Partly cloudy, warm temperatures, and new plants to plant: it was a perfect morning to transplant the Black-eyed Susan’s I secured for half their inflated price! So, off I went – hoping to work more quickly than the welcomed warm sunshine could harm the little bit of skin I left exposed.
But something stopped my progress, and it wasn’t the penetrating rays I could feel under my sleeves and hat! What arrested my progress was something — a creature — growing through the new mulch, emboldened by the recent days of downpours.
Oh! YUCK!
Sea Creature or Fungi?
Whoa – I wonder what kinds of wood shreds comprise our mulch?
Never had I seen a fungus like this one! Have you?
Doug thinks it – them – are Octopus Stinkhorn fungi – and stink they do!
Seriously?
Van Gogh said, if you truly love nature, you’ll find beauty everywhere.
Yeah, Right.
Well, my gloves and hands still smell awful from digging up and disposing of this fungi although I’ve washed both thoroughly. So, I am wondering where’s the beauty?
Scientists remind me that fungi – like the creepy sea creature fungi – are the interface organisms between life and death; the grand recyclers of the planet. ( Paul Stamets) Plus, most of our antibiotics come such critters and others soil bacteria. (Michael Zasloff)
A poet, though, says it better:
If healthy soil is full of death, it is also full of life: worms, fungi, and microorganisms of all kinds . . . Given only the health of the soil, nothing that dies is dead for long. (Wendell Berry)
God knows, I have sea-creature crazy stuff just under the surface that shoves its ugly self out with too many gray days or trying times. Again, gardening chores teach a life lesson worth consideration. So, I am grateful other gardeners’ patterns for prayers to banish ugly stuff.
Disease and Pest
O,GOD, help us to put away the diseases of our hearts and souls, that as we are constantly fighting against disease in all nature around, so we may earnestly strive to conquer and overcome the evil habits which beset us in our daily lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (A Gardener’s Prayer Book, page 57)
Having a new day to garden – play in the dirt – as well as time to reflect on what needs to be removed or recycled in this autumn’s garden is a good gift.
Dear Reader, if you feel like doing a little interior gardening, here is a link to a Psalm that helps garden my soul: Psalm 103.
Love in Christ,
bwsmith
Prettier than fungi, right?