to its companions told me to do more of the same with that group - so I am doting on them too.

Plants teach us patience and show us how God works. Most plants just sit in the soil the first year, and they seem to be on the point of departure. In the second year, they start growing and show promise. In the third and fourth years, the growth is astonishing.

 I cannot give the plants away fast enough now.

 Rodale founded the magazine Organic Gardening and a publishing business with it.

Some Call It Organic - I Call It Creational

Now we realize that the fungal networks build up slowly and are easily damaged by 

• osterizing the soil with a tiller, 
• killing the fungi and other microbes with fungicides/fertilizers, 
• wiping out the good insects, spiders, birds with pesticides.

The fungal and root networks building together, and they participate in making the soil more fertile.

 Gabe and Paul Brown, bumper crops learned the hard way,
from four straight years of failure.

"Leave living roots in the soil as long as possible. They create 75% of the soil's organic matter." Gabe Brown

DP Kudu Don Patterson wanted to be exponential, so he took his fellow sheep to be sheared at Exponential, an enormous and expensive gathering of wolves. One would think that a graduate of Texas A & M would know more about Creation and the efficcy of the Word.

To experience the exponential effect of God's Word in the congregation and district, one only need to trust the efficacy of the Gospel - rather than the appeal of the pop music and popcorn. As any pastor will attest, so little seems to happen in the first few years of his call, however that is measured. But faithful sermons will soon alarm the apostates and attract those who seek the Gospel. 

A good DP will have the pastor administer anaesthesia, so everyone sleeps contentedly. One alternative is to sponsor spirit retreats rather than spiritual retreats. But Kudu Don already thought of that. What better way to have happy campers than to get the women thoroughly drunk on a Patterson Spiritual Retreat! Yes indeed - the women bet on which newbie will puke her darlin' little guts out first.

Luther loved Creation and enjoyed gardening. His approach was to preach the Word and let God act through the Word. Very little of that is done today.