Regrowing Blooms and Mulching with the Plants Prolific Production

 My Aliums (garlic family) have not done well so far, but Joe Pye is much like this plant - but much taller, with multiple stems holding lavender globes of flowers.

Many people are increasingly suspicious that everything was fashioned and engineered during the Days  of Creation, because so many aspects of gardening seem designed for us and for all living things.

For example, the most basic part of enjoying abundance comes from harvesting and harvesting again. Tomatoes, beans, peas, and roses are encouraged to grow when their fruit is removed. When we cease in the late fall, the same plant sets seed and goes to sleep for the winter (or contributes to the soil by rotting in the freeze of winter).

There are varieties of Joe Pye. Mine are globes, not fans. It may be the soil, I think mischievously.

Not only are they encouraged to grow on top, but also underneath in the growing root section. That by itself is a wonder, because the roots improve the soil, bargain with fungus for nutrition and water, and grow even more from the demands made from harvesting.

I always advocate cutting roses:

1. Cut the best blooms 
2. Clip the unpromising ones
3. Prune the dead wood and crossing, conflicted canes.

Roses will respond with growth, vigor, and better blooms.

Crepe Myrtle is good for two blooms per summer, but few try for that.

I have a growing army of Bee Balms, and they spread like the mints they are. They take plenty of time to bloom the first time, but then they are ready to bloom a second time, at least.

Daisies need to be cut all the time, because they bloom and fade so quickly.

I could prune off all the Spirea (Neon!), but that would total about from 750 to 1500 flowers. That would be like checking Scientific American for typos.

Joe Pye is living up to its reputation for collecting butterflies while all the pollinators zoom around enjoying the vanilla of the blooms or the Vicks Vapo-rub of the leaves.

I am checking out whether Joe Pye will rebloom - I doubt it. Some plants - like corn - are good for only one set of flowers and fruit.

I think Clethra could rebloom, so I am pruning some seed pods off to get a rebloom for my camera.

Prolific Plant Production - 

Weeds Included

I began cutting down the Joe Pye and Bee Balm that took over the driveway and sidewalk. It seemed impolite to force pedestrians into the street so Joe Pye could enjoy more sun.

Bee Balm were equally aggressive with the driveway. Ranger Bob suggested a haircut. I knew it would bring out more blooms, as it did with the stalks cut by and for the postman.

I often think of the mass of vegetation created out of soil, water, and sunlight - a constant gain for the ocean of life people call "dirt." I put some plants on the counter at the dentist's office. "You are getting dirt on the counter!" his wife said. "That's soil," I countered. The dentist's mother was grinning about her new plants, which ended the conflict.

Using the Soil's Production

Ruth Stout advocated using weeds as mulch, because many weeds will add to the soil and stop the growth of their brethren at the same time.

In the fall, Jessica Walliser suggested covering an area with cardboard and cutting holes for plants in the spring, for a tomato garden - as an example. The crabgrass, grass, and leafy weeds are composted over the winter and have no motivation to grow in the spring.

I have such huge Joe Pye Weeds that I can cut down many of them and use them for mulch around the roses. The blooms are enormous globes of compound flowers. They cast so much shade that weeds on the ground have no sunlight to warm or nurture them. Now I know what 8 foot weeds with large blooms look like. And you wonder why Joe Pye is sold out early each spring? Not I.

 Bee Balms never lack for insect company, and Hummingbirds love them too.

I Prescribe a Sassy-Walk

Harvard Medical School wrote me yesterday. They stated that the number one habit for good health is walking twice a day.

That is how we got Sassy. I wanted a dog who wanted to walk, and she definitely wanted to walk in Phoenix. We had to start in darkness during the Inferno season, so that got her used to early morning walks.

 She taught herself how to catch the ball and bring it to my hands, at the Phoenix park.

In Arkansas, an afternoon walk is no problem in the summer. In the morning, if it is near 7 AM, and I am blogging, she starts her hurt and lonely whimper. The same thing happens at 4 PM. I get hurt looks, low growls, whimpers, fussing, all the hints that make me stop and take her outside.

Sassy anticipated the Harvard prescription by a decade.

For those who fear Wuhan Flu, aka Corona, aka Covid, several positive antidotes are easily available:

1. Daily walks already provide Vitamin D, a shortage found in a large number of Wuhan patients. 
2. Zinc has long been known to help prevent virus infections. That is always mentioned in sensible articles about Wu Flu.
3. It only makes sense to take daily vitamins like Centrum Silver, where the major vitamins and other ingredients are found to be helpful and not always found in daily diets.
4. Boost is a product highly recommended by doctors - milk based and loaded with vitamins, plenty of D, zinc, and other micro-nutrients. The oncologists were delighted that Christina followed their advice and drank Boost regularly.

It would be ideal for people to eat fresh vegetables or fresh frozen vegetables. For a time we were playing a game of "What's so special about..." I would look up the key ingredients in vegetables and fruits as a reason to benefit from them. 

Fast food and restaurant food neglect a lot of really special, traditional foods with many virtues. Brussels Sprouts? The cabbage family? Cauliflower? They are also quite satisfying.

One church member press-ganged me into eating nuts as a regular part of the diet. Walnuts are at the top of the list and almonds are good too. Walnuts are now a treat and a habit. My last blood test showed perfect cholesterol levels for the first time - a side-effect of walnuts. 

All medical exams start with Smoke? Drink? The life and health insurance people really focus on both. Eliminating tobacco and rope products (hemp, pot) is a major step that many do not take. Alcohol is not a sin, but there is a problem when people feel a need for it, which sometimes moves gradually into can't live without it on a daily basis. 

 Sassy needs a spoon of Frosty Paws to fall asleep peacefully. The nightly game of soliciting FP is a riot. She stares hard out the bedroom door to show me where to find it. Or she barks loudly for it. Or she taps me with her paw and grins.  I switched her to French Vanilla, because everyone loves French Vanilla.