Creation Garden - Making Mistakes - Wait, What Happened?

Full color - illustrated by Norma A. Boeckler

I read that Jaguar owners once bragged about how difficult their cars were, photographing their frequent and inexplicable mechanical problems. Complaining was a bond they shared.

Gardeners are often in perpetual mourning for the disasters they created or the ravages of weather and pests. I was going to add up mine until I saw so many wonders from trying various plants and approaches.

By accident I found Jessica Walliser's book on beneficial insects and became a Facebook friend.

By accident I ran into Lowenfels' epic book on the astonishing work of fungus in the soil.

Both authors, whether they claim it or not, provide great proofs for Creation Gardening.

Grandfather Jackson raised beautiful roses in Florida and developed a seedless tomato, the second accomplishment a family legend. The dark secret was - my uncle lost the only specimen.

Grandfather Parker was also a farmer; he went to the University of Illinois to study agriculture. Both grandfathers lost their farms in the Great Depression, hosted by the Federal Reserve Private Bank.

What startled Mrs. Ichabod was my sudden transformation into a gardener in Midland, Michigan, along with reading all the organic gardening books (Rodale, etc) in the Grace Dow Library.

Christina decreed that our front yard here should be all flowers, so I have been developing it for almost 10 years. Members cheer the appearance of various roses on the altar. Our medical friends and neighbors enjoy getting them. Sunday is rose day for the mothers on our block.

Roses were an early goal, and many have shown their glory for a time. The biggest surprise is Easy Does It - a fountain of sunset colored roses all summer.

Veterans Honor and John Paul II.

The current favorite for all qualities is Veterans Honor, shining like a jewel wherever it blooms.

Naturally I bought red wiggler earthworms to improve, aerate, and move the soil. I avoid churning the soil with machines, using chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

My mother showed me beneficial insects, but Jessica Walliser taught me the way to grow plants to support them. Daisies, Joe Pye, Cat Mint, Borage, Clethra, Dandelions, Chaste Tree, and other plants feed and harbor pollinators and beneficial insects.

Almost Eden (my neighbor) sold me a number of plants, and it took some time to appreciate all of them.

In any given year, the results seem unimpressive. But worthwhile new plants are barely starting out, and it may not be their favorite weather year.

Hostas are a good example. I bought some and transplanted others from Mrs. Gardener. Mr. Gardener gave me the first ones.
The survivors are plump, spreading, and ready to grow Hummingbird Feeders. Those are the flowers of spikes grown by Hosta, magnets for Hummers.

I was contrite over buying 10 more Joe Pyes, but I decided that would be the anchor plant for our neglected back garden, now being conquered by blackberries. (Don't get me started.) Ranger Bob will get one JP. The multiple-failure butterfly garden will get two, and seven will fill the back garden.

The military-gardening club liked Joe Pye best of all, and that is before blooming, when beneficial insects and butterflies flock to it like WELS pastors at a Blatz beer sale.

And the bulbs! I added Oriental Lilies and Stella D'Or this year. Previous Daffodils were great this spring, so they may be an army next year.

Every project involves labor, disappointment, and pain. The charm of the Creation Garden is the leverage of divine principles not being thwarted by dumb human ideas. Every flower, weed, insect, and animal has a purpose. I scorned the common Shasta Daisy - until I saw beneficial flies on the blooms the moment they appeared. (Thanks, Walliser) I saw aphid damage shrink to almost nothing on the roses. Some roses have little spiders inside, taking care of themselves but also giving me flawless blooms.

I teach Old Testament students year around - toward an MA in theology. The students generally agree with me that churches operate on a business model of programs rather than the one and only Biblical model of the Gospel Word being preached and taught.

 Beauty Berry - from Almost Eden.

Fun with Hymns and Gardening - Morning Breaks Upon the Blog

I began yesterday with adding more hymns to The Bethany Lutheran Hymnal blog. Some advantages are:

1. The public domain hymns are easy to read.
2. The details about each hymn are included.
3. Famous and unusual authors are highlighted and grouped - who knew that Ken, How, and Wordsworth were bishops? You do now.
4. Famous translators are also grouped - Winkworth, Neale, Loy.
5. Many graphics from Norma A. Boeckler will be added.
6. The melodies and alternates can be linked on each page.
7. Hymn stories can be copied from The Lutheran Library.

Sassy and I enjoy early mornings, sometimes hours before Dawn, the rosy child of Morn appears. I fix pour-over coffee as the best beverage for writing, reducing typos, and enjoying life. I was talked into reading The Monk of Mokha, a non-fiction book built around the latest trend in varietal coffee. That only intensified my interest in coffee.

After I reached 50 more hymns, the gardening crew and Ranger Bob converged. Sassy was in her glory, greeted and fed her favorites by Bob, petted and admired by the crew. 

We had Calladium and Stella D'Or to plant, a large pile of weeds to remove. I did my share on weeds and pollen. Clouds of the dust came up and I felt that for hours. 

I order bulbs and share them, so the crew is watching Crepe Myrtle leafing out, roses growing, and adding Glads, Calladium, and Star of Gold (Stella D'Or). 

Bob came back with wood mulch and orders for military books. He said, "I know cars, but this guy finds the books I want for $1. I have a whole library now." Our latest find on the Net was Yeager's autobiography for $1 plus shipping. Bob has resisted buying Soviet ship books, which start at $600 used. 

Recent garden growth:

• The Bee Balms are popping up all over.
• All roses are leafing out.
• The Joe Pye Weeds jumped up.
• Daisies are forming their green.
• Cinnabon shrubs are budding.
• Chaste Tree is budding.
• The Iris row is ready to bloom.

The Creation Garden is a reminder that God accomplishes everything through the power of His Word and in His time, not ours.

Another lesson is from Brorson's Behold a Host Arrayed in White -

Then hail, ye mighty legions, yea,

All hail! Now safe and blest for aye,

And praise the Lord, who with His Word

Sustained you on the way.

Ye did the joys of earth disdain,

Ye toiled and sowed in tears and pain.

Farewell, now bring your sheaves and sing

Salvation's glad refrain.

Swing high your palms, lift up your song,

Yea, make it myriad voices strong,

Eternally shall praise to Thee,

God, and the Lamb belong.

It is far too easy to say, "I bought those plants and now they are gone, all this wasted time and money." That has always happened, and if all our plants and seeds grew lavishly, the gardening companies would be limping along instead of selling us new hopes and dreams. 

There is a reason why I get 50 gardening catalogs each season. Some of them bear fruit and I order plants from the hopes and illusions the lavishly illustrated magazines fostered. All we had to do was wait for a little more rain and sun for many past projects to leap from the cold, damp soil. Hope springs eternal, but especially from the efficacious Word.

Clethra was promoted from the back garden to the rose garden, for several reasons. One is its appeal to butterflies and all beneficial insects. But the top reason is its ethereal fragrances, sweet and cinnamon, which floats along each zephyr.

Creation Unfettered

 Fever Few - the tinier the flower, the bigger the role for beneficial insects.But what about the giant Sunflowers? - you demand, like a journalist in the White House. Each Sunflower is a suburb of tiny flowers, aka a compound flower, and perfectly designed for beneficial insect, bird, squirrel, and human food.

We all have this strange interim between the harsh cold of winter and the unfettered abundance of spring. Daffodils and some other bulbs are the first signals of spring, but never enough for a complete breakout.

I have some tasks to get done, including the removal of all the dead stalks from last year - primarily Joe Pye but also Bee Balm. I support my reluctance with pleas for their beneficial influence on garden ecology, Some bees winter in them, just like the poor in North Dakota, who go to South Dakota for the winter. Who wants to garden in cold, damp spring?

But now the excuses are over, because the plants are no longer kept beneath the soil from cold and grey skies. Joe Pye, with the tallest hollow canes, has green sprigs pushing through the leaf mulch. Bee Balm - a mint - has lots of distinctive shoots popping up among the dead stalks.

Jessica Walliser warned gardeners about Fever Few plants spreading by seed, and I hoped it would. That seems to be a low growing contagion in the garden, and I hope her fears are realized. The plants are a beneficial insect magnet and provide a tea for migraines (never needed it).

I wanted worthwhile, low-growing plants to fill in between the roses and other flowers. And I also want lots of pollinator plans, which attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

As I wrote before, we have the perfect porch with good seating. We look out over the rose garden, facing East. In the morning sunshine it is a good place to drink some cold water and watch Creation at work in the garden. Birds settle in to look for insects; rabbits come out of their bunkers.

In the afternoon, Ranger Bob, Sassy, and Mrs. Ichabod enjoy the shade with me. Sassy gets her treats and takes up her security post. We drink pour-over coffee and share crackers with Sassy. Bob asks me about strange plants (or their remains) and suggests things that would make Jessica Walliser faint. He learned landscaping using toxic chemicals. I use  rainwater, leaves, and Peat Humus (Stinky Peat).

Today will mean putting Stinky Peat as mulch on the base of each rose. That might also include wood mulch on top of that layer, later. However, I first want to have a miniature compost pile on each plant, to build the root base every rose needs. The strongest rose, an Easy Does it, burst out of its winter doldrums first this year.

I am letting Creation decide more about the plants. The weather has been to volatile to count on roses producing well, so I am filling in with bulbs and herbs.

 Joe Pye - none dare call it weed. This easily grown plant attracts insects and the ultimate insects - the butterflies. A garden full of pollinator plants is the best movie theater in town, with a cast of thousands and a cost of pennies. Pennies? - that is what I tell Mrs. Ichabod. Besides, the roses need protection via the beneficial insect plants.

The Marvels of a Lengthy Autumn in the South

 The strength of the KnockOut shrub rose is its growth. Therefore, plenty of pruning and watering will yield dozens of flowers, lots of longer stems for the vase. I often had 50 roses in bloom at one time.

We had one day of spring this year, moving from winter to summer with unusual speed. That meant heat and drought, but drought with high humidity. Soon we were in June Bug (Japanese Beetle) weather, which meant chewed rose blossoms and root damage. On the positive side, signs of Milky Spore Disease (toxic only to white grubs) were apparent in a weakened population of the Most Hated Bug in Gardening.

Hope abounds as a long rainy autumn is predicted, which means an absence of frost and a proliferation of roses. The favorite flower loves cooler, rainy weather and reaches its peak in blossoming during such weather, especially since I harvest the flowers often.

 These white KO flowers attracted aphids like crazy early in the spring, then beneficial insects and spiders stepped in to feast on aphids. Now I have lots of beneficial insect hosts and few problems with insect pests. Short version - many herbs for beneficial insects and no pesticides.

KnockOut sidebar - KnockOuts are a tough shrub rose, developed to be disease and fragrance free. Tough means they can be cut back with hedge shears, 30 - 50%, and rebound in weeks. I have done that. Ranger Bob told me to prune them back. I said, "I did, 30% a few weeks ago." The KOs were in full bloom with about 50 roses each. Mulch helps the soil retain water and build soil compost, since the wood, paper, and cardboard become rich soil over time. KOs need constant cutting of flowers to keep them producing. The software in a rose says, "The flower has bloomed and is ready to set seed by making hips. Now we can go to sleep for the season." To enjoy more branch and bloom growth, the gardener must cut away at the KO frequently, especially looking for death starts, the flower so far gone that only the sepals are left, making a five-pointed star. They hide especially in the lower parts.

 Double Delight lights up the garden, colorful and fragrant, related to Peace.

Another Creation Gardening effort will be lots of fun, free of everything except labor. I have numerous plants - hostas, daisies, mints - that can be dug up, divided, and multiplied. I even have hostas offered from Mrs. Gardener next door.

Joe Pye is large and easy to grow, just add water. The blooms create a butterfly frenzy, with various beneficial insects, bees, and wasps joining the party. They take on a brownish tint as they go to seed, which I am using for the spare garden.

I am already taking Joe Pye seedheads and spreading them over the spare garden in the back, assuming some seeds will germinate and populate that area with the same tall plant, a rival to Pokeweed in size.

Salvia

A member interested me in Salvia, because it is a mint, easily grown, and a hummingbird magnet. So far, Trumpet Vine has grown for 3+ years and used 10,000 gallons of water. Results: two trumpet blooms, a regular hummingbird magnet. Ha. I was ready to tear it down when it finally bloomed. Salvia should be better.

Getting a large area to bloom without weeds taking over is a challenge. I told Norma Boeckler that her garden is a marvel for its display of flowers.

  Norma A. Boeckler

I am trying to grow flowers between most of the roses, to fill in where the grassy weeds want to take over. Those weeds love a long rain followed by intense heat. The flowers hold back in the heat, but weeds burst through the layers of mulch.

 Norma A. Boeckler's Cardinals - they delight us all winter.

Changing the Schedule - Creation Gardening Is Next

Norma Boeckler designed this cover,
with a photograph from her garden.

My Moline classmates and Facebook friends have been commenting on the posts about roses and asking for the gardening book, so I am finishing Creation Gardening as quickly as I can. The Lost Dutchman's Goldmine will be completed later.

The gardening book will be in full color, including the interior, and available at the author's price.

Norma Boeckler has published a number of books 
and is now helping others complete theirs.