Yes, Students Believe in Creation

 

Dr. Jackson, thank you so much for responding! John 1:3 is one of my favorite scriptures. It implies the difference between what begins to exist versus the One who has always existed. In essence, there is one thing that did not come into being or just begin to exist. That is God! 

Creation Garden - Next Year Will Be Better

 

Joe Pye Weed is famous for its height, pollinator pride, and musky fragrance. 

Now that Joe Pye plants are seven feet tall, loaded with bees and butterflies, it is time to take down the heaviest and slouchiest plants. The thick stems hold up enormous flowerheads filled with tiny flowers. I put two of them in a heavy vase for Sunday and the contraption fell over. One stem was enough to imagine the top-heavy flower crashing during the service. An unhappy bumblebee coasted in front of me during the sermon, perhaps wondering what happened to its earliest paradise of pollen.

I will chop down many of the Joe Pyes and use them as free mulch to improve the soil and discourage the obnoxious weeds (aka free weeds, air express weeds, and hated weeds). The Joe Pyes will come back late in spring, God willing.

Perhaps it is the climate - the roses planted do not do well the first year from the gardening center or national distributor (Jackson and Perkins, no relation). Even though I gather rainwater in barrels, front and back, nothing seems to help very much. The next spring, good becomes great, and optimism emerges.

A British gardener suggested this for all gardens - "Do not plan something here and there, waiting for the flowers to fill in the space. Jam the space full of plants and do some editing later."

Our greatest weakness is the failure to allow for the roots. They are tiny at first in related to the future plant and even the potted plant. They are crowded and longing for the right soil. The Lord of Creation has set up hundreds if not thousands of ways for that plant to survive and thrive, if only we are patient.

Creation and the Non-Processed Foods

 Note the nutritional benefits of vegetables in this post, below.

All kinds of lies are told about unprocessed food, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. One falsehood is that vegetables are not complete protein. That is not true of chickpeas, but it is true of most vegetables and perhaps all fruits. However, our bodies remix all the food we eat and it balances the needs without us thinking about it.

One vegetable will be low on potassium, good for energy, but another is high on the same thing. If there is a surplus, the potassium is moved out. Here is a list of high potassium foods.

Fresh pineapples have a gigantic amount of Vitamin C. A cup is almost 100% of the C requirement and even higher for manganese.

Spinach, mustard, turnip, and kale greens are less than glamorous, but they have staggering amounts of nutrition

Creation Gardeners (trademark, Jackson Farms) know that blending plants and insects will benefit one another, whether we figure it all out - or not. Insects and spiders kill off most of the harmful insects, but an insecticide can kill off all the bad insects, and slaughter the good insects, and the spiders. The food of beneficials is the destructive host, so the babies to grow up to repeat the process of killing off aphids and other menaces to food and flowers.

I say, this all looks planned. The Lord of Creation, in six 24-hour days, engineered everything we have in the universe - Genesis 1 and John 1:3. Creation took place quickly, we have to assume, because various life forms had to thrive by eating and being eaten. Everything had to happen almost at once.

 Notice that this flawless Falling in Love flower hosts a determined spider. Down the stem is often a spider web for catching destructive insects on the way up to the delicate rose. Yet many people act as if this is random!

Joe Pye Weed Arrives - My Rainwater Methods

Today the Joe Pye Weed arrived, 10 plants carefully wrapped and each one positioned in a box to arrive whole, looking great.

Growers Exchange is the only place where I buy herbs.

I had to chase a bunny out of the back garden, where I planted six of them. While I was gathering up tools and trash, he hopped back, doubtless curious about what was new on his menu. I chased him away, yelling, "Not your garden. Get out." He hopped a few steps and waited. I pursued him until he was in the front yard.

Rain Water - Always for Planting

My mother's secret recipe was either 1) rainwater, or 2) stored water to let the chlorine evaporate out. Her school room flowers bloomed while others drooped. The teachers asked her secret; she smiled.

When plants arrive, I soak them for hours if possible. We have an all-night rain coming, so I gave them a few minutes of rainwater, then a soaking at the end.

Roses get several days of soaking, the bottom half only.

Plants can be immersed before digging them in, but not overnight. The more fragile ones, like Bee Balm, will start to die from too much water.

Rain water lacks chlorine and has usable nitrogen for the plants. During a storm, tons of nitrogen come down and green up everything, as noted in Isaiah 55:8ff.

I have rain-barrels and buckets all over the back, where the roof collects and dumps the water. I usually have a supply, and if not, I fill a garbage pail with Springdale water to let the chlorine evaporate out.

Yes, I dump water out from the barrels to avoid mosquitoes multiplying.

Rainwater for Doting on Flowers

One member (name withheld) kids me about dumping rainwater from the barrels, filling in the sentence for me - "because rain is coming."

I pick flowers to dote on so they grow even better. I did that with the slow-growing Crepe Myrtle, which now reaches up to the kitchen sink window. The plant grew faster and flowered better than its "drought tolerant" identical brothers in the front yard.

A day or two after a rain, I will pour a bucket on the kitchen window Crepe Mytle, for continued growth and flowering. I saw damage that could only have been caused by a Fluffy-Tailed Food Thief, aka a young squirrel. Looking closer, tender new branches were torn off on one side.

Over-watering can be bad from the garden hose, but it seems fairly difficult to over-water with stored rainwater. Last year was such an extended deluge that I saw lack of growth (little sun) but no death from extensive rain storms followed by more of the same. I did not use rainwater supplements.

I was happy to get the garbage barrels out of the flooded backyard, several times rolling the barrels through the house to avoid sinking into the mire, with muddy groan, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

Perfect Roses - Just Add Rainwater

The Queen Elizabeth rose has always been a favorite of ours, with its Lutheran heritage - developed by Creationist Walter Lammerts - its large growing habit, and perfect pink blooms.

We have grown many pink roses, from the very pale Bride's Dream, to the pink and white Falling in Love, to the deepest tones of Pink Peace.

Nothing compares to the glow of Queen Elizabeth, even though the others are praiseworthy and loved  by many recipients. Most roses do not last in their popularity, because some flaw is discovered or tastes change. Queen Elizabeth has remained popular since it was developed in 1954.

All About Rose Gardening:

Lovely pink roses on the Queen Elizabeth Rose, makes this hardy Grandiflora rose very popular, and considered the best in it's class.
The pure, soft pink blooms of the Queen Elizabeth are perfect! They are the closest thing to a Hybrid Tea rose that I can grow in my area. I have two in my garden, and I simply LOVE them!
This Grandiflora is a must if you have a cutting garden! The beautiful flowers grow on long straight stems, and have a delightful sweet scent.
Keep it deadheaded to encourage more blooms.The bush is also very disease resistant.

Our summer drought created a quandary.  I needed rainwater to encourage more blooms, but I quickly ran out of it when I needed it the most. When fall rains drenched the bushes and I added the stored rainwater, the perfect blend of water with usable nitrogen gave the roses a boost for blooming without the side-effects of tapwater or the detrimental effects of man-made fertilizer.

Rainwater is definitely a feature of Creation. The clash of warm and cold fronts pulls moisture from the clouds in the form of snow, which melts on its way down to us. Lightning fixes nitrogen, an abundant gas, but useless until it transforms into a compound plants can use. Much of this fixation is done in the soil by legumes, more precisely, by bacteria that live on the roots of legumes (bean family).

Some downplay the value of nitrogen in rainwater, but every gardener and farmer loves a long, soaking rain that greens up all plant life and washes the dust from plants and trees. How can anyone calculate the tons of fertilizer coming down, so evenly distributed and instantly available?

I have learned to put five gallons of rainwater at a time on a rose bush, when I have stored some. The barrels have grown in number and capacity, because the results are evident and impossible to reproduce.

Three Veterans Honor roses, one Fragrant Cloud, two Queen Elizabeth, and one Pope John Paul II - all combine a fragrance so strong - almost choking in the hallway, like a closed room full of Easter lilies, but not as heavy and sweet.

Heavy rains and added rain from the barrels gave us this harvest and even more roses, still forming and blooming in abundance.

 From Norma Boeckler

If rainwater is so effective, how much more is the Word of God? Rain is the result of Creation, but Creation itself began with the Word of God. "All things were created through Him, and nothing was created apart from Him." (John 1)

Everyone would love rainwater from a special tap, going back to the old days when people stored rain and pumped it out when needed. Constantinople had vast storage areas for water underneath the city, to protect them against hard times and invasions. Jerusalem likewise was blessed with water sources and also engineered in ancient days to protect its water.

If water is so necessary and life-giving, always effective, then the Word of God is even more so, since all blessings flow from the Mouth of God. If God commands, it is so, no matter what man thinks, imagines, or decides. The Word turned water into the finest wine, stilled the storm, and raised Lazarus from death itself. Jesus stopped a funeral procession and gave a widow's only son back to her. He let the mourners laugh at Him, just before He gave a little girl back to her parents, no longer dead but living.

  From Norma Boeckler