Gardening and Reading - Fun Things I Learned the Last Few Years

Every post on gardening - and most other subjects - means I am reading information from books, magazines, or the Net to support claims or fill in gaps of information. Below are some things that struck me as new, unusual, or essential to know, in spite of gardening and reading about the subject for the last 35 years, starting in Midland, Michigan.

Giant Weed Is Creation Gardening Dream Plant
Pokeweed annoyed me with its gigantic growth everywhere. On the Net and in books I learned - birds and mammals love the berries, and beneficial insects flock to the flowers. Now I admire my healthy, growing, blooming and fruiting Pokeweed.

Crabgrass Is a Grain
Crabgrass spreads because it is a grain plant brought over in the early days. As they say, it got loose. It is easily controlled with mowing - or even better - mulching over it to create compost.

"I don't digest? Then why are you selling my manure,
you heartless capitalist! You exploit the poor for your
profits, your luxuries. Bacteria do the digesting?
Pardon me."

Earthworms Do Not Digest Food
I am the Johnie Appleseed of red wigglers, but they do not digest the food they eat. Bacteria in their gut break down the food and make it available for plants. Bonus fact - slugs and earthworms share the same task, shredding food so it can decompose.

Spiders without Webs
The spiders in a yard may destroy more insect pests than any other beneficial creature. Many of them work without nets, running along and snagging their food - cursorial spiders. Observation - many perfect roses are found with a thick spider's net at the bottom of the flowering part.

Treat a Plant Like a Princess
I knew about Crepe Myrtle and had one struggling near our mail box. When I put extra mulch, lawnmower droppings, leaves, or mushroom compost underneath, the soil food disappeared rapidly and the flowers began to change from boring to wow. I spent a lot of time removing lower branches to give it the Lyle Lovett look, so now we have pink fireworks on top for months. Pruning some of those flowers renewed the blooming all over. Bonus fact - Cardinals love CM seeds, and I now have a pair nesting there.

Squirrels Are Like Bears
Neat holes in the mulch are probably from squirrels digging for earthworms and grubs. Almost Eden told me - they are like bears, eating anything. Bonus fact - mama squirrel kicks the babies out of the nest rather early, so that is why I have baby squirrels eating sunflower seeds from the bird feeders.

Chaste Tree Forehead Slapper
I knew how great the Chaste Tree bush was for bees, but I grew one in a shady area and watered it diligently. The plant looked so bad I researched CT care on the Net. Errors:

1. Never water a Chaste Tree.
2. Always plant it in the sun.
3. Prune it as much as desired.

I dug it up, planted it in the sun, pruned every branch somewhat, refused to water it, and saw it perk up and sprout healthy leaves.

Foundational Mistake - Jeff Lowenfels
In the olden days, every gardening book emphasized having a healthy supply of earthworms in the soil as the basis for fertile, lively plants. Wrong! The real foundation is microbial, with fungus doing a surprising amount of decomposition, movement of nutrition to plant hairs, and disease control. Therefore, moving the soil around unnecessarily is a big mistake.  Earthworms are the proof of a healthy microbial foundation - fungus, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, all eating and being eaten - but with fungus feeding desired products to the root hairs in exchange for carbon from the plant.

Aphids love white and Peace roses.
Therefore, they attract beneficial insects and feed them.

KnockOut Roses Not Like Any Other
KnockOut roses are popular but treated badly. As disease resistant shrubs, KOs are packed with growth energy when mulched and watered. Based on several years experience - they respond with delight to heavy pruning - as much as 50% - and regain the lost height by growing and blooming all over again. Too much heat and wilted flower? - prune heavily. Too much rain  and droopy bushes - prune 50% and watch them sprout 50 blooms each.

Walliser Dictum - The Pests Are Food for Pest Predators - Backed by Sharon Lovejoy
Nothing makes us go crazier than aphids destroying rose blooms. No man-made cure works. Hosing them off? Haha. Pesticides? - sure, kill all the spiders too. The first attack will generate a response team that usually lays eggs that hatch into aphid eating monsters,  creatures which mature into egg-laying beneficials that... Jessica Walliser and Sharon Lovejoy write about this phenomenon. My white and Peace roses are trashed by aphids on the first bloom, then almost perfect the rest of the season.

One of the greatest rose hybridizers
gave us Chrysler Imperial and Queen Elizabeth roses.
A PhD, he was a Creationist.

Tiny Flowers Are Good Flowers
The beneficial insects that eat pests are tiny - not just the cute little Ladybugs. Because most of the adults need flower or pollen or both, any plant with tiny flowers will help the beneficial insect population. A constant bloom of tiny flowers will create a yard where the beneficials can wait for the cry of stricken plants. That may come from extra nectar being released, hormones, or maybe the sound of sipping and crunching from the pests. Therefore, I want:

1. Mints
2. Sunflowers
3. Queen Ann's Lace
4. Clover
5. Carrot family plants, and
6. Those little colorful plants that bloom in the grass for a short time.

 Mountain Mint - tiny flowers.
Many overlooked and unknown flowers are
the perfect medicine for gardening, attracting beneficial insects
and supporting other life in the garden.

Moles Are Good Soil Mixers
Every spring the gardeners share their hatred of moles with each other. I already knew they could not be killed. Secondly, I learned their annoying food tunnels, that alarm us in the spring, are difficult to trace later in the summer. Most importantly, since moles will never go away - they are superb soil mixers, like giant subway tunnel borers in comparison with earthworms, one of their favorite foods. The underground swimming of moles opens up the soil and creates room for new earthworms to take over. When moles establish storage places for earthworms - up to 1200 at a time - they are making sure more nitrogen is placed in that area.

 Queen Elizabeth Rose - developed by Lammaerts,
designed by the Creating Word.

Roses Budding and Blooming. Chrysler Imperial Planted. Sassy and I Watch the Robins Build a Nest

Chrysler Imperial is known for color, size,
fragrance, and shade tolerance -
but it is more of a Southern climate rose.

On Sunday we will have garden roses on the altar rather than store boughten ones. Here and there buds are showing their color as they start to open up. All the older roses are budding, so there are hundreds of blooms in production. Yesterday I went through the older roses and pruned dead wood again. One Veterans Honor needed a new place to grow, rainwater from the barrel, and a bit of pruning.

All the digging was done on worked soil, previously planted, mulched, watered, and earthwormed. Needless to say, the soil was simple to dig with only a few greedy maple roots to chop. It is an ancient saying that "worked soil is easier for growing plants." In New Testament Greek, this word for work--noun,adjective, and verb--is the basis for the English word energy. That comprises the word group for efficacy, which appears throughout the New Testament.

There is the vast gulf between Biblical doctrine and that of Lutheran apostates (ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC sic). The Lutheran apostates place their trust in the efficacy of gimmicks, entertainment, fads, methods, and personality.

 The Word of God is quick (effective)...

Luther and the German Reformers placed their trust in the efficacy of the Word alone, always working with the divine power--dynamis, as in dynamite--of the Holy Spirit, never apart from the Spirit. Notice what the moderns have abandoned - the liturgy, creeds, hymns, and sermons - any expression of the Word. The baptismal font is hidden and Holy Communion is neglected. But, when The CORE was starting, Bishop Katie was shopping for a soda fountain.

Walmart is famous for beginning with fresh popcorn drawing people into the store--right here at Walton's Five and Dime--and Lutherans trying the same thing with snacks and cola at their so-called services. Walmart no longer offers popcorn at the front of the store, but Lutheran congregations brag about snacks at the front of theirs. They are selling the Gospel, using bait.

WELS' Victory of the Lamb has cleaned up their What To Expect a little bit, which reads like an ocean cruise brochure. The movie theater seats have been erased from the page! Ichabod effect?

• Enjoy Hospitality – Goodies, coffee and all kinds of yummy stuff. All completely free… just like grace!
• Dress Comfortably – Wear clothes. Whether they’re in style… that’s up to you!
• Casual Atmosphere – Reclining movie theater seats with cup holders. Need we say more?
• Serious Faith – We take God very seriously, but try not to take ourselves too seriously.

The concept of worked ground makes sense for the transfer of the term to the efficacy of the Word. When man applies his muscle-power to the soil, tree roots are broken up, sod is turned into compost, and valued plants are established with far more value that the normal guardians of the soil - weeds or grass. I have been digging the same ground for several years and even considered - horrors - a rototiller. But now, after the prep work done, putting in tomatoes or new roses is simple and easy, with a wealth of earthworms obviously enjoying themselves as they do the real work of gardening - mixing, tunneling, fertilizing, and aerating the soil.

In the past, congregations grew because the pastor visited people. preached, taught, and administered the Sacraments. Over time the leavening effect of the Gospel made its mark without drama, bunnies, snacks, or obsessions with numbers. Now congregations shrink from the Church Shrinkage Movement--invented by Fuller Seminary's sociologist and clown prince (McGavran and Wagner), Pasadena's Snake Oil Salesman in Chief - Robert Schuller.

After 20 years of Church Growth, Shepherd of Peace in Columbus has to borrow money to last another year. Schuller's cathedral is a Roman Catholic Cathedral. And Tim Glende wants everyone to forget the debacle he abandoned in Illinois - Star of Bethlehem, which ended up giving up two church buildings away - the first to the Eastern Orthodox, the second to the Babtists. If ministers abandon the Means of Grace, the Means of Grace will abandon them.

Lammerts won this award for his roses, not for his fashion sense.

No photo does justice to the delicate beauty of the
Queen Elizabeth rose, a good reason to grow them.

Chrysler Imperial Rose
Chrysler Imperial rose is the second famous rose from Walter Lammerts, PhD, a Creationist and leader among Creation scientists. One would expect that being so wrong about science - by modern standards - Lammerts would have been an utter failure in rose genetics. Instead, he developed two of the most famous roses - Chrysler Imperial and Queen Elizabeth.

Relatively few people are famous for their roses. Developing a winning combination of attributes is so rare that when I see certain developer names in the catalogs, I am immediately interested. Only a few names come up in the all time favorites lists - and Lammerts is one of those stars.

Sassy and I Watch the Robins Build a Nest
When I unwrap bare root roses, the twine is cut and left on the ground. During nesting season, bits of string, dead leaves, and twine all become part of nests. When one nest fell from a tree last summer, I noticed a piece of gold wrapper decorating the outside.

I found one piece of twine in an odd place in the yard, so I placed it on the crepe myrtle bush for easy access. Sassy and I were coming back from walking around the cul-de-sack when that same piece fell from the maple tree. We watched a robin dive for the ground, land, and pick it up again. A smaller piece of twine fell soon after and another dive retrieved it. Far up in the maple, the Mr. and Mrs. Robin were building the next. They are the same birds that run a few feet away when I am planting and watering roses. They are not frightened enough to fly up into the tree.

They do not mind hiding behind the roses, waiting for me to go away.

For those waiting for the spring we are already enjoying - save dryer lint, string, and twine for the birds to build their nests. I also break up twigs and throw them in the same place around the maple tree mulch. String and twine can be draped over bumps in the tree or branches in bushes, for easy spotting. Lint can be put in those little wire cages used for suet.

Corn is a high energy food for many birds.
They also enjoy the fruits that are going bad in our fridge.