Our thunderstorm is scheduled for 9 am with an encore at 1 PM. We had so much wind recently that I watered the entire rose garden on Wednesday. Wind dries up the soil and plants; cover crops and mulch help reduce the evaporation and soil erosion.
The Avian Air Force
Knowing the birds would chow down just before the storm, I bought a big bag of sunflower seeds and filled the feeders. We had some expired fruit that I added to the platform feeder. Birds are excellent bug eaters, so I keep the backyard's status as a destination for them, with plenty of food, shelter, and water.
The Beneficial Bugs and Their Homes
Plants favored by beneficial insects may not be spectacular beauties on their own, but they grow early in the season and provide a base where the good bugs can use their tiny flowers. Roses are themselves good for beneficial bugs, if spared the usual destructive insecticide and herbicide sprays.
Clumping mints and daisies are handy for growing around roses. As bug bases, they give alternative sources for food with constant blooms.
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| Notice the volunteer bug protecting Falling in Love roses. |
Concepts for Growing Good Roses
- Storing rainwater is always good for roses. Lacking that, storing tapwater will evaporate the chlorine and make the water better for all plants. My coffee grounds go into the rainbarrel.
- Each rose wants plenty of elbow room. Think royalty and sensitivities. Disease spreads more easily when roses are touching. They like air movement around them (mildew) sunshine that is not overbearing (morning sun, afternoon shade - East side of the house).
- Clay soil is good, but heavy. Sandy soil does not hold water very well. Digging out a hole for each bush is good when filled in with mushroom compost, peat compost, bagged topsoil. I mix the clay soil with peat compost.
- I like various ground covers, but there is always the danger of a new bush being overwhelmed by something obnoxious like tall orchard grass. To keep the rose monopoly on its patch of soil, surround the plant with newspaper or cardboard, then add wood mulch on top.
- In my yard I can count on wild strawberries growing around the tree stumps placed in the rose garden. Birds plant where they perch, so letting them have places to rest and search for food will yield the plants they like.
Prune, Prune, Prune
Cutting roses for others is one way to prune. Bending down to a bush means having a closer look at the canes. When a cane is brown and dead, it needs to be cut away. Canes are also cut to open them up to air and give them more shape.
People cry about their roses not blooming when they pour chemical powders on them. Pruning and rainwater will do far more for the roses, but they do not sell rainwater at the hardware store, and prune shears last forever.
Pruning does many things at once, besides yielding flowers to share:
- Roots grow faster, and roots make the soil richer.
- Dead wood holds back the canes, so pruning them means growth.
- Buds and weak blooms can be removed to devote more energy to the favored roses. Do the math: 5 - 2 = 3 superb roses.
Creation Growers Add Organic Matter Whenever Possible
Organic matter can come from ground cover plants, leaves, pine needles, manure, newspaper, cardboard, sawdust, twigs, branches, and logs.
A given amount of organic matter will turn into soil and soil creatures. I am not sure how to do that equation, but matter is not lost.
The Giver Is Gifted
Setting aside all delicacy, not only does every part of Creation serve as eater and food, but each also produces a constant supply of waste products for the soil. The Creation Gardener who lugs organic matter to land is also improving it faster and increasing the total mass of living creatures, from bacteria to moles and hawks. The number of screaming hawks on my block indicates the abundance of food for them.
Rich soil packed with creatures will also hold the rain and convert it to more plant and animal.
I was thinking about this yesterday, because I was raised on evolution in all my classes. They may not have danced a jig for Darwin, but they certainly did not build a case for Creation.
When I pursued organic gardening to save money over gardening chemicals, the readings pointed in only one direction. If using organic methods worked so well, how could someone deny Creation - the act itself, plus the engineering and management needed to keep all systems working together for the good?
I was driving people in our Voyager when the wipers went crazy, rammed together, and fell apart - in a rainstorm when wipers were needed most. We had to head toward a dealership to get them repaired at once. The earlier repairman forgot to install them correctly - one little error. And yet all the overlapping systems of the garden work together, repair my mistakes, and thrive when nudged in the right direction.
If the faculty at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, did more than mow their grass, they might discover Creation by Word before their eyes - and in the Scriptures from Genesis 1:1 on.
