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| I added more Clethras to the Rose Garden. They bloom in late spring and attract butterflies all summer. |
If we know the good that will come from the bad, we have no reason to be timid.
People look at the fall morphing to winter and put away their gardens, as if it is asleep until spring. The autumn slowdown is a good time to pop a few hundred bulbs underneath the soil. I planted so many (with help) that I dug up a Daffodil bulb while trying to dig in a Crown Imperial bulb. Far from satisfying the gardening outlets, my early bulk purchase drove them into a frenzy trying to sell me more bulbs at higher prices.
A Creation gardener is going to put as much organic matter on the soil as possible during these relatively slow months. Three of my neighbors will donate their leaves to our rose garden, guaranteeing the soil a fresh blanket from which the Daffodils, Crown Imperials, and Giant Allium will grow. The maple tree will drop leaves directly onto the garden, and yet by late spring, with all these contributions, no leaves will remain.
Leaves contribute by compound interest, as bankers and loan sharks know. The dividends have dividends, but on the plus side, not on the insolvency side. Leaves enhance the soil by adding organics loved by earthworms, slugs, and mites. This encourages vast new families, which mean that even more creatures and microbes can dwell in the soil, release compounds for the plants to use, and hold them in the root zone.
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| These are not your Walmart roses. |
Shredded wood mulch is just as valuable to the soil as leaves, quite complex and slower to convert into the soil. Fungus loves wood, and fungus feeds the plants. My prize Poke Weed is already enjoying a bag of wood mulch and all our coffee grounds.
The Military Gardening Group is a perfect metaphor for the Creation Garden. Pour-over coffee increases the number of coffee drinkers, who come by, drink coffee, and add some valuable labor to the garden - weed-whacking, garden fencing, gutter cleaning, etc.
Peat Humus, a bagged version of manure, also adds to the soil. If a plant is not doing well, the ICU puts a full bag of Peat Humus around the hurting unit. Wood mulch can go on top of that, which will inhibit weed growth for a spell.
Some may recall that I cut all the tall plants down after they bloomed. That created hollow stems for the wild bees and insects that might look for such shelter. Other plants simply regrew from the power of their deep roots.
