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| Autumn Leaves by Norma Boeckler |
Others are busy tossing cardboard away, which is recycled. One company does not create any new pulp; instead, it grabs waste cardboard and creates new/old product.
We are using neighborhood and a local business' cardboard to carpet the future wild garden. We did not calculate the lift of the gentlest zephyr blowing through the yard. Cardboard scattered leaving big gaps. Now most of it is weighted down with bird baths and large branches, awaiting the autumn leaves that have not fallen in any number. We may leave bags on top for weight besides dumping them on the cardboard.
Leaves can be delightfully soggy and heavy, but wind can also dry them out and scatter them.
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| Bees love bee balm. |
Bird Food Party
I threw a bird food party to get the population higher. I put out some seed from the barrel, plus peanuts in the shell, and a block of seed. This morning I saw birds sitting on the rustic fence. Yesterday I found robins feeding in the worm-rich sunny garden, where weeds, wood mulch, newspapers, and straw have rotted into a layer of compost mixed by earthworms.
The wild garden will be very good for birds, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The grass will turn into compost and weeds will be kept down by the New Improved Jackson Mulch - cardboard plus leaves plus wood mulch.
This large area of the backyard will store water better by having such a deep layer of organic matter where it once had only sparse grass.
I believe clumping plants like bee balm will work out well. I also plan to have milkweed, Butterfly Weed, raspberries, and blackberries in the Wild Garden.
My main annual will be giant sunflowers. Our daughter-in-law grew enormous ones in planters in her front yard. "Where did you get the seeds?"
"Walmart."
I was trying to order giant mammoth striped Russian sunflowers from the famous seed companies, and there they were at Walmart.
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| Morning Glory planted itself on the fence. Cow Vetch is in another section. |