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| Butterfly weed blooms a long time and attracts butterflies. |
Given the revelation that the Word created all things, it makes sense that there is an complex cooperation among all living sources and the rest of Creation - rain, snow, minerals. If the soil is poor, poverty grass will grow. If the ground is rich in microbes and soil creatures, sweet corn will flourish.
If pests invade the vegetation, beneficial insects and birds will reduce their population and build restaurants to keep the destruction down and the babies fed. Beneficial creatures can detect the horror of pests destroying good vegetation. The beneficial population is dependent upon the pests, and they grow and recede in numbers to fit the occasion.
Your favorite sports team - like Notre Dame - has a second and third string? The beneficials have a second, third, and fourth string. A rose will have tiny flies waiting to plant their eggs in or near the pests. Various spiders hunt for food in the garden and build webs that block pests from the blooms, trapping them for food. Meanwhile the birds keep watch and nab fat, juicy pests for their children - pause to dab eyes - and themselves.
My first-aid kit is all natural, plagiarized from Creation. I capture rainwater in various barrels to build up and nourish new and favorite plants. I use wood mulch to keep moisture in the soil while encouraging soil creatures to frolic in the damp shade of the plants. I feed the birds, who love to spot the vegetation moving from the activity of pests. Starlings will march through the garden and suddenly flip mulch to find something to eat. They leave some fertilizer behind.
Wild strawberries look just like the plants we buy at the gardening center - only tinier. The strawberries spread on their own but also use FedEx Ground and Air Freight (rabbits, squirrels, and birds) when the berry seeds have to be there immediately. Wild strawberries bloom early, even in deep shade, to begin staking out their property.
One of my major contributions to the rose garden was tree stumps, which encourage birds to rest on a watchtower, look for food, and pounce on insects.
Wild strawberries are just a fraction of a sliver of God's Creation working in harmony.
