Let the earth bring forth vegetation

"the voice which was then heard and that first command became, as it were, a law of nature and remained in the earth, giving it the power to produce and bear fruit for all succeeding time. . . ."
"Reflect, I beg you, that in consequence of this short word and a command so brief, the earth, chilled and barren, was incessantly in travail and stirred up to productiveness. . . ."
"That command, which even yet is inherent in the earth, impels it in the course of each year to exert all the power it has for the generation of herbs, seeds, and trees.  For, as tops, from the first impulse given to them, produce successive whirls when they are spun, so also the order of nature, having received its beginning from that first command continues to all time thereafter. . . ."
"Consider the word of God moving through all creation, having begun at that time, active up to the present, and efficacious until the end, even to the consummation of the world. . . .
"This command remains in the earth and the earth does not cease serving the Creator. . . ."
"the soul of brute beasts did not emerge after having been hidden in the earth, but it was called into existence at the time of the command. . . ."

St. Basil the Great on Gen 1:11, On the Hexaemeron 5.1, 2, 10; 9.2-3, trans. Sister Agnes Clare Way, C.D.P. (FC 46, 67, 69, 82, 136-138).