Build Back Bees - Creation's Answer to the Sweetness of Honey

 My generation loved the Classics Illustrated, comics giving the basics for the great literature and popular literature of the past.

A Lutheran Family Robinson is living in a beautiful location for observing Creation. Like many, they are fashioning a home for bees, which means a source of pure honey and beeswax.

I decided to add my earthy advice on how to keep the bees happy and well fed.

I belong to that class of gardeners who start ordering any plant called a pollinator. That designates a plant that will attract and feed bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. If anyone doubts the Creation of the universe by the Word of God - the Logos - then spend some time sitting on the ground with the pollinators and their associates, since each one needs the others. I never get stung.

Seldom do the scientists acknowledge that the class of living things had to be created within a short period of time, or the eaters and eaten would have died immediately. The greatest rose - Queen Elizabeth - came from a Creationist. The most obnoxious weed - the blackberry - was promoted by an atheist horticulturalist.

Bee Balm - in Gilead

Bee Balm is my all-around favorite because of its prodigious blooms and slow expansion of its territory. I dug a clump up for the Butterfly Garden and now enjoy seeing a large patch of flowers there, a good source for more islands of Bee Balm elsewhere. 

Bee Balm grows down near the sidewalk and also close to the front, shaded patio. Some are light blue while the newest are scarlet. People debate whether the color red matters to hummingbirds, but I have seen them darting from one red blossom to the next. 

We watch the bees and hummers while we are drinking coffee. One carefully works over each blossom. Hummers sip from the three (3) feeders and fight over territory.

Bee Bread - Borage

Borage – one of the most important honey plants

photo credit: Peter aka anemoneprojectors via photopin cc

Borage is not only a honey plant, but also one of the most famous ancient spices and a valuable herb. It is traditionally cultivated as a vegetable type and spice, but it is also gwon for pharmaceutical purposes, because of the oil extracted from its seeds, which is often called “star flower oil” or “borage oil”.

If we can believe the descriptions of Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder, borage was probably the magical plant used to make a drink of oblivion mentioned in the Homer’s “Odyssey”. The truth is that this plant were used in different ways known from ancient times.

Borage – how is it grown?

Borage is an annual plant with branching stem that usually reaches a height of about 25 inches that is believed to originate from Syria. Now it is grown literally everywhere, and only in North America it takes an overall area of 20,000 acres.

Centuries ago, the Europeans used to make some tea form the leaves of the plant by soaking them in wine. In 1597 a herbalist named John Gerard pointed out several advantages of the herb and even said that the syrup made from the flowers of borage helps healing depression. Nowadays borage is being sown in order to attract bees, which makes it a valuable honey plant.

Borage is a tiny plant, though I have some larger ones from an Amazon order. This little herb is easily sown with abandon, where it will bloom, drop seed, and draw the bees into its tiny flowers, which are pink and blue (no, not gender related, just cute).

Borage does not take over the garden and adds to the overall population of beneficial insects which live by eating pests or leaving their eggs near pests. The little ones hatch and eat the destructive pests.

Borage is easy to grow and inexpensive.

https://www.kiwimana.co.nz/borage-good-for-bees/

Clethra - Summer Sweet or Sweet Spice

This shrub costs about $20 and grows slowly. How do I rate it? I bought two and they slowly grew, now about 7 feet tall. I bought four more, and one was eaten by a quadruped, devoured. However, the other three were protected by a plastic collar and are flowering today. I only had a total five for the front garden, so I planted four more in the back garden. They are now blooming - tiny but working their way up as pollinators.

Clethra attracts butterflies, as well as many kinds of bees, and hummingbirds. The shrubs have a Cinnabon sweet smell of cinnamon and thrive in the sunlight. I enjoy the way they give off their fragrance the rest of the summer. No one is looking on the porch or driveway and suddenly - "What is that wonderful aroma?" 

Clethra are slow to grow when ordered through the mail, but they are long-lasting and pest-free - as long as they can get rooted in the early weeks.

Mountain Mint Finally Fulfilled My Hopes

Mountain Mint was buried under mulch and cardboard - by mistake. We could not find them. The first two tiny plants soon burst through the Stygian darkness of their burial and grew rapidly. I was disappointed that they did not create the flying frenzy of insects I observed at the Washington DC gardens. 

But lo, this year has produced two shoulder-high crops where the space above the mint is crazy with butterflies and bees of all types, in constant motion.

Joe Pye Weed and Little Joe Pye

Joe Pye Weed was used by Joe Pye as a medicine - so they say - and is now enjoyed by butterfly and bee enthusiasts. Little Joe Pye is a short version with the same profile and flowers.

Joe Pye enjoys the same energy as Mountain Mint - its bees and butterflies abuzz like satellites trapped in the gravitational pull of earth. The leaves have a strong musk aroma joined by the vanilla scent of the flowers. The large version is a true bully plant, spreading out and up to gain all the solar energy. However, the stalks can be trimmed back for better views of the roses and other garden plants.

Yesterday we were enjoying the Hummingbirds at the feeders, sipping and chasing each other away. Our best view was blocked by Joe Pye stalks, so I cut enough away individual stalks to offer a complete view of the feeding.

Obnoxious Weed Day - Some Are Born Bad

 Borage grows easily and attracts beneficial insects - aka Bee Bread.

One weed - now a tribe - has formed a colony in the butterfly garden. The yellow flowers produce seed, but the plant spreads through its roots.

As every gardener knows, if the good plants are doing well, the obnoxious weeds are spreading faster than the latest fib from synod headquarters.

The blessing of weeds is their immediate take-over of bare soil, their robust growth a sign of healthy soil, and their roots feeding the soil population.

Was it foolishness that drove my ancestors to break up the prairie grass soil of Illinois and Iowa, fast-tracking the modern polished steel plow? Not at all. The soil was so rich that a man jumping down from a wagon would feel the ground shimmy like a giant pudding under his feet.

The wealth of the Great Plains soil came from centuries of prairie grass, with roots 30 feet deep, the herds of bison consuming and processing the nitrogen rich plants. God created an area of rich farmland, absent trees, that was only rivaled by the Ukraine. Grass, soil creatures, and herds of buffalo provided a future food source for millions and farm implement jobs for thousands. In fact, John Deere's efforts along the Mississippi promoted even more factories and brought Swedish immigrants to work them.

Seeing the rainy days ahead, I decided to wipe out this weed in a series of lightning strikes - not with Round Up, but with my lopping shears. I walked about the three garden spaces and chopped them off at ground level. Soon the plants were on the ground donating the nitrogen they used before to invigorate the soil again.

Living roots feed the soil, so I know that - by divine decree - those roots will make the soil even richer as they struggle to rebuild the colony of weeds. They will return, but so will I.

Comfrey is the Borage's cousin - with similar flowers - but serves as a bully plant for filling in spaces the weeds want to grab.

One permanent solution is to grow bully plants. I coined that term for desirable plants we want to grow then regret their size and vigor.

The Beauty Berry bushes that I once watered in the dry season - they have grown in girth - like church officials. The single Comfrey - that cousin to the Borage flowers - has grown with age, mostly at the waistline.

 The Beauty Berries are photogenic - and birds love them in late fall. The plants become impressive bushes in time.

When the Rain Falls, I Plant Borage

Borage is a rather sloppy looking plant, a small version of its cousin Comfrey. Boroage is known for decorating salads and makding people feel good.

I told our neighbor couple, "When they predict rain, I water the garden." They laughed, because many rain predictions have come to nothing this summer. This one looked real, so I took the new package of Borage seed and spread it around the mulch, because it will easily germinate and grow there.

We have four mature plants now, within easy reach. Mrs. Ichabod likes to pull some flowers off each time she goes by them.

Gardening Know How
The borage companion plant is said to repel tomato worms and cabbage worms because borage attracts beneficial insects, such as bees and tiny wasps. As we know these are great plant pollinators, but they also repel garden pests. Additionally, borage works well in the garden alongside many types of herbs and flowers. So bring on the borage as a companion plant! Companion Planting with Borage Companion planting with borage is a rich subject. Borage has a reputation for improving the flavor and growth of strawberries. This may be due to the fact that it adds trace minerals to the soil. Borage leaves are known to contain potassium, calcium and Vitamin C.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Companion Planting With Borage – Plants That Grow Well With Borage
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/borage/companion-planting-with-borage.htm

Borage flowers come in pink and blue, so a jolly gardener may say the pink ones are girl flowes and the blue ones are boys. "Really?" No.

Borage is called Bee Bread because bees crawl over them all the time for food, and they drop seed because of it.

One study said that beneficial insects increased in the garden because of Borage, which does make sense. Even with Joe Pye, mints, daisies, myrtle, and other flowers in bloom, the insects will run into each other and look for other landing zones. I expect they also have specific liks for nectar and pollen.

The Painter Says
Sassy and I went out to walk between the episodes of rain, so we ended up with the painter's large family having a BBQ in the front yard. In the South we socialize in the front yard, and that is also a Mexican tradition.

He bought the rainbow collection of roses for his wife, $30 for five bare-root roses, so we talked gardening. His garden was obviously much bigger. He took my suggestion to move the sun-loving veggies to the sunny front yard.

He said, "The bush (Crepe Myrtle) never bloomed until you moved here. It just sat there."

I said, "I pruned it - just like roses. I put mulch, dead leaves and grass, and manure under it." He said, "And you water it."

Yes, I dote on it, and the Crepe Myrtle is the superstar of the neighborhood in all directions.

Comfrey - Set It and Forget It

 Comfrey has flowers similar to Borage and blooms all the time. The large plant tends to sprawl and gather insect holes, but it can be used to produce leaves for compost and mulch.

Comfrey builds self-esteem, because it sits there, grows, and flowers.

Weeds or Herbs? - Wait for the Flowers and Fruits

Borage flower.

Our helper came over with his children to help with the storm damage. We had a large pile of branches from the brief wind storm and additional pruning.

I pointed to the tall borage plant with six clusters of buds, the top one in bloom - "Your weed is doing well." Earlier, he was certain it was a weed, and I argued for borage. I said, "Wait for the flowers. Then we will know for sure." I was used to tiny borage plants in Phoenix. This one erupted out of mulch and newspaper layers, above composting sod and earthworm activity.

Next to it was another borage plant, easily matching its leaves, barely out of the mulch,  no longer a questionable stranger in the rose garden. Many people use delicate borage flowers to garnish a salad. They are so prolific that someone can harvest the flowers each day from one plant and have plenty more the next day. Meanwhile, they are dropping seed. Like dill, borage will volunteer forever.

Typical cluster of Borage.

Our neighbors are careful about maintaining their yards, but mysteriously reverent about preserving the weeds growing in the road and sidewalks. I am watching several on our morning walks. One seems to be a variety of milkweed, so I am waiting for it to bloom and fruit.

The conservative Lutherans have been complaining about the weeds growing in their synods for several decades. Christian News began its 50-year career as an advocate for various synodical politicians, all of them a vast disappointment.

I asked Robert Preus and John (Slick) Brenner the same question, "Why do your graduates hate Lutheran doctrine so much? The majority of them come from your system of education."

They agreed with me about the cause - "Bad training." Both synods--WELS and LCMS--were producing invasive weeds because the schools were busy sowing weed seeds, which are:

• Adoration of Holy Mother Synod, infallible and indefectible.
• Neglect of the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace.
• Knowledge of the 10,000 unwritten rules of the synod while abusing the Ten Commandments.
• Debate of the trivial in order to avoid the real doctrinal issues.

The ladies guild celebrating Halloween -
coming to a synod near you.

WELS and Missouri turned away from justification by faith and focused fanatically on Walther's peculiar justification without faith (UOJ). Walther borrowed his dogma from the Founder, Bishop Martin Stephan, whose open adultery with his young female groupies meant they shared his syphilis, which killed his wife and most of his children. Walther was just as much an Antinomian dictator as his former boss, so the followers fell into line and adopted his peculiar dogma. Walther institutionalized it by teaching, writing, and forcing his parrot F. Pieper upon the synod.

Good seed flourishes, too - if given a chance.

WELS clergy always whine about Missouri bullying them and forcing their little seminary to close for a time. No one thinks to say, "You mean the way WELS treats the ELS as its sock-puppet today?" That would be blasphemy because the Wisconsin sect is god almighty in their eyes.

The Wauwatosa museum of Walther delusions suffered from the training of its faculty, proud alumni of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Their preening and boasting reads like a hollow version of CFW Walther at his worst.

Wauwatosa institutionalized UOJ, its secret GA initiation rites, and crazy claims - like Wayne Mueller claiming the Confessions advocate a constant changing doctrine. No one can argue with Wayne, another UOJ Stormtrooper, because Holy Mother Synod appointed him, in spite of his lack of scholarship and ability.

Panning was a weak Mequon president (but strong on UOJ). Valleskey was a horrible seminary president (fanatical on UOJ and Church Growth). Wendland is a clown about about four issues -

1. UOJ.
2. Feminist agenda.
3. Church Growth. 
4. Rupert Murdoch's NIV.

When justification by faith and Christ-centered worship services were dominant in the Olde Synodical Conference, the synods bore fruit, in spite of the efforts of the wolves to force their false doctrine on everyone. The Instruments of Grace always bear fruit, so the lupine leaders coasted on the efforts of faithful leaders from the past,

1. who visited members instead of the gym, 
2. who wrote their own sermons instead of plagiarizing them, 
3. who thought nothing of serving the same congregation for decades.

Luther observed that the weeds of false doctrine are sterile. They flower and fruit, but the crop is useless. That is the difference between a useful plant like borage and another prolific seeder like crab-grass. No one sells crab grass seed because no one needs to. Yards are green with crab grass right now, and its slender seed stalks are rising above the lawn to perpetuate the reign of digitaria. Crab grass must be pulled up or poisoned - harsh methods indeed. No wonder it flourishes.

The Lutheran clergy are doing little to combat the weed growth in their sects. The best rebukes are coming from the laity. Some say, "The laity have nothing to lose." In fact, they are losing Lutheran worship and doctrine, which is everything. They may be thinking about their children and grandchildren, how the congregations of the 1960s were mostly liturgical - in all synods - and now they are not. They may worry that the worst weed patches grow around the synodical headquarters cities.

Weeds and Herbs - Mix and Match. Borage Gives Courage and Volunteers Like Dill

Borage flowers are so bee friendly
that they are often called bee bread.

Here is a good article on bee bread.

Our helper pointed toward a plant with coarse leaves and asked what it was. I was not sure at first, because I planted a number of seeds in the rose garden. He said, "I think it is a weed." I thought not - maybe borage, an herb. I grew it in Phoenix, and it did well there, but the plants were small. This plant was attacked by insects but grew tall anyway. Now the top is ready to bloom and set seed. Like dill, it will seed itself easily.

Borage flowers are edible and often used to garnish a salad. The plant has a little rhyme in Latin, describing its virtue as an herb, which translates as -

I borage,

Give thee courage.

Some see a coarse plant that insects chew -
I see an easy to grow herb that attracts bees.

The flowers are pink and blue, giving me a chance to say "The pink ones are girls and the blue ones are boys."

I went through the rose garden, looking for opportunistic weeds. They hate to be trimmed, so I trim them. They would rather be rooted out of the mulch, which would expose more weed seed for germination. So I use trimmers to cut them back to the base. One is witchgrass, seeking new points to create roots. Another is crabgrass, a productive seed producer - snip. Dandelion is a beneficial herb, so I let it sink down its taproot, but I trim away the leaves and flower stalk.

Mulch will have weeds because the seeds are in the air. They only need sunlight and some moisture to start their work.

Dill is easily identified by its aroma and delicate flowers.

Dill is known for being stronger as a volunteer than when first planted. The plant is attractive, aromatic, and fun to grow. I used to harvest the seeds to eat with ripe tomatoes from the garden. Warning - do not get used to garden tomatoes - they have flavor, even more so with dill.

Herbs are a good education for gardening. They either help nearby plants, or attract beneficial insects, or boost the compost - all while contributing health to us.

Before WWII, all pharmacy was based on herbs. They had little more than herbs to help people.Peasants used moldy bread on infections long before we began using and abusing penicillin.

The Rodale Press book on herbs is good to read. Herbs are often humble plants that look like weeds and get along on any kind of soil. Some grow better on poor soil than on good soil. Was that planned by the Creator?

Mulch Away
We continue to expand the backyard garden area for the spring. We are facing a critical shortage of newspapers. We used the last of them last night. My favorite item is a pile of soggy newspapers. What the world despises, God uses for the good.

Soggy newspaper stay put in the wind, which was a problem last night for the dry pages. Wet newsprint will attract earthworms and other creatures of rot to turn yesterday's journalism into the best soil - while suppressing weeds.

One part of the new vegetable garden is not really planted, so grassy weeds were growing up fast. That is simply green manure. I put soggy newspapers and mulch on top, and now that area is composting 100%. It is attractive with cypress mulch instead of unkempt with grassy weeds.

Except for poison ivy and a few other toxic plants, most weeds will become beneficial when denied sunlight or composted.

Loaded with nutrition, great at volunteering,
this herb has spawned the ideal industry.
Dandelions will never go away,
but people pay millions to dream that it might.