Keep the gardening reports coming. I'm trying out some of the methods on our reluctant soil. I'll be laying down newsprint."

Interest in posts shows up two ways. I watch the numbers daily and look at what people read the most. If they look up old posts and those go up quickly in views, I assume a post was linked to others. Some recent surprises are the Yale Egyptology story from a year ago, and a quote about Mary commanding her Son as the Queen of Purgatory.

Secondly, I get phone calls and emails, which have concentrated on gardening and Sassy stories. 

Today the Epsom salts email led to Walmart and the purchase of an 8 pound bag for $6. Rain is starting, so I scattered it in every area where I am planting - and on the crepe myrtle bush, which is the superstar of the entire neighborhood.

I believe earthworms, some extra watering, and pruning led to this great display of flowers. If they all looked the same as mine, I would give credit to our early rains. Pruning a flowering bush after the blooming season will shape it, open it up to air and sunshine, and promote root growth.

God mulches his plants. Pine trees mulch pine needles, which are good for pine trees. A bush is going to shed quite a few leaves in a year. Rather than scrape them away to bare soil, I add worms to the base and throw wads of grass underneath when the lawnmower gets cleaned. What is better than soil and grass under a bush, with red wigglers waiting to pull them under?

I suggested to both gardeners that the increase the organic matter going into their soil. Just as the church consultants say "Rock group" as the solution for everything, I say, "Mulch with earthworms." 

An old gardener's aphorism - "Every shovel of soil should have one earthworm in it." The soil population will build up quickly with soil amendments, including Epsom salt and wood ash, grass clippings, leaves, small twigs, wood mulch, sawdust, and animal (but not pet) manure. 

Composting on the spot will take place all winter, since God has three teams of bacteria at work, one for each temperature of organic matter - hot, medium, and cool. When the organic matter is the wrong temperature for the current crop of decomposing bacteria, another team will take up. Hot is faster but it never stays hot, since the high nitrogen ingredients that feed the warming up are used in the process.

Earthworms are "cows that graze on high protein bacteria." 

Soil creatures and organic matter will encourage more saturation of the soil by water, instead of runoff, and the soil will hold moisture better with the soil population and the sponge effect of humus. 

We will either compost or mower/mulch all our leaves in the yard. I may get bags of leaves from neighbors, too, if family shunning is kept to a minimum.  I can fill the compost area many times with leaves and still have room for more as they reduce in volume from decomposition.

I was in a hurry to plant seeds, especially when I had seed packets in a dish and thunderclouds overhead. I did not mark them. I have pumpkins growing and warty gourds flourishing. Which is which? The fruit will tell me in the long run. The flowers are almost the same, as shown above and may cross pollinate between warty gourds and Atlantic Giant pumpkins.

"Would you like a 500 pound warty gourd for your Thanksgiving cornucopia? No?"

I also have spinach, New Zealand spinach, and Malabar spinach growing. The first is real spinach. The second is a leafy vine. The third is a spinach substitute for hot weather. Real spinach loves the cold while New Zealand spinach loves the heat and abhors the cold. No plant can serve two masters. Each one has its own growing preferences.

Seedlings like very much alike. I planted bush beans and pole beans along the fence, because it was easy to do and not new garden space was ready. The pole beans are climbing now and the bush beans will stay low and produce near the ground.

Some of the weeds confuse me. The suspicious looking ones may be some of the new plants, so I am hold off on cutting them. I still remember the person who kept trying to get rid of this weed, and it kept coming back. He learned before it was too late that it was the rare and difficult to grow, trailing arbutus - or mayflower.

One of Jesus' parables is not emphasized much - the Parable of the Tares (Weeds). The crop comes up but weeds are growing in the crop. The owner warns that rooting up the weeds will damage the good plants, so the separation will take place at harvest time.

The weeds are related to the classic parable warning -