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| Joe Pye Weed |
Mrs. Gardener, our neighbor, held up two plants she bought on clearance. They were clearly stressed and partially dried up. I prescribed my favorite medicine - rainwater. I brought over five gallons in a paint bucket and pointed to a row of full ones (plus large barrels) under the eaves.
She is an avid gardener and uses a lot of flowers to decorate her front and back yards. The use of rainwater made her go to her own wheelbarrow full of rain and distribute the treasure among the rest of her potted plants.
Rain and snow are always effective, as God spoke in Isaiah 55. The parallels are too obvious - except to the spiritually blind. In an era of gimmicks, fads, and congregations closing, the Word of God is the only solution, not the main one, the only one. Nothing else conveys Jesus and the Gospel through the Holy Spirit in the Word.
Gardening and Creation have been successfully separated, so people wanting green lawns and spectacular flowers never think of Creation solutions. Instead, they are herded into buying chemical fertilizer (bad for the soil), pesticides (bad for all creatures, especially the beneficial ones), and fungicides (killing the most powerful component in soil, the fungal network. When these man-made solutions fail, the salesmen urge the customers to use more of the same.
Parallels to Church Growth fads becoming even more radical, silly, and sterile should be noted.
Ranger Bob makes a point of jibing me for gathering neighbors' leaves the way a hen gathers her chicks, for having - gasp - weeds. I said, "When someone around here has roses like mine, I will repent. Until then..." He laughed.
My vicarage supervisor was as old-fashioned as one could hope in the 1970s, that exciting decade of burning down institutions. He had 3,000+ baptized members and a program of preaching, teaching, and pastoral visitation. Three years of confirmation were scheduled mid-week with suppers, and it was all basic and Biblical.
This large church had a church council and a parish education committee. Vicars taught, preached, and visited.
Worship services were the liturgy, creeds, sermon, readings, and all hymns sung standing up (every verse, too).
Naturally, the pastor was a constant target of jibes and few wanted to work at such an old-fashioned church.
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| Feverfew seeds itself, so love it if you plant it. Beneficial insects love it, so you should. |
Successes
I enjoy reading The Grouchy Gardener at the local bookstore. It appeals to the gripes every gardener has, but also provides a lot of good information. I was thinking of listing gardening failures but decided instead to describe some successes and lessons, all due to Creation and its simple rules.
Roots, The Novel...Gardening Method
Sometimes we overlook the rules. The Carbon Cowboys stress deeply rooted plants for breaking up clay soil like mine and taking rainwater deep down instead of have wasteful and eroding run-off. I took the bucket challenge and poured five gallons of water at the base of an established bush. It disappeared faster than the same amount poured down a bathtub drain. Mrs. Ichabod wisely demanded that the front yard be turned into a rose garden, and I began adding insect friendly bushes to host the beneficials. When it rains 4 inches, as it often does, I keep that in the soil savings account. Grass is shallow rooted and does not go deep.
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| This is the best value you can get it in gardening. I know the book better than the Lincoln Town Car Repair Manual. |
Wood Mulch, Queen E. Approved
The first attempt at defeating the front lawn consisted of holes dug in the grass, photographed by our grandson, inspected by Sassy, filled with bare root rose bushes, heavily mulched with shredded wood.
Later I learned how much power fungal strands have in moving nutrition and water through their extensive networks, getting carbon from plants to exchange for vegetative needs. Fungus attacks and dissolves dead wood, with help from soil creatures, easily proven by leaving tree stumps in the garden for bird perches. In two years or so, the stumps simply fall apart from donating their tough interiors to fungus, bacteria, and soil creatures.
The Queen's official gardens use no man-made toxins and encourage fungus as much as possible.
Black spot appears on my roses but I do nothing and find little or no damage from the most-hated enemy of the plant.
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| That was the year of long, warm, autumn rains and monster rose blooms. |
Seldom Mentioned Bushes and Plants - Useful
I knew nothing about most bushes until Almost Eden (our neighbor) introduced me to them.
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| Chaste Tree was raised and used to make the monks forget about women. It worked all too well. |
Chaste Tree is low growing shrub, sometimes called Marijuana Tree for its leaves, with a medicinal smell and beautiful purple flowers loved by bees. One plant has survived two near-death experiences and is leafing out again.
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| Beneficial insects are often teeny-tiny, so they need miniature flowers like Clethra. |
Clethra is known as Summer Sweet, known for its attraction to all kinds of beneficial insects and butterflies. I call it the Cinnabon Tree because it exudes a wonderful aroma of cinnamon rolls long after the blooms are gone.
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| Joe Pye is lacking in nothing except a dazzling name. Never mind, it sells out faster than No-Doz at Mequon. |
Joe Pye (Weed) is an easy-to-grow bush in large (7 foot) size and Little Joe size. It is a late bloomer but keeps its flowers and scent a long time. Butterflies are wild for it. One good indicator is that this plant has to be ordered early or supplies will be gone. Joe Pye is named for the herbalist who used it in his potions.
Poke (Weed)
Poke Weed horrified me until I learned this Southern plant's berries are favored by about 60 birds. I still buy some bird food, but Poke grows for free and attracts beneficial insects. Deep roots benefit the soil and the soil creatures who gather around these natural food sources and elevators. Since they drain rainwater so effectively, the moisture needed by all creatures is gathered and spreads from the roots.
Mints
Many mints deserve a bad name for spreading their roots and taking over - Peppermint, Catnip.
Tamer mints are fun to have. Cat Mint forms a mound and produces flowers for beneficial insects.
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| Learn repentance from growing Mountain Mint. |
Mountain Mint is tall and especially attractive to insects, but I would plant that under a maple tree - or in the back where I would no longer consider violent removal.
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| Bee Balms have different colors and excellent manners. |
Horse Mint - Bee Balm
Bee Balm and its cousins attract bees (shock!) and hummingbirds (awe!). My three flowers for hummngbirds are Bee Balm, Butterfly Bush, and Hosta. Others may have different experiences, but that is what I have observed here. I do not fill hummingbird feeders - I grow them.
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| If you like really loud vines that can cause skin irritation, try Cow Itch. But, to be frank. doesn't this bloom look just like those giant hummingbird feeders that require constant attention? |
Trumpet Vine (Cow Itch) can be attractive to hummingbirds, but my vines grow more than they flower - so far. One day I may be blessed or cursed for growing four of them. Like many gardeners I grow things I remember from my tender years, and we had Trumpet Vine on our garage in Moline - and all through the lawn. We delighted in mowing the shoots that came up.
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| Pepé Le Pew |
What Have We Learned Today?
The denominations and their false teachers have pursued fads and gimmicks like Pepé Le Pew.These apostates are like the chemical gardeners, who waste enormous amounts of money on man-made fixes while ignoring the power of God's Creation.
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| Smells like Kelm spirit. |
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| Kent Hunter and Waldo Werning became leaders of the LCMS-WELS-ELS for their store-bought ideas, which C. Peter Wagner said "do not work." |
The Synods of Ozymandias -
Foretold by Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
