Snipping the Weed from the Rose

 Clethra - they cost as little as a rose, last long and grow well, attract butterflies, and exude Cinnabon fragrance.

From high atop my perch on the front porch - several inches above the Rose Garden - I look for trouble. I am often surprised by the wonders of Creation, weak roses growing a perfect bloom.

I also look - not very hard - for weeds. We have some days of rain ahead, which I tried to ensure by watering the rose garden. It is a good time to strike out a few weeds. One was growing parallel with one of the long-term roses.

Mrs. Ichabod said, "Roses are on sale. QVC. $64 for 8, free shipping." That started the Rose Garden, and some continue to bloom.

The way I took out the weed was to snip each bit of growth at the soil level, then trim the rose a little. Weeds hate to be cut and roses love it, so the pruning shears are doubly useful - almost as if this was all planned at Creation.

That weed was adding to the soil and still is. I could do more weeding but a lot of the flowers grow together if they are long lasting. The Bee Balms and Joe Pye are so healthy and tall that Mrs. Gardener came over for a tour  - and left with a quadruple Veterans Honor rose.

The best Joe Pye is going to bloom at 8 feet tall, and the Bee Balms are waist and shoulder high. Now I have groups of plants crowding others.

Mrs. Gardener observed, "You need to lay down a pathway with paving stones." I said, "That has become a necessity. They grow up so fast."

Fortunately, the hardware stores want to unload equipment and extras in the beat-down heat-stroke weather of July in Arkansas. I pounce on things I might use and will use. I bought a concrete bird bath for a few dollars. A kiddie pool is $3 at the right time, later when the autumn winds eliminate the urge to splash around.

 Norma Boeckler created this Photofunia of a cat trying to touch the bird in a Norma Boeckler painting. I always have a cardinal couple in our yard, feeding and bathing.

Tending the New and the Older Roses

Julia Child is one of the showcase roses (clearance - ha!)

Yesterday I planted the last bare root rose (rainbow collection, clearance, free shipping). That rose was already leafed out - green leaves growing from the stem. Pale leaves often do not mean much, but these get some overhead sun while soaking.

People forget the "early rain and the latter rain."

Joel 2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

Deuteronomy 11:14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

The early rain germinates the seed, so the roots follow the water downward, making the plant more stable and able to stay healthy.

The latter rain brings the plant to fruition, quite an energy demand as the flower turns into a case of food enclosing seed.

This only happens because plants are comprised of cells which are clusters of chemical factories, each one having specific tasks and outcomes.

Gardening should mean observing the principles of Creation, not the fads promoted by the hardware store.

This year I have left more roses in more rainwater than ever before. The first were the Veterans Honor, which also benefited from a combination of lengthy rains and sunshine, not just one or the other. Their jump into blooming startled me and the Military Gardening Group as well. We had bunches of flowers, intensely red. "Look at that one. Look at this one - five blooming at once!

The first and second rainbow selection (don't start on me) proved that a rose soaking in water longer would leaf out faster than its buddy that was planted first. Today I watered all five. The first two, planted first because they should be showpieces, are still rather bare of leaves. The last three are leafed out in green.

Yes, the types could make a difference - and so should the size of the bare root plant. This is not science, but I am more credible Faux-ci.

Some are pretty big and stout (the showpieces) so they would need longer to be saturated with rain.

My advice, based on experience, is to soak bare root roses in rainwater (or stored water, free of chlorine) with the stems out of the water, sunlight allowed.

 Heirloom Rose - another clearance rose - times 3 - for $10 each, not $39.

Part Deux

I like the French sound - Part Deux.

After roses are planted, I dote on the canes and keep them moist daily with a watering can (rainwater or stored water). Early in the morning is good; late in the day will make the slugs happy.

Water droplets do not burn plants.

The top layer of every rose planting is a generous amount of Peat Humus or compost. Compost is great if you like hauling, stirring, and hauling tons of plant material. Peat Humus is inexpensive, easy to wheelbarrow to the right place, and not full of weeds.

I like using large amounts of mulch around the rose bush. This suppresses weeds and marks the bush so it is not bumped over, "weeded," or neglected. Wood mulch is attractive, too.

Calm Down about Weeds

Every living root should be kept in the soil as long as possible. I have a patch in the Rose Garden that went wild last year. We mowed it down, but it comes back strong. The good side is that the weeds are building the soil, 75% of additions come from roots. They also penetrate the clay soil, break it up, and send rain down their root systems for many different benefits.

I can prune a weed away from a rose, perhaps planted by a prankster squirrel who knows his treasure is protected. Squirrels all have degrees from MIT (Mammalian Institute of Treachery), so do not doubt their intentions.

Hauling weeds away is not my passion. I add them to the mulch layer or tuck them in a convenient place. All the rain gutter trash - a veritable greenhouse of new plants and compost - went to the Blackberry patch.

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.

Creation Gardening - Weeds, Guardians of the Soil

 Do not laugh - this is a classic.

I enjoy most weeds. They come and go with the season, and few are truly obnoxious. There is no reason to become herbicidal just because the garden does not look like a magazine cover. Here are some kind and gentle observations about common weeds.

Weeds break up soil and supply nutrients through their root system. They also protect the soil surface from wind erosion.

Poke Weed is a salad eaten in the South, provided the leaves are boiled twice. The berries may be a bit toxic - they are rumored to be good for people. I found them insipid, not tempting enough to make me healthy or sick.

 The Poke berries grow fast wherever the plant appears, even in sidewalk cracks.

Besides the obvious insects, Poke provides shelter for many more kinds. The branches are good for perching and preening birds.

Poke Weed

They claim Poke can grow 30 feet tall, but its strength comes from growing anywhere, airborne by its consumption and planting by birds. I have seen it growing and flowering in sidewalk cracks, but flourishing beyond belief in the front and back gardens.

Poke berries are loved by 60 species of birds, so a tree branch or trunk is a natural starting point for their takeover. I cut them off at soil level in the rose garden, so they become mulch. In the backyard garden areas they are free to grow.

 The roots for beverage, the flowers for wine, the leaves for salad, the seed fluffs for hummingbird nests - and some try to kill them?

Dandelions

These vilified and herbicided herbs - yes herbs - have not been pulled or sprayed in the rose garden. They do not spread as feared by so many. Their taproots are good for the soil and their blooms serve the hummingbirds for nesting material. They are good for salad greens and dandelion wine, without being garnished by 2-4tx-75DDT toxins. I do not harvest them for food or wine, but I enjoy their cheerful flowers and good manners.

Wild Strawberry - 

The Friendly Blanket of Green with Tiny Rubies

I found our yard supporting wild strawberries, blooming and fruiting in the deepest shade of the house. I had the same reaction as the Swedes landing in New York - "If this is New York City, what must Lindsborg, Kansas be like?" I transplanted wild strawberries before realizing that the birds were better at it than I. Add stumps, Creation Gardeners, and the birds will plant their favorites.

I now have masses of them in the back gardens, where I throw seeds for the birds and, and in the rose garden, where they get plenty of rain, watering, and sun. Their growth is dense on top and the roots shallow, like their larger relatives, which I am not allowed or tempted to eat.

The Green Wall

And the Rustic Fence

The distant back yard was largely unusable. Ranger Bob and Mrs. Ichabod conspired to place the tool shed in the middle, halfway back. "Aha," I thought, "We can put a rustic fence up from the dying tree we cut down.

All I did was stretch the logs across the middle of the backyard, with the tool shed in the middle. Ranger Bob had backyard landscaping ideas - and so did I. The birds loved the various levels and quirky branches of the logs. Besides that, logs on the soil foster decaying wood soil life - sowbugs, pillbugs, earthworms, beetles, toads to feed and toads as food.

Later, Bob looked out the backdoor and said, "Your plants are perfect." I said, "Bob, the birds planted the green fence for me."
Today, in mid-May, the green wall they planted is 10 feet tall, graced by the two elderberry bushes I planted on each side of the tool shed.

The far backyard area is a delightful (to wildlife) tangle of weeds, orphaned Butterfly Bushes, berry plants, etc.

Weeds and Roots in the Creation Garden

Weeds and roots are assets in the Creation Garden, though few will concede this guiding principle. Weeds are Guardians of the Soil, to borrow the name of a famous, radical book. When soil has been wrecked by floods, wind storms, and scientific agriculture, weed seeds fly in and are planted by birds to begin the task of renewing the soil.

According to the Carbon Cowboys, roots provide 75% of the increase in the soil's fertility. Deep roots increase the infiltration of rainwater, which helps prevent runoff that carries away good soil.

 Carbon Cowboys - Gabe Brown and his son - it is all about the soil.

A gardener's impulse is to remove weeds, but what folly!

The dandelion is simply an herb brought over by Europeans for its many good qualifies. The leaves are nutritious. The flowers are so sweet they can be turned into dandelion wine, and the roots make a coffee substitute. The fluff of the seeds is used by birds to line their nests. The tap roots are deep, so they are beneficial for the soil and soil creatures.

 Poke berries are not tasty, supposedly medicinal,
but also toxic to some extent. Birds love them.

Poke Weed is a southern plant valued by some for salad, when the leaves are prepared correctly. Over 60 species of birds love the berries.  Insects crowd the flowers before they turn into fruit. The berries are somewhat toxic, but not for birds. God decided to make many berries delicious for birds but repulsive for humans, so the birds have their own crops growing in their favorite areas.

Wild Strawberries flourish where the birds of our gardens perch. Their thick mat of leaves and berries suppress other weeds, so they are welcome early decorations in the garden. They grow well in shade or sun.

Hog Peanuts is a tall, strange-looking nitrogen fixer, so it improves the soil. A landscaper taught me to trim unwanted plants at the soil level. That works well for these ungainly plants. I cannot yank them out of the ground, and I will not use weed-killer on a good (but homely) plant. I know it will come back and drape itself over some good plants, so I just reduce its size.

Hog peanuts are not this dainty most of the summer. They send up a long, tough stem with big leaves.

Deplorable Plants Have Their Adorable Qualities

Cute, but no, leave the soil alone as much as possible.

Even recently, I saw weeds as deplorable interlopers, taking water and sunshine from the choice, chosen plants.

Gabe Brown changed my attitude by saying, "Keep living roots in the soil as long as possible. They add energy."

Before I saw weeds as good potential for turning into compost when the life-giving sunlight was cut off. But now I am humbled by the reminder that every plant invites all of Creation to give and take, to bargain for nutrition (debris for bacteria and earthworms) and to receive digested nutrition from fungus. One plant is growing miles of root hairs and energizing billions of microbes. As Brown said, plant roots provide most of the organic matter in the soil. The goal of regenerative farmers is to put as much carbon into the soil as possible, so the buzz-words are:

1. Carbon Cowboys
2. Soil Food Web
3. Organic
4. Regenerative
5. Cover Crops
6. Composting
7. Earthworms
8. Teaming with Microbes
9. Teaming with Fungi.

No one has borrowed Creation Gardening from me, but I am not going to trademark a name so obviously nicked from the Scriptures. Google or YouTube the terms above and plenty of good illustrations will follow.

How the Deplorables Became Adorable
When I see a plant growing where it should not be, it is the abomination of desolation. Here are some that converted my primordial anger into benevolent feelings.

Dandelions
They are herbs brought over. Birds use their seed fluff. In terms of soil health, they puncture the lower levels and bring up calcium. No more useless collecting of egg shells in the false hope that they will add calcium to the soil. I cut them for greens (extra nutritious salad) but let them grow otherwise. They do not spread outrageously, and if they did, their sunny yellow flowers are cheerful, not threatening.

Poke
The Poke plant can be 20 feet tall and opens up its fast-growing branches to reach out in every direction. Pokeweed is prepared as salad in the South, but that means boiling it first - because of toxins. And the berries are also toxic to us. But where is the sin in sincerely, as the Music Man asked.

Poke has devilishly deep roots and is perennial. That is a high energy plant doing the work that fancy, expensive plants won't do. Pokeberries are loved by 60+ species of birds and animals, so it is a living, breathing, soil-improving, free bird-feeder. Secondly, its tiny flowers attract beneficial insects, so it is actually protecting the roses.

Wild Strawberries
I always liked them as little red rubies growing in the grass and thriving under the trees, but they invaded the rose garden too. Then I repented of the evil I said against them. They may surround a rose, but they are living mulch that energizes the topsoil and attracts poopy birds at the same time. If the birds graze and fertilize at the same time, the soil is gaining.

 Sow Thistle is sowicked.

Sow Thistle
I saw this plant growing in the front yard, and let it grow. The young plant looked like a dandelion but not quite. As it grew larger, I saw the tiny bristles, which meant - thistles! Burn, destroy, hack, pull!

This weed was almost shoulder high when I dug it out, along with a few others. The wildest impulses could not get me to let big thistles grow in the yard. Nevertheless, the weed is definitely a soil energizer.

The seeds might have blown in from Almost Eden, where some soil berms are allowed to grow wild, an interesting lab in botany. Sassy and I look it over several times a week, for different reasons.

One way to use a half-grown thistle is to dig/pull it out and compost it. I throw the treasure behind the bushes, where sunlight is blocked, or into the compost pile, which is in the shade. A weed clump is packed with soil creatures, good soil, and plant material ready to decompose.

Dutch White Clover spreads by seed and by the roots.

I Liked These Before the Lawn-lovers Did
Clovers -
They build nitrogen in the soil, feed the bees, and lend a bubblegum fragrance to the air. I have Dutch White Clover in the lawn and gardens, but I also broadcast Crimson Clover in the Wild Garden. Crimson Clover can grow very large, even waist high.

 More than a rock song by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts,
Crimson Clover is valued as a cover crop.

Little Lawn Weeds -
They seldom last long. The purplish mint weed covered vast areas of lawn in the area and invaded our little patch of grass in the back. A few weeks later, it disappeared.

Others bloom with tiny yellow, blue, or white flowers. They fade quickly but they feed the beneficial insects, which are tiny and need tiny flowers.

Using broad-leaf weed killer will wipe these out early and leave bare patches in the soil. If the lawn is near trees, the bare patches often remain open, making the top soil too hot and vulnerable to wind and water erosion.

 Creeping Charlie. Many weeds annoy us
by cheerfully spreading, no matter what we do.
Most man-made treatments hurt the soil and ultimately
benefit the soil.

Weeds Galore in the Heat and Rains of August. Gardening Is Weeding, Just as Sound Doctrine Demands Discernment

Pokeweed is not invited into the garden.
Pokeweed comes on its own, via birds.

Answer to Weeds Galore

If anyone wonders why the same plant has so many names, just ask people what a particular weed is. The answers vary and those names doubtless get passed on to others. In Phoenix, this was common, where the Monarch butterfly was never seen but named when a Viceroy showed up. Weeds were confidently given the wrong name.

I bought a large book on Weeds of the West and learned a lot about how to distinguish one from another.  One way to tell a minister is a gardener is when he lists a Wednesday service as a Mid-Weed Service. And yet it is true. Gardening, weeding, and theology go together.

Our primary weeds at this time are

1. Crabgrass
2. Bermudagrass, aptly called Wiregrass, and Devil's Grass
3. Pokeweed

Crabgrass made an early showing in the spring, but regular mowing took care of it. We are now in the second phase, where healthy rain and hot days make it the cut-rate grain it was imported to be, able to generate thousands of of seeds per plant. 

Bermudagrass is fussy about watering and shade, needing water and hating shade. It is also the premier late summer pest. "Would that it were fall," the literate gardener mutters, borrowing from Henry V.

Pokeweed is not fussy about any conditions, growing under any bird roost, crack in the sidewalk, garden. Pokeweed will grow a few inches tall, flower, fruit, and lend its tasty toxic berries to one of 60 species of birds that eat and plant it. In ideal conditions - my mulched gardens - Pokeweed will grow more than 8 feet tall, spread out on every side, and produce a bountiful harvest of berries for the birds.

Learning about weeds is similar to comparative dogmatics, the area where various confessions of faith are described and distinguished from each other. For instance, one pretty vine growing in the shade of bushes is a Woody Nightshade, with flowers very much like a tomato's, because it is also a Nightshade.

The strength of each weed is also its weakness. Crabgrass spreads out wide and defies the lawn-worshiper to kill it, which would leave a large RoundUp fallout zone, uglier than Crabgrass itself. But that is also a great chance to gather up its crab legs in one bundle and yank hard after a rain. 

Bermudagrass prospers when it gets what it wants, so shading it will weakens its access to solar power and make survivors easy to pull. Those that reach out for sunshine from under the mulch will be weak and vulnerable.

Pokeweed is my free birdfeeder, if it shows some discretion and manners. We have one almost as large as our giant, rainwater-supplied  Butterfly Bush. That Pokeweed is providing us with screening and shade, the birds with perches and future berries. In another place, the same gigantic growth was not welcome. I could not cut the base with my sharp rose shears. How sharp? I casually nicked my finger brushing against the blade and began fertilizing the soil with my blood, bandaged immediately.

I could not cut that woody-stemmed Pokeweed, so I got out the tree trimmers, making it fall over like Jack's Beanstalk reaching up toward heaven.

Nota bene (2nd singular, because "no one reads the blog" - otherwise notate bene) - I do not list Dandelion, an herb, as a weed. I welcome them as potential salad greens, as seed fluff for birds' nests, and as taproot miners of calcium from the soil deep below. I welcome them in the rose gardens where they do not dominate, take over, or give me any grief. Likewise, they are relatively rare in the lawn.

Comparative Dogmatics

Various Christian groups can be grouped, using taxonomy - as we do for plants, by their distinctive characteristics. Christian groups have common histories, favorite authors, and obvious characteristics.

This is a field that always fascinated me, even before Notre Dame. But at Notre Dame, the classes were ideal for long-term study in depth. At the time, the theology faculty included a Jewish rabbi, a Mennonite seminary professor, a Seminex Lutheran pastor, a Jesuit, the future president of Notre Dame (Holy Cross priest), a Dutch Remonstrant (liberal) pastor, a Methodist theologian and ethics professor, and assorted Roman Catholics, including several liberation theolians and a Pentecostal priest.

Calvinists

The true Calvinists and their liberal offspring have rationalism in common. Calvin was a rationalist, so his solemn declarations began with reason judging the Word. By the way, a kind word of Sig Becker, his best book was about Luther and Calvin on reason and the Word - The Foolishness of God.

This rationalism emerges in Stage 4 Pietism, which climaxed at Halle University and spread through Lutherdom.

• Separating the Holy Spirit from the Word
• Treating the Sacraments as ordinances
• Reason judges the Word

Quasi-Christian cults seem to have sprung from Calvinism. This creation of Zwingli and Calvin - with its rejection of the Means of Grace and mocking of the Sacraments - gave birth to the Anabaptists: Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish.

Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Dogma

If one wants the beginning of worshiping worship, which is rampant in ELCA-LCMS-ELDONUTs, just look at Roman Catholic influence through its gay training center at Notre Dame. Every denomination studies there. Notre Dame is considered #1 in America for getting a PhD in worship. When I was at ND, two of the worship professors were known atheists. Digest that for a while, unless you are used to apostate mainline leaders in WELS-LCMS-ELCA.

Rome is the only true Church, incapable of error

• The pope - and all clergy teaching in harmony with the pope - cannot err in in doctrine. The Holy Spirit will not allow error in teaching.
• Justification by Faith means "faith adorned by good works." Justification by Faith is rejected and condemned.
• Since nobody can do enough adorning with good works, Purgatory is promised.
• Jesus is a law-giver, and Moses is the savior.
• Mary is given the attributes of Jesus - kindness, mercy, love, and forgiveness. Mary commands Jesus to be compassionate.

Reformation Lutheran Doctrine

The doctrine of the Lutheran Reformation is distinguished by:

• Justification by Faith is the Chief Article of Christianity, the Master and Prince, the judge of all other articles of faith.
• The efficacy of the Word (Isaiah 55:8-10) is the foundation of all teaching, the Spirit always working with the Word, the Word always working with the Spirit.
• God's graces comes only through the Means of Grace, so the Sacraments are the visible Word - Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.

WELS/ELS Dogma - LCMS Is Mixed - But the LCMS Leaders Agree with  WELS/ELS

• Rejects and condemns Justification by Faith and teaches Objective Justification (universal absolution without faith) as the Chief Article (Zarling, Bivens, Buchholz, Webber).
• Teaches that the synodical leaders cannot err, because "the Holy Spirit has put them in their office."
• Gladly works with ELCA on one hand, but also worshiping with and learning under liberal Babtists, Pentecostals, and other Pietistic sects.

 WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) babies are trained from birth
to give others the stink-eye.

ELCA Dogma

• Teaches Universalism, like the leaders of WELS-ELS-LCMS-CLC (sic) and mocks Justification by Faith.
• Rejects the Holy Trinity, described by the "confessional" ELCA dogmatics as simply "The Father, the man Jesus, and the spirit of the believing community."
• Rejects Biblical inerrancy and cannot grasp the Atonement.
• Ordains women, has women bishops, and practices pan-sexuality.
• Loves to work with LCMS and WELS/ELS, but only on ELCA's terms.

Pokeweed, Fireweed, Butterfly Weed - Hummingbirds, Butterflies, Beneficials and Birds

Fireweed or Burnweed - Erechtites hieraciifolius
Daisy family - native to America.

Several tall weeds were growing in the corn patch this summer. I could not identify them, but they fit the description of "every plant has a weed that looks just like it." They were not just tall - they grew to 8 feet before starting to bud. That is where I had them - "By their fruits you will know know them. A good plant cannot bear evil fruit, and a weed, ever so tall, cannot bear good fruit." Weeds are best at crowding out good plants and reproducing themselves.

False teachers like Jon Buchholz, Paul Kelm, Jay Webber, Mark Jeske, and Paul McCain have to crowd out faithful pastors, because they must grab all the sunlight - glory - for themselves. They are deeply offended and scandalized that any pastor could work in a congregation without their approval. Notice that these five spend little or no time doing any pastoral work.

Whatever the issue for the moment, there are weedlike clergy who make it their cause to undermine whatever is correct, good, noble, and faithful to the Word. For instance, The ALC of 1960 had a group of clergy who fought against the inerrancy of the Scriptures, the same battle Franklin C. Fry began much earlier.

Fry would not even discuss women's ordination, but his granddaughter was ordained in the very church body he organized, the LCA. Thus his battle against Biblical inerrancy bore fruit in passing what he would not even debate.

The apostate Lutherans have eliminated justification by faith from the official position of their sects - even from their New NIV Bibles, because the Holy Spirit can be voted upon and repudiated by these morons - at least in their imaginations. Now they pounce on any outbreak of the Gospel, even while fund-raising for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.

The UOJ fanatics are like the weeds that cover every patch of broken ground, opportunistic and aggressive  but never fruitful.

Fireweed buds - Erechtites hieraciifolius

Ah yes, fruitful. I waited for my tall, slender weed to flower and fruit until I saw buds forming. Stretching up, I grabbed some and took them inside. Looking up "tall weeds" on Google did not help until I switched over the Google Images. Another plant altogether is called Fireweed, but it is red.

I identified the ones in my corn patch and began reading.

The red stems made me think of Pigweed.

Pokeweed berries are bright red, ripening to black.
Birds love them but they are toxic to humans.

Pokeweed is another splendid example of weeds in the wild areas of the yard. Queen Ann's Lace gave up early after seeding, but Pokeweed kept growing, branching, and fruiting - first with red berries, then ripening to black.

Birds like to eat Pokeweed, so there is no need to plant more of it. The weed is easily cut down or left as berries for the birds. When I thought it was Pigweed, Almost Eden said "A little goes a long way." The same can be said of Pokeweed.

Converting the Vegetable Garden and Corn Patch
Clearly I do not have enough sun for growing food on the West side of the house, the backyard. That may puzzle some, but I have a combination of trees in the backyard plus giant old growth trees west of our home. We get a pleasant amount of sunshine now, thanks to our landscaper neighbor who pruned like he was Paul Bunyan. But there is not enough solar energy for the plants to  flourish and fruit.

We can buy fresh vegetables a mile away and grow plants for birds, hummingbirds, bees, beneficial insects, and butterflies in our backyard. I have just become aware of fun perennials to grow, so that will be on my mind during the fall and winter.

Walmart has the right plants in season and even better - clearance tables as the plants get closer to composting. Our helper has been talking about propagating many plants for free. I sent him home with about 500 crepe myrtle seeds from our pruning.

Weeds Are Opportunistic Plants - And Very Good at What They Do

Think of the green leaves as vitamins for humans and for the soil

Weeds Are Opportunists
People become vexed over weeds, because they do not understand them as opportunistic plants. Their abundant seeds are either in the soil already or in the air, so one only needs to stir up or expose soil to get weed growth.

The book Weeds: Guardians of the Soil made the following point. When a field is left alone weeds take over, protect, and renew the soil. Good , strong weeds also indicate the health of the soil beneath. Besides that, the type of weed reveals what kind of soil is below.

Weeds are good because they branch out in a net to hold down soil and keep it from blowing or running away, from wind or water erosion. They produce a lot of organic matter that drops down and feeds the soil creatures. The tap root weeds (dandelion, goosefoot, pigweed) also mine the minerals from deep down.

The home and garden industry is never going to tell the truth about weeds, because sales of useless weed killer and weed barriers would plummet. Scott's Lawn and Garden would have close down or become a day care center, where little children learn about plants and want to grow up to kill weeds.

I am not always sure about weeds. Some grassy looking weeds in the rose garden and vegetable garden turned into grape hyacinths planted by a previous renter, really stunning in color and quite healthy looking.

Right now we have a colorful outbreak of dandelions, an herb brought over for its many good properties. The leaves are rich in Vitamin C and A and calcium.

Birds like the fluff of the dandelion seed,
especially hummingbirds.

Nutrition and You - Dandelions - Mrs. Ichabod is having some now.

• Fresh leaves are very low in calories; providing just 45 calories per 100 g. It is also good source of dietary fiber (provide about 9% of RDA per 100 g). In addition, its latex is a good laxative. These active principles in the herb help reduce weight and control cholesterol levels in the blood.
• Dandelion root as well as other plant parts contains bitter crystalline compounds Taraxacin, and an acrid resin, Taraxacerin. Further, the root also contains inulin (not insulin) and levulin. Together, these compounds are responsible for various therapeutic properties of the herb.
• Fresh dandelion herb provides 10161 IU of vitamin-A per 100 g, about 338% of daily-recommended intake, one of the highest source of vitamin-A among culinary herbs. Vitamin A is an important fat-soluble vitamin and anti-oxidant, required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin and vision.
• Its leaves are packed with numerous health benefiting flavonoids such as carotene-β, carotene-α, lutein, crypto-xanthin and zea-xanthn. Consumption of natural foods rich in vitamin-A and flavonoids (carotenes) helps body protect from lung and oral cavity cancers. Zeaxanthin has photo-filtering functions and protects retina from UV rays.
• The herb is good source of minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids, which helps regulate heart rate and blood pressure. Iron is essential for red blood cell production. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.
• It is also rich in many vital vitamins including folic acid, riboflavin, pyridoxine, niacin, vitamin -E and vitamin-C that are essential for optimum health. Vitamin-C is a powerful natural antioxidant. Dandelion greens provide 58% of daily-recommended levels of vitamin-C.
• Dandelion is probably the richest herbal sources of vitamin K; provides about 650% of DRI. Vitamin-K has potential role in bone mass building by promoting osteotrophic activity in the bones. It also has established role in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in the brain.

Dandelion herb contains notable nutrients and is a great source of nutrition during winter
This humble backyard herb provides (%of RDA/100g)-
9% of dietary fiber,
19% of vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine),
20% of Riboflavin,
58% of vitamin C,
338% of vitamin A,
649% of vitamin K,
39% of iron and
19% of calcium. 

No Toxins? Eat away.
We use no sprays or toxins in the yard, so it is easy to eat the weeds. Chris ate the dandelion greens I just brought in. I like goosefoot.

Browsing in a flourishing garden provides endless opportunities to enjoy fresh produce too, such as dipping tomatoes warm from the sun in dill harvested by hand.






Jackson Mulch
A layer of newspapers, held down by wood mulch, will keep almost all weeds from growing around the desirable plants.

More importantly, this treatment will improve the soil so much that future digging will be easy, fun, and filled with earthworms tumbling out. Sometimes the babies are wiggling around. At other times a mature worm will slowly emerge from a lump of soil, to investigate the sudden appearance of light.

Our heavy clay soil is a a bear to dig on bad days and impossible when the clay is dried out. But after a winter of Jackson Mulch, the same soil is easy to dig and productive. Then I dig the hole for the plant or rake open a trench for the seeds. I push back the loose soil and mulch to close the wound and tamp it down with a rake or my foot - lightly. No stomping on fresh seed.

Weeds for Compost
Gardeners are not going to like crabgrass in the compost bin, but they can be composted under Jackson Mulch.

Large taproot weeds are perfect for composting. They are green, full of moisture and nitrogen, eaasy to cut down or pull up. Greens will heat up the compost and help it break down faster, but there is nothing wrong with slow composting and the results from autumn leaves.

Wild Strawberries
Our wild strawberries are growing across the back of the house, where the two gardens meet the wall. They have plenty of water and sun, already putting out their yellow blooms. The fruits are like little rubies, but I am not tempted. Two days of eating strawberry smoothies left me with two days of lower GI agony.

The wild strawberries are for the birds, and I plan to grow more berries in the future.

Norma Boeckler's Stream

Weeds, Spiders, and Bugs

I bought praying mantis egg cases in the past,
to establish them in the garden. Mantids love asparagus bugs.
LI took care of asparagus bugs with two blocks of wood.

Lawns
Scott's Lawn and Garden talks people into putting inorganic nitrogen on their lawns, so can mow thick grass, bag it, and have it hauled away. A mulching lawnmower puts the grass back onto the lawn where it can be pulled into the soil to feed earthworms and the entire soil structure. Fresh-mown grass is a hot (high nitrogen) component for compost, so why not compost on the spot, where it is needed?

Grass enjoys frequent mowing, but weeds hate being cut. They want to spread out like dandelions and crabgrass, or grow tall like goosefoot and pigweed. Therefore, a good lawn is mulch-mowed a bit long but on regular basis. The weeds are weakened by this while contributing their cuttings to the lawn, which will overcrowd them in time by being fed.

A Creation gardener will snip away the leaves of a dandelion growing on top of his mulch in the rose garden, allowing the herb to continue to drill down and soften the soil. Moreover, the root hairs feed the ocean of life beneath the soil, so bacteria can feed the earthworms and concentrate nutrition while blending it it the gizzard and gut.

Garden spider.

Spiders
Facebook features regular freak-outs over spiders, including videos of these hideous monsters. When I see a web across the plants or mulch, I smile, because the spiders are catching pests for me. I do see a bit of damage from grasshoppers and other insects, but not much at all. They like young, tender, weak plants. If I have enough planted, everyone is fed and happy. Their feast is only going to attract hungry spiders, so the balance is quickly restored if I do not spray down the plants with insecticide, which will kill all the beneficial creatures at the same time.

My question before spraying is - "Do I want this on my tomatoes and beans?" The answer is never - "Yes!"

I have never been been harmed by spiders or bees in the garden. Sometimes a hornet has dive-bombed me while painting a house, but that has never led to a sting.

The vast number of beneficial insects will displace the harmful ones. In fact, many of them will dine on the harmful ones. If someone bombs his yard with insecticide, the tough bad insects will come back.

My neighbor sprayed twice for mosquitoes. He said they came back at once, doubtless because the sprayer merely created an empty area for the pests to come back in droves from every other yard.

Morning dew on a spider web.

Worried about Weeds? Get Out of Gardening

You see a weed - I see food  that rabbits love,
a nutritious herb, a soil improver,
and compost material

A grandmother rebuked the grandchildren, when they complained about weeding. "Without weeds, everyone would be a gardener."

Our helper said, "The weeds are coming through the mulch. What are we going to do?"

I pointed out that the line of weeds developed where we expanded the rose garden. The grassy weeds found the weak-spot and sent up tentative strands. I have a fresh supply of newspapers, so we will put a layer in on top of the weeds and add some black dyed mulch. Sassy and I must return to Lowe's for mulch.

The sunny garden is weedier because we put the mulch on top of grass, without a newspaper layer to shut out all sunlight. I wanted to see how that worked - and it did not. I was counting on sunflowers and pumpkins to overwhelm the weeds, but the weeds have taken advantage of the soil creatures below and my watering above. The plants are all doing well, with a tiny bit of insect damage. I see the pumpkins, tomatoes, and the sunflowers, not the weeds.

We ran out of mulch for covering the back garden, slated for vegetables in the spring. Today I need to dig up two lanes in the future corn patch, where I will plant spinach, egg plant, kale, and lettuce. That area will be the corn patch in the spring, the one with the most sunlight. Corn wind-pollinates, so I need a number of rows devoted to America's favorite food - sweet corn. That area will be coached into maximum earthworm production, with a winter of mulch and a spring of compost.

We have a lot of gardens in the area. One is on an enormous double-lot. I noticed they planted far apart and mowed the grass between rows. That is not all bad, although some would avoid walking between rows, to keep from suppressing root growth.

Our helper said, "How are you going to plant in the spring? What do you do with the mulch?" I am  not sure how much mulch will be left, but usually it can be moved aside slightly for planting. The soil is bare and soft underneath. Warming of the soil really activates the decomposition and winter's mulch disappears fast.

In Midland I asked our neighbors to put all the grass clippings on our corn patch - from our yard and theirs. The lanky kid who mowed became a professional baseball player - major league. He and his family thought my gardening methods were bizarre, but they ate the sweet corn and the raspberries.

The fence garden has some weeds, but I used weeds to hold them back. Most of that area was covered with a mulch of dead weeds. Rather than scalp it down to bare soil, I pulled it back, dug a slot, and planted with abandon. I pushed the dead weeds back and sprinkled cypress mulch on top. I have 75 feet of fencing sprouting radishes, pole beans, Malabar spinach, bush beans, sunflowers, gourds, and hollyhocks.

The pole beans and Malabar spinach (a vine) are sending up long tentacles, just about connecting with the fencing. Similar vining is starting on the gourds and pumpkins.

That reminds me - I need scarlet runner beans in the spring, because they attract hummingbirds. I have to order them early because the fanatics use up the supply first thing. No, I have never eaten a scarlet runner bean. I grew them for the birds to enjoy the flowers.

Each feather is a work of art.

Birds, Butterflies, and Hummers
Many gardening books have lists of the best flowers or plants for birds, for butterflies, and separately for hummingbirds. I keep them in mind for landscaping. Like books, the best plants can be bought for very little at the right time. Most do not want to garden in the fall and do not buy much, but fall is the best time to plant trees and bushes. If I line the back fence with bushes to block the view of the trashy, grassy alley, I am going to get them at cut-rate prices or not at all.

Butterfly bushes can grow very tall and they will always attract butterflies with their blooms. I could get crepe mytle going, but that is so common around here. The question is, "Who does NOT have a crepe myrtle bush?" The list is small.

Separating Weeds from Plants
Weed seeds are distributed through the soil, and they last for decades without rotting. Some gardeners fear composting weeds, which are fresh and green, ready to activate the pile. Others never think of composting them on the spot by stretching them out where they were pulled, to shade the soil and keep their cousins from joining the upward growth.

Christian denominations no longer separate the weeds from the good plants. Instead, they are prone to harvest and sow weed seeds, saying, "Look at how fast they grow!"

Discerning the spirits is a primary task of all believers. The weedy growth of false doctrine is everywhere, but few want to do anything except praise the weeds.