The purple Bee Balm patch is shoulder high. I enjoy walking up to the edge and watching the bees and beneficial insects work over the blossoms, right under my eyes.
Ranger Bob cautioned me, "You will get stung." I said, "No, I am the St. Francis of gardening. The bees, birds, and insects love me."
The yellow jackets not only stung him on our property, but hung around later - looking for that Army Ranger. I am treated with respect because I do not curse them, flail at them, or wave my arms around like I am a Dutch windmill.
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| By Norma Boeckler |
If God really called everything into being through His Creating Word - the Son - the combination of microbes, creatures, fungi, and plants must be designed to work perfectly together.
The rabbits feasted on the new Butterfly Garden during the last winter, far away from my view. Except for one plant - yarrow. They left that alone. The weed eater leveled the growth again - no real harm. The yarrow was already strong and popped up again. Someone told me, "Rabbits do not like yarrow." They ate two Crepe Myrtles planted as fencing, so I gave the replacements plastic collars. Problem solved.
We have bunnies of all sizes hopping around like the casting call for Night of the Lepus, a film where giant rabbits terrorized the town, in spite of their gentle appearance. We just have too much food on the table, greens and herbs of every variety. We have had plenty of rain, and enough sunshine to send worts and weeds skyward A shot from the film looks strangely like our rose garden, minus the condiments.
Soon I will thin my neighbor's Hosta plants and make them basic to the rose garden, where some are already blooming to feed the Hummingbirds. I also have some Hostas in the back garden, the farm team for the rose garden.
That is why I am in no rush in gardening. Every day brings new surprises. Yesterday, I inspected the Honeysuckle vine, which was supposed to take over the backyard some years ago. I found a tree-like weed threatening the whole enterprise, an interloper, a robber of sunshine and rainfall. Today I will get out the loppers and cut the weed-shrub at the soil level.
A pleasant surprise came from the Blackberries thriving and producing berries. I can see how many are forming, now that the blooms have turned into new fruit. The question will be - "How many do the humans get to eat?" If the birds and squirrels ravish them, as they did the Blueberries, I will not mind at all. I have plenty of berry plants for them but no strategy for growing any human food.
