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| Once wimpy and not blooming, this crepe myrtle owns our cul-de-sace most of the summer, and reblooms too. |
Doting - "to be lavish or excessive in one's attention, fondness, or affection"
I do not work very hard on plants; instead, I concentrate on the soil they grow in. Each year I dote on one or two plants and do everything possible to improve the soil.
When we moved here, we had a scrawny Crepe Myrtle that never bloomed. I pruned and manured it, gave it all kinds of excessive organic matter, including wood shavings and grass droppings from the lawn mower. I added red wiggler earthworms to help digest and pull down the amendments.I was startled to see how bags of mushroom compost and piles of autumn leaves could be devoured by the plant base. A friendly mole circled the plant base and ate the worms, but I did not mind. The stirring of the soil was good and the survivors would quickly build another colony.
My project for 2019 is to dote on the purple butterfly bush, supposedly the largest variety but not very big so far. I am not too keen on them for gathering butterflies, though they do entertain a few and stay in bloom if I prune them. The chief merit of this butterfly bush is the hummingbirds sipping from its flowers.
People always have similar answers when they are interviewed on the street about having a chance to ask God just one question. I would say, "Why did you create so many wonders with the tiniest creatures, often the most overlooked? Is it to give us encouragement in our own lives?"
The key to Creation gardening is ignoring everything they try to sell in the gardening department: insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and man-made fertilization.
What is left? Mushroom compost, peat compost, manure, and mulch. Plastic trash cans converted to rain barrels are also good for real gardening.
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| Butterfly bush makes our backyard smell like grape jelly. Hummingbirds look for more than nectar - they need insects in their diets. |
How Did I Dote in the Autumn of 2018?
I had a lot of leaves from a wild ginger plant. I put them around the base of the soon-to-be-spoiled butterfly bush. Next I dumped two bags of peat compost (Stinky Peat), which is wet manure mixed with peat moss. I had some wood mulch, so I added a generous layer of wood chips. Then I put bags of rotting leaves around and on the previous layers.
Coffee grounds always go on the butterfly bush.
Much rain followed. That means the roots had a chance to grow and aerate the soil, and soil creatures had the time and materials to multiply and do their work.
This is important - the ideal is to maximize the chemical swapping in the root zone - this goes on with life, death, and feeding. The eaten food is not gone but recycled into another creature.
Living roots provide most of the fertility in the soil and increase rain infiltration. When I prune the butterfly bush in the early spring, the roots will be triggered to grow even more, and the upper bush will sprout faster and bloom more - just like roses (John 15).
The organic mass I layered around the butterfly bush will decompose and feed the soil creatures, holding rainwater and gently hydrating the plant. I could buy tree diapers that do the same thing, but they cost about $20 each. No, they do not call them Treepends.
My goal is to have a generously blooming purple butterfly bush that will attract larger numbers of hummingbirds and butterflies.
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| Buckwheat grows easily and seeds itself. |
