Some people are reacting to Creation Gardening: Roses, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds on Facebook.
Perhaps it is post-season nostalgia. Of course, Creation Gardening is year around, with plenty happening now.
Squirrels trash the bird-feeders so I use plants instead. Nine Crepe Myrtles are full of seeds that Cardinals love. By the end of winter the seeds will be gone.
Bushes and trees are excellent sources for wintering bugs as food for birds.
I have piles of tree leaves on the ground, not only from my trees, but also from neighbors.
Ranger Bob, who gives me his leaves, says, "But they will blow all over, won't they." Just after our latest raking of leaves from Mrs. Gardener, bags from opposite side, and Ranger Bob's leaves in the backyard, we had a long, steady rain. Instead of having blowy leaves all over, we had a big soggy blanket of birdfood and wormfood over the rose garden and backyard experiments.
A mulched area is always good for birds to find worms and bugs, and the worms love to pull down the leaves into the soil. Leaves keep the garden warmer, so more activity takes place. There are also beneficial beetles that like leaf piles and mites that break them down by late spring.
That is something I boast about in advance. The leaves can be knee high in our fenced-in backyard and deep in the front garden, with metal edging to keep mulch in place. Once the sun and rain finish their work, the leaves are gone.
A good garden has a combination of all kinds of creatures in the soil, working the layers of soil, recycling in the crucial top twelve inches where most root growth is nurtured.
Gardeners like to start with "What will I plant?" - which is backwards. I plead guilty to that temptation.
Planning should model the military, which starts with the goal and works back to the first steps. If I want roses in June and hummingbirds all summer, I will...
The timing is built into Creation and yet widely ignored. The hated tiny weeds of the lawn are the first flowers to feed the bees in the spring. Most of them go away on their own. Look at the attractive dandelion. I let them grow but they have not taken over. Why nuke everything to remove a few plants that only help the garden - and hummingbird nests?
