Planting A Wildflower Garden: Part 1 - Preparing Your Spot

A wild-flower garden has a most attractive sound. One thinks of long tramps in the woods, collecting material, and then of the fun in fixing up a real wild garden.

Many people say they have no luck at all with such a garden. However, it is not a question of luck, but a question of understanding, for wild flowers are like people and each has its personality. What a plant has been accustomed to in nature it desires always. In fact, when removed from its own sort of living conditions, it sickens and dies. That is enough to tell us that we should copy Nature herself.

When you are hunting wild flowers, as you choose certain flowers from the woods, notice the soil they are in, the place, conditions, the surroundings, and the neighbours.

Wildflowers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Suppose you find dog-tooth violets and wind-flowers growing near together. Then place them so in your own new garden. Suppose you find a certain violet enjoying an open area - then it should have the same in your garden. If you wish wild flowers to grow in a tame garden, you must make them feel at home - and that means you need to trick them into almost believing that they are still in their native haunts.

Wild flowers ought to be transplanted after blossoming is over. Take a trowel and a basket into the woods with you. As you take up a few, a columbine, or a hepatica, be sure to take with the roots some of the plant's own soil, which must be packed about it when replanted.

The bed into which these plants are to go should be prepared carefully before you obtain your plants. It is not a good idea to bring those plants back and let them sit over a day or night before planting. They should go into their new quarters at once. The bed needs soil from the woods, deep and rich and full of leaf mold. The drainage system should be excellent. Some people think that all wood plants should have a soil saturated with water. But the woods themselves are not water-logged. If you have heavy, wet soil, you may need to put in some extra work, and dig your garden up very deeply and put some stone in the bottom. Then replace the soil. And on top, where the top soil once was, put a new layer of the rich soil you brought from the woods.

Before planting, water the soil well. Then as you make places for the plants, put into each hole some of the soil which belongs to the plant which is to be put there.

Once your bed is prepared, you are ready to collect plants to fill it, and build your beautiful new wildflower garden!

Be sure to check back next week when we will share some ideas and suggestions for what flowers to plant, and how to choose the right ones for your wildflower garden.

How Natural Is Natural Insecticide? A Philosphical Debate

There have been many advances in the field of natural insecticides.  Some would say that some of the advancements are not for the better.  This is because the natural insecticide is not exactly in the state that nature gave it to us in.  So, just how natural is natural insecticide? 

Nature (Photo credit: joaoloureiro)

Sustainable gardeners who grapple with this issue are those who seek to do their part in keeping the natural world in balance.  They believe that the earth is an ecological system in which every living entity has a part to play.  They have a strict idea of what natural insecticide is. 

They don't have faith in a system where the balance is upset by one species.  They believe that man's emphasis on technological progress is damaging to the planet by its very nature.  These people are extremely uncomfortable with biotechnology and its creation of "natural insecticide" to kill off a pest species in the garden. 

Then, there are those who don't agree that there is balance or harmony in nature.  They see the world as a constantly changing system where new developments are always coming along.  Advancements in natural insecticide are only one of them.

The people who see the world as ever-changing, the naturalists, are more likely to recognize the destructiveness of nature.  They recognize that hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes, are devastating occurrences.  Famine and disease can also be caused by nature. 

For this reason, naturalists see the world as something to be explored and understood. They believe that a human being has intelligence in order to do a part in advancing the health of the planet.  Part of this is in further development of natural insecticides and other such "improvements". 

These naturalists believe that biotechnology can produce products just as natural as any other natural insecticide.  They don't see the difference in using biotechnology for agriculture and using laboratory science to make pharmaceuticals, for instance.  They see biotechnology for natural insecticide as a good thing. 

European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis Photo by Keith Weller. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Naturalists are more likely to see the similarities between biotechnology and the cross-breeding of plants and animals that has been done for centuries.  We have always used this method, if not this particular technique. 

A similar issue is bioengineered crops such as Bt corn.  Bacillus thurengiensis is a natural insecticide that has been used for many years.  Now, it is being put into the genetic structure of corn.  This makes the corn resistant to insects. While those with a more sustainable view see this as messing with the natural order of things, and potentially harmful to our health, the naturalists believe that Bt corn is a normal advancement. 

What do you think? Are we just using our God-given intelligence to make the world a better place through eliminating harmful pests, or are we overstepping by presuming that "bad" bugs don't have a place in the environment?

Feel free to share your view in the comments below!

Spring Is Near! Meditating on the Spiritual Side of Gardening

Today we were blessed with brilliant sunshine, strong winds, and temperatures in the 50's, and already my heart is celebrating garden season! Realistically I know that here in Central Ohio we are still a good 6 weeks from any in-depth planting and such, but hey, a girl can dream....  I celebrated by starting some in-door seedlings, cleaning out some old dead stems and such from the garden area, checking my compost, and spending much time mulling over what I will plant, and where.

These practical considerations aside, however, I was reminded today of the more spiritual side of gardening. I know we don't talk much about spirituality here, but regardless of your belief system (I am a Christian), one has got to admit that part of the reason we love to garden is that it ties us into a greater whole - the cycle of life, contributing to the life and health of the planet, and such. Sustainable gardening is one way to bring us into a closer connection with the life of the planet we live on - something that many of us in modern life are really missing out on.

Image by easegill via FlickrThink about it - most of us live in a warm house built of various materials that separate us from the outside world, we drive to work (rather than having our feet meet the earth), work in an enclosed office space with sealed windows and no connection to the outdoors, and come home to sit in front of the TV and watch fictional stories about other people whom we have never met.

Our connection to the natural world for most of us (and I'm including myself) is for the most part non-existent.  We no longer have to work the land - to dig into the earth, feed it, water it, nourish it, maintain it in order to feed ourselves and our families. We no longer rely on a close-knit community to help each other grow and produce the goods we use (we get them shipped on trucks from thousands of miles away, grown and produced people we never meet or talk to). We watch the weather forecast for signs of what to wear, or what the morning commute will be like - we don't check the outside conditions for optimal growing and planting. We may open the windows on our way to work, or think what a beautiful day it is, as we head to the shopping mall, or lie beside a concrete swimming pool. And while all these luxuries and freedoms may be a blessing in some ways, in other ways, we have let them cut us off from the world that God made for us to live in and be stewards over.

I think gardening gives us a way to tap into this - to find that missing connection in some way. What do you think?