Regrowing Blooms and Mulching with the Plants Prolific Production

 My Aliums (garlic family) have not done well so far, but Joe Pye is much like this plant - but much taller, with multiple stems holding lavender globes of flowers.

Many people are increasingly suspicious that everything was fashioned and engineered during the Days  of Creation, because so many aspects of gardening seem designed for us and for all living things.

For example, the most basic part of enjoying abundance comes from harvesting and harvesting again. Tomatoes, beans, peas, and roses are encouraged to grow when their fruit is removed. When we cease in the late fall, the same plant sets seed and goes to sleep for the winter (or contributes to the soil by rotting in the freeze of winter).

There are varieties of Joe Pye. Mine are globes, not fans. It may be the soil, I think mischievously.

Not only are they encouraged to grow on top, but also underneath in the growing root section. That by itself is a wonder, because the roots improve the soil, bargain with fungus for nutrition and water, and grow even more from the demands made from harvesting.

I always advocate cutting roses:

1. Cut the best blooms 
2. Clip the unpromising ones
3. Prune the dead wood and crossing, conflicted canes.

Roses will respond with growth, vigor, and better blooms.

Crepe Myrtle is good for two blooms per summer, but few try for that.

I have a growing army of Bee Balms, and they spread like the mints they are. They take plenty of time to bloom the first time, but then they are ready to bloom a second time, at least.

Daisies need to be cut all the time, because they bloom and fade so quickly.

I could prune off all the Spirea (Neon!), but that would total about from 750 to 1500 flowers. That would be like checking Scientific American for typos.

Joe Pye is living up to its reputation for collecting butterflies while all the pollinators zoom around enjoying the vanilla of the blooms or the Vicks Vapo-rub of the leaves.

I am checking out whether Joe Pye will rebloom - I doubt it. Some plants - like corn - are good for only one set of flowers and fruit.

I think Clethra could rebloom, so I am pruning some seed pods off to get a rebloom for my camera.

Prolific Plant Production - 

Weeds Included

I began cutting down the Joe Pye and Bee Balm that took over the driveway and sidewalk. It seemed impolite to force pedestrians into the street so Joe Pye could enjoy more sun.

Bee Balm were equally aggressive with the driveway. Ranger Bob suggested a haircut. I knew it would bring out more blooms, as it did with the stalks cut by and for the postman.

I often think of the mass of vegetation created out of soil, water, and sunlight - a constant gain for the ocean of life people call "dirt." I put some plants on the counter at the dentist's office. "You are getting dirt on the counter!" his wife said. "That's soil," I countered. The dentist's mother was grinning about her new plants, which ended the conflict.

Using the Soil's Production

Ruth Stout advocated using weeds as mulch, because many weeds will add to the soil and stop the growth of their brethren at the same time.

In the fall, Jessica Walliser suggested covering an area with cardboard and cutting holes for plants in the spring, for a tomato garden - as an example. The crabgrass, grass, and leafy weeds are composted over the winter and have no motivation to grow in the spring.

I have such huge Joe Pye Weeds that I can cut down many of them and use them for mulch around the roses. The blooms are enormous globes of compound flowers. They cast so much shade that weeds on the ground have no sunlight to warm or nurture them. Now I know what 8 foot weeds with large blooms look like. And you wonder why Joe Pye is sold out early each spring? Not I.

 Bee Balms never lack for insect company, and Hummingbirds love them too.