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| Bee Balm is very attractive to bees, beneficial insects, butterflies, and hummingbirds. |
Last year I planted some Bee Balm and saw a bloom or two - from the red ones. The red ones went wild this year, so we mowed them down for now. They are a mint and therefore spread easily.
Purple Bee Balms started slowly and built up last year. My main plant was in the rose garden along the Gardener's fence. All of the sudden it bloomed with large purple blossoms. At one point seven bumblebees were working the flowers at once.
Our chiro's secretary loved the purple flowers with the medicinal aroma, so I did a root division today. I planted two Bee Balms in a new place, front and back, and soaked two sets in the rainwater barrel near the roses. I had gallon buckets, so I was able to hand her the chance to have a row of them blooming by next year. She asked for slips, which have to be rooted, then planted. "Go big, or go home," they say.
One Bee Balm went in the hole created when I moved a Mountain Mint into the main rose garden. I was a little leery of the Mountain Mint taking over, but that is more likely with the Bee Balm (Horse Mint).
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| Mountain Mint is famous for the frenzy of beneficial insects flying around it all the time when the blooms are out. |
The Mountain Mint was getting crowded and overlooked, so I placed that in the hole left by a rose that never woke up. That rose got so many pruning cuts and rainwater that it proved no life was left in it. That happens. A rose does not always come out of dormancy. The non-growing roses (4) were replaced with 7 new ones.
The Mountain Mint - earlier buried alive - has a structure around it to keep us from stepping on it. If I want to protect a new plant, I fit cardboard around the base, cover the cardboard with mulch, and set up small logs as landmarks. Not every plant has the vivacity to emerge from newspaper and mulch. When I saw its tender leaves reaching into the light, I twisted one leaf off to smell it. Think peppermint times ten = Mountain Mint.
Clearly God created a lot of beneficial creatures - and plants to host them in the garden. An article on beneficial bugs mentioned that Borage (aka Bee Bread, related to Comfrey) attracts a wide variety of beneficial insects when it is planted. Mrs. I loves to eat the flowers, so I plant them by the front door and also along Mrs. Wright's fence. They drop seed easily and new ones start, but they are not invasive.
At this point I have 95% perfect roses with no spraying and no man-made fertilizer. A wide variety of flowers are blooming at all times, from dandelions and clover to Crepe Myrtle, tomatoes, beans, and buckwheat.
My maple tree area is plagued with grass, which I tried to removed several times before. Almost Eden suggested using buckwheat to squeeze out the grass. Buckwheat is so pushy that it can be used to displace weeds while flowering constantly to host the beneficial insects. Some buckwheat is flowering from what I planted last year.
So I ordered more buckwheat.
Buckwheat illustrates what is just as true with doctrine. An untended yard or garden will be taken over by weeds in short order. My neighbor said field weeds were taking over our backyard before we moved in. The residents did not mow very often, so the coarse weeds grew, sending down taproots or spreading outward with stolons and seed. Close and frequent mowing removed the weeds, and clover took over almost 100% from the heavy rains last summer.
The Lutheran Church and the Protestant denominations are over-run with false doctrine because the Synod Presidents, District Presidents, Bishops, and Supervisors chose to enjoy the perks of the office rather than bear the yoke of the office.
Teaching sound doctrine is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word. If you want to feel the blast of opposition and the sting of personal insults, often from so-called friends, just insist on sound doctrine replacing the false teaching deliberately and eagerly promoted by church leaders, church professors, and church publishing houses.
Two Wolves Story
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Two Doctrines Are Like Two Kinds of Plants
Sound doctrine and false doctrine are like the plants, the wolves.
I constantly work to feed, water, and protect the good plants. The weeds are aggressive bullies but sterile. They produce seed and fruit, but no one wants their seed, their fruit, their leaves. I yank the weeds, cut them at their base, cover them up to let them rot away.
False doctrine is fed by the timidity and and ignorance of the clergy and laity. They feed the church structure, so the church structure grows. They let the leaders grow fat and alcoholic with the easy and high pay of their positions, which further insulate them from any criticism. The rule is - show extreme deference to the leaders - but do they show any deference to the Word of God? Just the opposite is true. They will destroy a congregation to get even with a few people who cross them. They will ban books, as happened in the days of Crypto-Calvinism, for teaching Biblical doctrine.
Their mouths are full of honey when talking to the rich, who love to pay for financial absolution of their sins, indulgences without the name or shame.
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| Pokeweed grows in sidewalk cracks but zooms to 9 feet tall in the garden, large, fruitful, with toxic berries loved by birds. |