A Day in June

 

James Russell Lowell

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays....

The least ambitious gardener will repeat Lowell's opening line. Many of us had to recite the poem. Various human helpers and Supervisor Charlie Sue have provided a unique, inexpensive gardening paradise. Hailstorm, thunderclaps, heat and humidity have co-mingled the benefits without bearing the costs.

The front porch was always welcome for being just above the level of the garden. However, the best view is from the inside of the picture window - for a close-up of calla lilies, butterfly weed, roses, clethra, Four O'clocks, and  gaudy Canna. 

I push back the e-z chair recliner with my feet almost touching the window ledge. Charlie is happy to jump up and watch the parade of birds and squirrels. Outside, I already set up the bird feeders from the backyard to encourage birds in the front yard:

• Cardinals male and female
• Blue jays
• Grackles
• Starlings
• Common finches, maybe goldfinches too
• Hummingbirds

The area around the mailbox was infested with bee balm; the mailman was not happy about that last year. The plant draws the bees but terrorizes the mail carriers. The mailman did some bee balm trimming without a permit. Countering his work, I laid out heavy cardboard sheets and covered them with wood mulch to hold it down, to keep grass and weeds from rising up for another round with the bees. Additional labor (not mine) created a No-Fly zone, making everyone happy. The carrier smiles and waves at me now.

How the Pieces Fit Together - God Only Knows

Our own nutrition matches the wealth or poverty of the soil. Uncle Jim sent some earthworms, creatures (that is - created) that improve the soil.

When someone asks in a caustic tone, "Why do you have so have so many leaves left on your garden?" - I answer, "Why do I have so many roses?"

The soil must be tended or it becomes relatively useless, though weeds and roots will improve it over time. Earthworms are called shredders because they grind up organic matter - like dead leaves - and mix in their own calcium and nitrogen, usable forms and not harsh for our plants or noses. Earthworms also soften and stir the soil, creating channels for rain to penetrate deeper toward the roots. Meanwhile, the roots themselves provide soil loosening and organic matter. If earthworms had titles of nobility, Sir Mix -A-Lot would be an easy fit.

Our bodies are complicated dioramas of the garden. For the strangest reasons, we think that  our bodily combination of chemical and muscular engines, labs, computers, exhausts, and dynamos will work fine without good energy sources. The  individual parts, created and engineered (John 1:3) to work well together, do not suffer Fritos and Quarter Pounders gladly. 

Dr. Joel Fuhrman convinced me that greens, vegetables, nuts, and seeds were medicine. Imagine! I thought they were for eating (rarely), not for healing. However, when I switched to ordinary, inexpensive, fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits, a lot of my symptoms went away like magic. Blood sugar - back to normal. Blood pressure - reduced. Headaches - gone. Muscle aches - gone. Bad cholesterol - eliminated by walnuts. Weight down and energy up.

The pharmacy tech gave me an eye drops prescription and tried to interest me in various injections. She was impressed that I had only one prescription. I said, "That is why I am healthy - only one prescription." She caught onto that but pressed for injections. I said, "Don't worry, I have had every shot except distemper." She said, "Distemper?" And people trust her! I told her, "For dogs."

Blueberries are good for circulation, so I got some Puritans Pride pills that contained blueberry extract. Then I thought, "Fresh blueberries have to be better and more effective. They are low sugar, taste great, and cost very little." I used to give blueberries to the birds because I kept letting the berries get old. Now the birds have to rely on corn and fruit scraps.

Back to the Garden

The Creation Rose Garden is a microcosm of our own bodies. Anyone can start one with a small patch growing into a small paradise. The Schwan delivery lady said, "I love your garden, with everything mixed together." 

I let everything grow together, digging up or cutting away the excess, such as roses gone wild, obnoxious weeds, and dead plants. I also let wood rot into the soil, either with tree stumps or wood mulch.

When company gathers to enjoy the garden, shaded in the afternoon, bee balm is growing just off the modest patio, enhanced by hummingbird feeders and roses. Bees and birds will fly within inches to amuse reward us. Rabbits will stop by for a cameo and go deeper into the foliage. 

All the pieces fit together.

Go team!

Joe Pye Weed Is Back!Flowering

 

The Joe Pye buds appear before the plant reaches 6 or 7 feet. Meanwhile the foliage has a musk fragrances.

The tiny Joe Pye blooms have a vanilla scent on top of the musk plant fragrance, attracting pollinators with the scent and pollen.

 The flowers turn fuzzy when pollenated and tiny seeds form

This year I began cutting Joe Pye down by half, because they were spreading upward and sideways, with stalks that fanned upwards and blocked the competition, sometimes too well.

The 50% Joe Pye began growing new buds and flowers after the trimmed them back. Butterflies and hummingbirds are still enjoying the garden, and fragrances remain, though not as strong as before.

Jesus, the Lord of Creation, has designed plants to be prolific, in spite of losses. We all know but somehow forget that picking beans, tomatoes, and peas will mean even more of the same. Left alone, the fruits finish the seed-growing process and dry up for the year.

Various people ask me how the good habits of beans, greens, fresh fruit, and nuts are working out. I stopped at 195 to do a binge or two. Now I am sticking to the basics and avoiding the dessert-ice cream food group. A number of friends have lost weight, too.

Medicine Is Often Not a Treatment - 

Fresh Produce Is

Americans are over-prescribed, because it is a pattern and a profit-center for many. Insulin is a problem, not a cure, and I shudder when I hear about alternatives to insulin, which is at least the best worst. Someone wondered about my reference to rubber band surgery for obesity. She was not aware that the digestive system is shut down with a supposedly removable device. That is like hiding the money from an addicted gambler - not going to last.

The Fuhrman books, which I read almost every day, have stunned me with the amount of nutrition and appetite suppression in the four groups - 

1. leafy greens, 
2. most vegetables, 
3. fresh fruit, 
4. seeds and nuts.

This is most striking. Combining two prescriptions can kill or disable a patient. One prescription alone, like insulin, can start a downward trend. But our divinely engineered bodies (John 1:3) combine food with material recycled in our bodies, into the best possible therapy.

Hunger cravings - which I have experienced - let us gain weight without remorse...until later. Binge medicine - leafy greens, fresh fruit, nuts, vegetables - will turn off the belly's desire for sweets, desserts, or too much food. Today I ate plain raw spinach to kill the craving for toasted New York rye bread and butter. That worked, so I fixed a quart of beans and turnip greens, which also worked. I had apples for dessert to forestall a munity in my digestive track.

The Big Four listed above - not One-a-Day - have dozens of built-in cures from the basic vitamins we all know. Add lesser-known minerals, plus trace elements, plus the phyto-chemicals in those created and unprocessed vegetables.

We need dozens of supplements to equal (perhaps) the benefits of the Big Four, which taste so much better than pills.

The least bit of exercise will get our bodies used to regular exertion. Sunshine gives us a dose of Vitamin D3, which combines with nutrition in the body - to do even more.

Randomness Becomes Order in the Creation Garden

 Easy Does It is in the middle. Paradise is on the right. Veterans Honor is on the left. A Lincoln Town Car is below to provide a perfect white background

Thanks to heavy rains, the Rose Garden has become a prime location for garden color and fragrance. Suddenly, as if I did not water, weed, and chop in the garden, the desired results are impossible to ignore:

• Butterflies float through flowers and pause on their favorites, especially Joe Pye;
• Mints provide landing zones for beneficial insects;
• Roses bloom faster than I can prune them;
• Hummingbirds fight over territory, providing endless and spectacular air maneuvers;
• Bees currently work over the flowering garlic (allium) and other blooms;
• Birds drop to the ground for bugs and worms while hawks sometimes scream above, as if wanting to scare their food away.

Almost all the work is done by the instruments of Creation. Random actions are infinite but they appear orderly. Roots and falling plant debris constantly improve the soil, especially because a host of soil creatures make their living by consuming organic material and becoming organic remains.

Every so often a gardener will wonder, "How did that happen?" A long-lost plant grows up and blooms, or a creature creates a home in the bushes. The Lord of Creation organized and engineered all these marvels.

California Dreamin was flanked by ivy in the shade of the patio.

Starting To Photograph Creation Garden Flowers, 2022

 Veterans Honor Roses

 Caladium - Christmas

Shasta Daisys - first bloom in 2022.

Where Are My Leaves?

 

My front yard was covered with leaves before, but now they are gone. The side of the house has some, because I invited the neighbor's son-in-law to dump theirs there. I should have written, "They're always putting theirs there."

The soil devours leaves faster than anything else in Creation. We have put many sacks of wood mulch around roses in the front yard. None were left from last year. Ranger Bob delivered a load in his truck this year.

Earthworms and soil creatures love organic matter of all kinds. A heavy chunk of tree trunk will be softened by mold and eaten by earthworms and arthropods (joint footed). The activity of tiny animals draws birds and toads to the area, and they leave their deposits in the highly active bank called soil.

The Logos, the Son of God, executed the commands of God the Father during the Six Days of Creation (Genesis 1; John 1:3). Each living thing in the garden is engineered to do its job, which means making the top foot of soil a warehouse of moisture and creatures - living and dying to keep that top layer alive.

They say (and they are always half-right) that wood absorbs nitrogen, which hampers the soil's fertility. Yes, it binds nitrogen for its own use and gives it up again as rot takes place. The log that would have crushed feet - when dropped before - becomes a crumbling block, as light as balsa wood.

The Military Gardening Group - And Sassy

I found a plant that grows, flowers, and multiplies, until it gets a bit cold. Hidden Lily grew, flowered, spread, and disappeared.

The Military Gardening Group worked on a Ford truck. Sassy came along to keep track of everyone and to guard the operation. She always picks the best lookout position and watches everything. I was in a good spot to watch her paying attention to everything up and down and across the street. 

My truck repair skills are limited to feeding the crew, which also includes Sassy. She is content until she can smell chicken warming up. When it is out of the oven, she does the starving puppy routine to perfection.

On a perfect day in the afternoon, we sit on the porch drinking pour-over coffee and commenting on the garden, flights overhead, and political topics. I do not believe anything on the news, so I am relatively quiet about the fake reporting. 

The summer will provide a parade of flowers, humming birds, and rabbits to entertain us. Hawks overhead screech to stir up some grub for themselves. Once Sassy and I walked under a pair of red-tailed hawks sharing some. They looked at us like we were dessert. Another time a hawk stared me down at Almost Eden, the former gardening operation next door. We must have a sizeable rabbit population to keep hawks active here. The hawks do not control the rabbit population, the rabbit population limits the numbers of hawks. One hawk landed on our garbage barrel and gave me the raptor stink-eye. Birds were eerily silent for a time after that.

We started a major garden facelift not long ago. The spirea bushes and mountain mint were aggressive growers and not charming. Roses-gone-wild will be the next to go - after they show their wild rose flowers blooming after the producing canes have died.

 This is one of the best gardening books ever, the best bug book ever.

The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God

 Nature can overwhelm floodgates.

 Has the dam tamed Nature or has Nature defeated the mile-wide Three Gorges Dam?

I have been discussing the attitude toward the Word of God with one member. Our Founders assumed Creation in writing about the "laws of Nature and of Nature's God."

The US Constitution is written on that basis, that basic rights and freedoms are part of God's Creation, not something invented or merely permitted by man. They are self-evident. A right may be suppressed, as we see today in the closing of churches, but the right remains. A California judge agreed that a church had a right to worship that transcended the dictates by government officials.

In gardening I only try to understand the created nature of each plant, animal, and weed. I cannot force my opinions on a living creation that has its own software. When I cut down Joe Pye, the roots continue to wait for spring and the stalks rise up stronger than ever, blooming late. When I cut the ever-spreading Bee Balm, the fragile looking plant greens up and starts flowering again.

The complexity of Creation is such that the participants work out their own place in the garden. Rabbits enjoy the cover and abundant food, so they stroll through the open places as if they own it. Oddly, hawks scream that they are hungry and look for food where food is abundant.

Once a piece of ground reaches maximum creature activity, the abundance is sustained at a high level. Leaves and mulch are absorbed faster. Plants grow greener and stronger. Animals reach a balance between the hunter and the hunted. The top foot of soil locks in a certain amount of moisture and nutrition from the interplay of bacteria, mold, earthworms, soil creatures, roots, and rain.

Weeds are like false doctrine. They will always show up, but they thrive where the conditions are ideal. An apathetic congregation will not be upset by changes, but an alert parish will ask, "How can this be allowed?" Synod officials erase the evidence and say, like the Chinese rulers, "Everything is fine, except we have a few who exaggerate everything."

1 Corinthians 11:18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.

19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Comfrey is a bully herb. We chopped a lot of it back, and now it is larger than ever.

One Inch of Rain During the Ascension Service

 Butterfly Weed pods

We were drinking coffee on the porch when Ranger Bob said, "What's this?" He was looking at the caterpillars on the Butterfly Weeds. We are just about ready for the long-lasting orange flowers, pictured below.

Butterflies have their favorite food at the caterpillar stage. People associate the Monarch butterfly with the Milkweed plant, and Butterfly Weed is a colorful cousin of the Milkweed.

I wish it were the Butterfly Monarch Weed, so I could talk about my orange BMW. "My 2002 Voyager" is not much of a conversation starter.

 Butterfly Weed is a long-lasting cousin of Milkweed.

Our area is expected to have rain many times over in the next week. I have seen similar predictions vaporize, but yesterday was a good start. The little red area on the radar map turned into rollicking thunderstorm during the Ascension Day service, giving us an inch of rain.

How did I prepare for the week of rain?

1. I planted the rest of the glad bulbs in the Blackberry garden. Those are the Triple Crown variety that edged around the corner and took over the laughable Silver Queen corn patch. The squirrels stripped the Silver Queen down to the stalks when we were gone. I offered to harvest berries for Mrs. Ichabod if I can beat the squirrels to the fruit.
2. I watered the new Joe Pye and the new Veterans Honor roses, because predicted storms often blow through without dropping much rain.
3. I took the one-pound bag (don't judge me) of Borage and scattered some through the Rose Garden. I may grow it among the Blackberries too.
4. I cleansed (pruned - see John 15) the roses for the altar, adding some Pink Neon Spirea.

Borage for Bees and Courage

Borage (related to Comfrey) is a tiny and rather dumpy plant known for its edible pink and blue flowers. 

We are just starting to see bees on the Spirea and Cat Mint. The best times for insect observations is a sunny afternoon with no gentle breezes. Hummingbirds also appear in the Rose Garden for relaxed viewing. 

Borage flowers will increase the bee and beneficial insect populations. We all love the big, showy flowers, but the best beneficial insects concentrate on the tiny flowers and the massive food kitchen of the Sunflower. The Sunflower is not one big flower, though we tend to imagine that, but a massive complex of tiny flowers and extra nectar outlets.

A bumblebee on a tiny Borage flower is quite a sight. The insect dwarfed by the Sunflower is massive on the Borage. 

Planting the Creation Garden Now for Happiness in the Future

Every plant bursting from the soil now came from labor last year or even earlier. When I bought a bunch of Bee Balms on sale, I found most people were denouncing them as non-growers. This spring those slandered plants were early to burst out, and they are racing toward the bloom cycle now.

Early spring is all brown and grey, but now we have gone through a cycle of daffodils in bloom. Ranger Bob and I thought the daffodil greens were still soaking up sun for next year, but those were the Iris greens, the vanguard of the blooms, just starting now.

Before the crew came earlier, I removed all the hollow, white canes of Joe Pye, plus some of the same from Shasta Daisies and Bee Balm. Now those areas marked with dead growth are filled with new growth.

Joe Pye is a tall herb, but late in starting and blooming. Their sprouts are necessarily energetic to reach the heights again. Likewise, the Daisies are constant bloomers and spread well in the clumps, so I see them getting ready.

Hosta were not my favorites until I saw how effective they were in attracting hummingbirds. Besides that, Mrs. Gardener offered me free, big plants to use in thinning out her collection. I purchased lots of tiny Hosta starts and despaired, especially because a gardening friend said, "The rabbits devoured all of mine." But early Spring showed a wide variety of colors  and styles.

Prince Charles wrote the introduction to a huge Hosta book I got used, discounted because he is in it or in spite of being honored?

Hosta fanatics have an enormous variety of greens and blues and smooth and rumpled leaves to choose. I like them for their trumpet flowers feeding the Hummers, and for their nature to grow in clumps for division (with a saw or pruning knife). I even have some in the back, which will stay to add to the attractive power of new Joe Pye. The same gardening area featured a beautiful example of Hemlock, but I cut it down, lest someone or something chew on the leaves. Ladybugs adore the plant, which is easy to find in wild areas around here.

I like Wild Strawberries in the rose garden. They are distant relatives of roses. More importantly, they bloom in shade or sun, attracting pollinators and serving as ground cover. They also bloom early and fruit all summer. I transplanted them until I realized a tree stump was enough to attract birds to do their own planting, with fertilizer added.

In sales, the managers said, "Current work now will give you an income in the future, so do not go slack from a few sales." That lesson has been lost on the current generation of lazy apostates. They do not believe in the efficacy of the Word, so they neglect the energy of the Gospel in bringing their work to fruition. The expensive gimmicks, lures, and programs they buy from Fuller, Trinity Divinity, and Willow Creek are like the chemical fertilizers bought at the hardware stores and gardening centers.

Has anyone taken a deep breath in the fertilizer aisle? That is a big clue about chemicals working a bit at first and then washing into the groundwater to be bought and replaced. True nutrition comes from Creation, not a factory, and remains in the root zone to feed life and recycle in various forms - from manure to earthworm to worm castings (better and more effective, with a nicer label). Worm castings are not like fishermen casting for fish, but worm manure.

There is only one energy that accomplishes God's will and generates the fruits of the Spirit - the efficacy of the Gospel. Those who believe in what God promises have no trouble sowing today, knowing the harvest will come in the future.

Spring Fever Is Hatching the Bulbs of Last Fall's Fling

The first lonely daffodil has bloomed in the rose garden. That reminds me of the time I arrived at the Greek semester final a day early. The college professor, Harry S. B. Johnson, laughed and said, "That is great! Now you have an extra day to study."

Daffodils are inevitable in the Creation Garden. They do not taste good to the wildlife, gradually increase below ground, and bring a cheerful reminder that spring is close.

Roses were leafing out a few weeks ago, and other plants were greening up with optimism, only to remain at parade rest until we had genuinely warm, sunny days.

Of course, with some variation, winter (or hardy) bulbs are already flowers. When planted in the fall, they develop roots and grow almost to the soil's surface. They know winter is coming, whether it is by hearing the geese squawking overhead or the squirrels digging in food beside them. A bitterly cold winter helps hardy bulbs, so they reward the fall gardener ordering in snow country, who hopes to dig in bulbs before the soil is frozen. I remember having that problem in New Ulm, but the bulbs were glorious.

The day the agents came to visit our house for sale, all my bulbs bloomed at once, including some rare varieties. The agents were stunned, and the house sold at once. We moved to Arizona, where gardening dreams die under the merciless sun in a cloudless sky. Nothing except citrus and cactus grew well, so we had plenty of both.

Last year we had so many drenching rainstorms, dropping inches at a time, that few plants grew well. However, we set up five humming bird feeders and quickly became a destination.

Hummingbird Addiction - Four Feeders. Don't Tell - Fifth One Ordererd

Hosta flowers are living feeders for hummingbirds.

The appearance of hummingbirds in the backyard garden Butterfly Bushes led me to order one (1) hummingbird feeder. As they say about other addictions, the first is the fatal one.

Too smart to start? - Don't bet on it.

Not even once? - Wait until one flits in and out of a Bee Balm, a Hosta, or a Butterfly Bush flower.

My excuse was simple. The bird feeders were useless with a gang of destructive squirrels raiding and breaking them. I should have sought counseling then and there.

Ranger Bob made it worse, like most addict's friends. "I have a feeder and a hanger." He placed a newly painted hanger a short distance from where everyone enjoys the porch view of the front garden.

The kitchen window feeder took weeks to attract a wary hummingbird. The rose-Joe Pye-Hosta-Bee Balm garden feeder attracted several hummingbirds at once.

We have comfortable seating for four on the front porch, so Bob, Mrs. Ichabod, Sassy and I can enjoy the garden in the shade.

Bob brought two more feeders and I placed them on the beam holding the porch roof - total four (4) feeder, three in the front.

As people explain, hummingbirds are territorial, so one will chase the rest away from his feeder. The solution is to have more feeders. Sometimes the Slippery Slope is not a fallacy but the real thing.

I enjoyed cleaning and filling the two initial feeders and filling the two new ones from Bob. Four feeders, various sizes are filled with ruby red fluid and await droves of hummers.

Creation principles certainly explain how a slight change in flora will alter the creatures attracted. Our big changes last fall were the Daisies, the Bee Balm sale-to-end-all-sales, Cat Mint, and the installation of Joe Pye Weed around the rose garden. We had a big increase in pollinator plants for bees, butterflies, and hummers, added to the previous plants. The spring rains increased the bounty of all the plants, so the birds gathered where the most food on the cul-de-sac could be found.

Plant it and the beneficial bugs and creatures will come.

Gardens Go Wild - Back to Creation

Another factor in gardening is one often ignored by the suburban neatniks so unlike urban rednecks. If someone lives on a river and near some woods, many attractive features are already in place. But when everyone has a mown lawn, a few bushes, and some trees, few places for food, shelter, and nesting can be found.

Our far backyard is completely wild, with tall weeds, piles of leaves, and opportunistic plants like Pokeweed. Our green wall, growing where birds perch, blocks our view of the neighbor's back yard and provides even more food and shelter. The jungle there not only has Poke berries, but raspberries and Trumpetvine, Poke is the favorite food of 60 species of birds. Trumpetvine is associated with hummingbirds, including the feeders.

These wild areas are also important for the over-wintering of beneficial bugs.

The Analogy

For decades, Lutheran churches (and many others too) have sought to achieve that ideal space, which attracts vast throngs of people. For that dubious goal they have been eager to get rid of the solemn dignity of worship and replace it with rock music, rock auditorium lighting, and self-centered talks. "I am not going to preach," says polysynod Time of Grace Pastor Mike, "I am just going to talk about Jesus."

The Word is God's creation and always enjoys the divine power and efficacy of the Almighty. Those churches which emulate man's latest fads are going to attract people who harbor a deep love for the latest and caustic scorn for the eternal verities.

However, those who understand the Scriptures and enjoy the blessings of an abiding faith in the efficacious Word - those people will gather an impressive array of people who - according to divine purpose - seek ways to express their trust in the Gospel and love for the Savior.

 "If this is wrong, why does Mirthless Mark support me?"

Sassy Helps with the Yard Sale. Weeds Long To Be Converted in the Creation Garden

Our neighbor woke her four daughters for an early morning yard sale. Sassy and I visited and offered some floral highlights. We delivered roses in bud vases to sell and a big vase of roses for color. All these were Easy Does It, because the three veteran EDI plants and the new EDI plants are blooming early - far beyond expectations.

 Sassy took Mrs. Ichabod to another yard sale last year,
after her surgery.

The veteran plants have the most blooms, perhaps 40 flowers per plant. I bent down to prune a new, dormant Easy Does It, and it was popping its first green leaves, after weeks of waiting. Getting roses out of dormancy does not always work. Some will sit there and fade away. Others wait longer than seems possible. In this case, the canes were green, but they kept getting brown on the end. I cut those off to encourage growth, getting ready to phone for a replacement or two. They are free when they do not leave dormancy, a built-in warrantee, one more reason to order bare root roses online.

Roses, Crepe Myrtles, and many other plants love to be pruned, which energizes the blooming, fruiting, and rooting at the same time. That is just one part of divine engineering.

When Icha-grandson was pruning roses for me, he almost cut off a bud when we were cutting off fading blooms. He said, "I didn't know!" But I explained that removing buds only puts energy into the remaining ones. There are no bad prunes in the rose business.

Rains Plus Sun = Stupendous Weed Growth
All of the roses are doing well, including some I forgot I planted last year. Give me some credit here. I got some leftovers that were barely blooming when fall started. We were lavish with leafy mulch and pine needles - and buried a couple.

Roses should not grow crowded with each other, spreading diseases. So I am putting daisies, Joe Pye, and hostas in-between them. All three can be divided later for even distribution. My other ground cover is provided by birds - many square feet of Wild Strawberry, forming a tight green mat garnished with little ruby strawberries for birds and squirrels.

Meanwhile I have areas which are dominated by grass, grassy weeds, and potential trees (maple and nut trees).

1. The old-fashioned gardener will get down and start pulling weeds, cursing Adam for being an orchard thief. 
2. The modern gardener will get out his tiller and tear up the weeds and soil, feeling good but doing evil to the soil.
3. The Creation Gardener will begin gathering newspaper, cardboard, and mulch for a mass conversion - unwanted plants turned into perfect composted soil.

Every weed needs sunshine to grow. A layer of newspaper or cardboard, held down by wood mulch, will hold in moisture while cutting off sunshine for the unwanted plants. Grass and weeds quickly begin to die while fungus, bacteria, soil creatures, and earthworms turn those wood products into the best soil.

Mulch has to be renewed, but that means the tonnage of organic matter used to create the layer is mostly soil. 

Calladiums provide color with their leaves.

Creation Gardening - Many Shares and Likes on Facebook

 A great time for bird-watching is the winter,
when they scramble for food in the garden
and on the bird-feeders.
Graphic by Norma Boeckler

When I made a Facebook page for Creation Gardening, I thought that the name would surely have been taken. But no, nothing like that came up until recently.

I double-post blog essays, so most readers read them from my main page and while others favor the Creation Gardening page, which only has gardening posts.

I am almost in the dream season, when no work can be done outside, but rose catalogues arrive faster than Medicare plan mailings.

At the moment, we are enjoying warm, sunny days and 40 degree nights. Roses are blooming but other plants have finished the season. I am protecting each rose with a collar, some peat humus, and leaves on top when they become available.

 Most bugs are beneficial - I learned as a child.
This is a Big-Eyed Bug.

Consider the Beneficial Bugs and Hungry Birds
Some gardeners want to clean up their gardens now, but Creation gardeners not only leave it trashy - but add to the trash.

1. Weeds or necessary cuttings are piled up as mulch in the back.
2. Plants are left standing, even when done for the season and fading away.
3. Autumn leaves are added everywhere and never raked up for disposal.

 Graphic by Norma Boeckler

Many insects over-winter in the garden trash - by God's design. Some insects will be useful as food for the birds in the winter. Others will remain or hatch in the spring, when they provide food for the baby birds and strike out against insect pests.

I never thought of spiders-without-nests (cursorial) and rove beetles going out on patrol through the yard, but they are active and hungry. They enjoy the protection of organic trash that is never removed and placed on the curb for pick-up.

Leaving leaves alone has shown that I can be knee-deep in them until early spring - yet never rake them up later. Leaves cannot blow away easily in a backyard surrounded by fence. Instead, earthworms and mites reduce them to soil ingredients.

Some leaves become squirrel nests for the winter and birds use a few of them in the spring. One robin had leaves in its mouth when I came up close. It hopped away without letting go of the cargo, destined for a new nest. So I drape twine over the branches of the Mother of All Crepe Myrtles in the front. When a robin took one string up high in the maple tree and dropped it, the bird dive bombed to the ground to pick it up again.

 Mountain Mint is still blooming in mid-October.

Ultimately - For the Soil
Whatever we do for the birds and insects will benefit the soil, because the Creating Word fashioned everything to work together and on schedule - for mutual benefits.

Whether we aim at more beneficial insects or greater numbers of bacteria and fungus, the increasing biomass (all organic matter) will make the soil more productive by activating the composition of the soil. Everything helps - as designed -

• Movement aerates the soil.
• Death and decomposition move elements from one creature to another.
• Fungus connects the plant roots so it can grow from their carbon while feeding them water and the nutrition they demand.

 Because you want Tachinid Flies,

you also want mounds of Daisies,
which are fun and easy to grow.

I do not believe in Creation because of the infinite number of dependencies around me, but because of the Word. Creation by the Word begins the Bible and permeates the lessons of the Bible.

Modern man's silence on Creation - especially among the apostate mainline denominations - shows how this is a mystery revealed by the Spirit. Many see the Biblical revelation, and even while surrounded by the evidence, deny and avoid the implications of what God has done. They harden their hearts against it. The more they deal with Creation, the blinder they become.

There is even a field of study about the way everything happens right on time for thousands of plants and animals. I still have fresh blooms on the Mountain Mint, a prodigal provider of pollen and nectar, and butterflies still work the garden. In the spring, the flowers blooming right through the snow will feed various insects and bees, the insects and bees providing for the early hatching of birds.

Here is a little birds and blooms trivia. We think of birds feeding their young insects and worms to help them grow fast. But Mourning Doves, the ultimate seed-eaters, feed their young partially digested seeds. The dove family nests later, when seeds have formed. That is just one example of timing.

Jesus argued from the lesser to the greater. If God can do so much for the least of His creatures, how much more does He care for each and every one of the souls in His care?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus repeatedly teaches about His will and Word being in perfect harmony with the Father's. When we hear the Good Shepherd speaking, that is also the voice of the gracious, loving Father.





Jesus the Creating Word of Genesis 1, as John 1:3 clearly teaches.