The Creation Garden in Drought and Glorious Rain

 

Don't tell anyone! Best for the garden - rainwater first - and storing tapwater to let the chlorine evaporate out of it before watering. 

My rainwater consultant always asks me about the rainwater being stored. We had drought until July 4th, spoiling the fireworks in this area. Several large garbage barrels were filled to the brim with rainwater. 

 Enchanted Peace is the best and most prolific peace rose I have grown.

That gives me to the nitrogen rain being added for another few days. That and cutting roses are the best and most productive response for even more roses. I also buy extra earthworms and their compost, to add to soil fertility. The Enchanted Peace Rose is already six feet tall and the English roses are good for another round of flowers.

 Four new Veterans Honor Roses - one has a bud.

Now that I am a seasoned Creation Gardener for many years, I am more patient about the roses and other plants which seem rather weak the summer after planting. In the second and third years, I wonder, "How can I keep up?"

Bee Balm is tall and spreading. So is Mountain Mint. The favorite and spoiled Clethra (Cinnabon fragrance) is growing tall and also circumference. Joe Pye Weed and Poke Weed are even more vigorous, coddled and spoiled for good reason. They add to the magnetism of the scents, which include Butterfly Weed, Crape Myrtle, and many other delights. The bees are humming their victory song as they gather from the same flowers. I can stand a few inches away from them buzzing without injury. The Chaste Tree is another donor to the fragrances loved by insects.

David Austin - The Poet's Wife

Yes, the Japanese Beetles hit hard, but they seem to be short-lived. The key is cutting the rose off so the love shack can fall to the ground and experience instant birth control.

Falling in Love

The Butterfly Garden is fully packed on the south side of the parsonage. Honeysuckle is growing fast on the west side. Little Joe Pye is mixed with Honeysuckle there. 

My project this year in the back includes:

1. Removing Crape Myrtle along the fence.
2. Adding some Clethra.
3. Hanging hummingbird feeders along that fence.
4. Removing the tenacious weed vines.
5. Enjoying Coconut Daisies which popped out, tanned, rested, and ready to take over from  the weeds. So-called helpers dumped a truck of soil on top the two Coconut Daisy groups. 

Walter Lammerts, a Creation scientist, developed the Queen Elizabeth Rose.

Yes, I get a lot of gardening help and really appreciate it. 

Time Out for the Butterfly Metamorphosis

Some said on a show, "The butterfly dies and comes alive again." I knew that from reading about the Monarchs and watching their metamorphosis, but I did not think about the drama of the Creator. We say "Yay!" when a worm turns into an elegant butterfly, but what about the change from sleeping bag to flight?

The Monarch hangs from a branch and covers himself with silk enhanced by little golden buttons. He turns himself into liquid, so he is in essence dead but alive by God's own design. The butterfly begins to grow in this sleeping bag and and the wing pattern shows through the capsule he formed for himself. Soon the Monarch butterfly comes out and takes off for a giant family reunion.