Put Down That Weed Killer - Take Advantage of Creation Principles

Crepe myrtle seed pods remain on the bush all winter,
providing snacks for the birds,
who also find  insects waiting in vain to emerge.

A pruned and mulched cape myrtle bush will have vibrant flowers
and foliage.

This crepe myrtle could be pruned like a hybrid tea - the vase look.
Or it could have the Lyle Lovett flowers on top haircut.

The first green plants in the yard are probably going to be ground cover - weeds - growing in the thin lawn and luxuriating in the sidewalk cracks and depressions.

Spraying sidewalk weeds is tempting but a waste of toxic chemicals. Yesterday I used the snow shovel to dig up the soil and and weeds there and put them under the crepe myrtle bush. The soil is the best, washed down from the yard, and the shallow rooted ground cover embedded will fade away in the shade of the bush.

The bush is mulched in a wide circle. by wood mulch and leaves. When clumps of grass come off the mulching lawnmower, I put them under the bush, to feed the creatures below. The clumps do not last long, so the area is quit active and fertile.

Crepe myrtle tolerates neglect, but that is no reason to ignore the plant. Our plan is to make it once again the finest in the neighborhood, pruned and mulched, with solar-powered faerie lights sparkling in it all night.

Soil is not dirt, but a living creation, made up of sand, clay, organic matter, and microscopic creatures. Topsoil in the wrong place can be used to innoculate the compost pile and mulch. Soil devours mulch by fostering mold and decomposition, creating a rich base for the web of life feeding the plants' roots.

I kill the crab grass, really a low quality but prolific grain, with frequent mulch mowing. The grass is fed this way and the crab grass cannot find room to grow. If it does, the mature flowering and seeding phase is cut short. No flowering means no seeds and no future. A patch of hearty crabgrass in a garden area can be converted into compost by covering it with newspapers and a mulch to help down yesterday's news.

Crab grass grows well in the sidewalk and driveway cracks. A little rock or pool salt will drip up the plant and prevent regrowth for a long time. Our landscaper on the corner was surprised to hear this.

Note the crab grass spreading out with no competition for sun.
In thick lawns, this guy would be mown to stubble.

Solar-Powered Lights, Indoor and Outdoor
Solar lights are inexpensive and quite effective with their various lighting modes and colors. I have lights on all the trees and a doorway to the garage.

When LED lights got in the way in the rose garden, I put them in the crepe myrtle bush and enjoyed the effect. Later I ran two long strings of white lights along the top of the chain link fencing. Christmas solar lights are still in the maple tree and framing the front porch. Solar lights from Phoenix illuminate the rose garden angels.

When our helper and I failed to cover the dead tree with a long string of colored lights, he fixed the break caused by his misstep. I put the lights on our living room shelves, but the solar collector did not get much energy through the window, especially since the window had film on it and a porch shading it. The film spares the wood from solar destruction but also the lights from getting energy, so we slipped the collector out the window, across the porch, and into full sun. When the sun goes down, sparkling lights provide a night light in the living room.

Keeping the Yard a One-Stop Shopping Area for Birds
Every moving creature is food for another, even slugs. If you maintain a good slug population, toads will hang around for food and the same abundance of water that helps the slug population thrive. Slugs seem repulsive, but so are worms to the skittish and sheltered. Both are effective in improving the soil and feeding other creatures.

Birds have eaten about nine pounds of suet in our yard, mostly in the late winter. Doubtless they needed time to adjust to the new feeding stations. They come to the yard for baths and drinks of water because I have around 10 pans of water for them, catching faucet and rain water. When the baths were iced and snowed on, the birds left tracks in them to remind me of my duties.

Bird watchers love to provide food for the birds, and that does not amount to much per week. I used a combination of thistle, hulled sunflower seeds, corn, and sunflower seeds. A good habitat, starting with water, is more important.

I keep a stack of branches and twigs at the Jackson Bird Spa. They have four baths to use, several suet bags, two wooden suet feeders, and a pile of branches. They perch on the branches and wipe their beaks on them. Bathing is always followed by preening the feathers, so a safe place for combing their feathers is essential. They can fly up to the trees, but they also like mid-level areas for preening and spotting food. Branches also provide the illusion of safety for bugs, so they are self-filling bird feeders.

The tiny fruits and wildflowers have a special beauty.

Two types of berries are on order for us and the birds. I plan on more berries that will spread on their own for shelter, food, and bee food. If it fruits, it flowers - if it seeds, it flowers. Bees need the flowers and we need the bees. Wild strawberries are already making their way across the west side of the house, fueled by the sun and watered from the leaky faucet and soaker hose.

The growth of the wild strawberries is accidental, showing that that an an increase of mulch and water will generate unplanned growth. With only grass I had a little patch of wild strawberries and...grass. Now I have a long line of strawberries opportunistically grabbing the sun and water for its growth, a tiny bird-feeder expanding on its own.

Landscape Lighting, Follies, Peas and Sunflowers

I liked the concept of lighting the trees at night,
but I did not want so much light, the electrical bills,
and running the conduits - not that I would do that anyway.

Gradually I have added solar lighting around the exterior of the house and among the trees, even in the crepe myrtle bush. For Christmas we added solar lights to the front yard maple tree and to the porch.

These particular solar lights glow all night and brighten when someone approaches. We come home to a lit exterior that brightens when we approach the house and the front door. Three solar lights illuminate the angels in the rose garden in front.

The backdoor lights up for Sassy's jaunts outside and her return. An isolated light stays dark unless someone tries to open the backdoor of the garage. If that is not daunting, the interior security light will go off with any motion inside the garage.

The backyard trees are all lit with a soft glow. If Sassy is near one, it brightens up. Sometimes a critter wants to visit at night. The bright glow makes it clear where it has been or Sassy has walked. Overall, solar lighting is quite attractive and unobtrusive.

Rain is coming so I was thinking about those Oregon Sugar pod peas, waiting to be planted.  Our helped showed up and I handed him the rake. I hated to take work away from him, and he felt great after recovering from a cold.

Peas like shallow planting, so he pulled Jackson Mulch away from the fence and I scattered the peas along the way. He topped off the peas with mushroom compost and loose mulch. I turned on the aerial soaker hose to give them a start and push down the soil and mulch a bit.

That went so fast that we did the same along the back fence, taking a gamble that the black oil sunflowers would survice bird and squirrel predation, plus cold nights during February. The cost in seed was perhaps $1. Buying large bags of sunflower seeds for birds is much more economical than little colored packets of sunflowers with silly names like Autumn Sunset and Smiley Face.

Two soaker hoses were chewed off at the end making them useless. A third one was chewed in the middle, typical of Sassy. She may have  chewed all of them. Hanging them in the dead tree may have enticed a squirrel into a life of crime.

Soaker hoses are a bargain, but normally a one-season tool. They save a lot of time and money. Many plants (like certain roses) will mildew more easily when sprayed from a hose. A soaker hose will normally water at the base and lost little water to run-off and evaporation.

Norma Boeckler

Sunflower Seeds
We put the sunflower seeds in an ideal medium, soft moist soil, covered with soil, mulch, and leaves.

Birds will have a good time searching for seeds, and so will the squirrels. The cold nights may stop many of them, but I planted hundreds. Some will germinate and grow early. The large ones for screening will be planted in March, when they have a better chance.

Matthew 13

13 The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

If I had listened to my doubts and the pessimistic weather forecast of our helper, I would have saved the seeds for birdseed. But I concluded that a few surviving sunflowers would more than make up for all the losses, just like the Parable of the Sower.

The Word multiplies so it should be broadcast. The media people know this, in their own way. They borrowed a farming term for what they do . They broadcast their signal, hoping some will listen and watch.

We did not plant peas and sunflowers. We broadcast them and tucked them in with some mushroom compost and mulch. The power of the harvest will not come from our efforts but from the living seed that was waiting to germinate and grow, to flower and set seed.