New Beginnings

My posts have been sparse lately, but it isn't easy to keep your spirits up when fungus gets you down. Also, the intense heat has a way of baking everything. Still, there is new growth that I am hopeful about.

I planted beans today with the corn I previously planted. I am trying out the Three Sisters Method used by the Native Americans. Here is the site I have been referring to: http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html


Corn Sprouts

Meanwhile, my rosemary marches on as if nothing ever happened.

Tuscan Blue Rosemary


Blackberries are ripening.


The wild grapes have got the cutest tiny blossoms right now.


And nothing ever fazes the four o' clocks.

I started to get excited about our first okra pod, but now it isn't looking so good and I'm having doubts about its durability.
I discovered a new mushroom growing from one of my herb planters. It could be a different type of inky cap... or not. As interested as I have gotten in fungus, it's difficult not throw my hands up at the whole lot. Oh, how to reconcile my love of fungus with my disdain?!

Compost Bin Part 2

A Sad Day in the Garden

So I planted some corn yesterday. That's the good news. But being a beginning gardener, I am learning as I go, and that sometimes brings sad news. Fungus. I wish now that I had known what I was looking at right away. The weather has brought perfect conditions for mushrooms, which I got caught up in. Meanwhile, some undesirable fungi were finding the conditions quite favorable on my plants. At first I thought, "Oh, it's just a little dead spot on the leaf-- no big deal". Then I noticed more. Things did not look good. I thought something was chewing on them. It occurred to me that this would leave holes, not ringed spots that kept growing. The pawpaw leaf spray obviously couldn't help. So I looked up plant diseases and saw a few that I recognized. I looked up organic fungicide. Grain alcohol vinegar with 10% acidity comes highly recommended, but I haven't found it for sale locally. So the recipe I'm going with is 1 Tbsp. baking soda in 4 cups warm water with 1/2 Tbsp. mineral oil and a dash of dish soap, shaken well and sprayed on.

Most sources say to remove diseased plants and burn them. If the fungus is just beginning to grow, you can prune off the affected leaves. It has spread to nearly everything: vegetable plants, herbs, flowers, possibly fruit. And almost every single leaf shows beginning signs of little yellow speckles. It's a horrible tragedy, and I didn't know what to do. I was not willing to abandon my plants. I picked off some of the worst looking leaves, and told myself perhaps that would be enough. I was standing there agonizing in front of the hot & spicy oregano. Now this hot & spicy oregano has been with me for a while now; it was one of the first herb plants I bought. It saw me struggling with my ambivalence and it stepped in. It told me the only way to save the plants is to go ahead and strip off the leaves except for the tiniest new growth and then continue to spray with the baking soda mixture. I didn't want to give in, but the oregano was very persistent and brave. "Just go ahead and take the leaves; we will spring back. It's the only way to save us." It pained me... it pained the plants. But I trust my friend, hot & spicy oregano; so I proceeded. We sat around a fire last night and I burned the leaves that I had spent hours pulling from my plant family, thanking them for their guidance. Plants are very brave; they keep moving forward and trying to grow when things get difficult. They are willing to make sacrifices for the greater good. We could all learn from these marvelously simple creatures.

My plants are skeletal and naked now; but they all look hopeful just the same, covered with tiny new growth ready to start a new beginning. Take fungus very seriously. It can take over everything. Take precautions before any sign of a threat. Become familiar with plant diseases before you notice anything is amiss. This site was helpful to me: http://www.planetnatural.com/site/plant-diseases.html
Here is another: http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html
By the way, one of my apple trees has fire blight; so there's another thing to deal with. I have a bit more leaf stripping to do today before I'm ahead of the fungus. I would like to give thanks to all of my brave plants, and especially my hot & spicy oregano. I'm not sure I could have gone through with the process without its encouragement and support. If you think I'm talking crazy, then you don't know plants.

A Busy Day Outside

Yesterday was quite a busy day.


I built two garden beds with the method previously shown (assembling a cut tire border around posts, covering the bottom with paper and cardboard, soaking with water, filling with hay, soaking again with water).


We hoed the grass between the beds, and covered the ground with pine needles. I love to enjoy the fresh smell of the pine needles while working in the garden.


While mowing, my husband found concord grapevines that we thought were long since dead due to fire.


Then he found a couple more behind the house that must have been a gift from a bird some time ago. Our neighbors have some well developed concord vines, so it's likely the bird had been hanging out over there before visiting our yard. All this was exciting enough, but then I was wandering around the yard and found more vines... lots more.


They are a lighter shade of green, so they aren't concords. And they seem to be growing wild, scattered along the woods. I have a feeling they may be whispering "muscadine" to me. We shall see.


You can see the tiny grape clusters forming.

They are located in a tangle of all manner of plants, including blackberries, honeysuckles, young mimosas, passion flower vines, and several others as yet unidentified. It will be a tedious undertaking to clean out this area: exactly the sort of challenge I love. Speaking of things that I love. I love this land that we live on, and it is constantly showing that it loves us too. We decided we wanted pawpaw trees, we found pawpaw trees... in abundance. We decided we wanted grapes, we got grapes... in abundance. This place has been my home for most of my life and I have quite a close bond with it, and growing closer all the time now that I am giving it more attention.

Meanwhile, I have been collecting various mushrooms periodically. I have been finding them everywhere while working on other projects. It's really a pretty nice way to fit mushrooming into my schedule. I can just take a few minutes to photograph and collect and briefly study them as I find them, then lay them out on some paper inside the house to take a spore print. I can then refer back to them later to try and identify. I'll post more information when I am able to acceptably identify my findings.

Today will be another day outside, planting, and perhaps building more beds, we also have errands to run outside of our kingdom/queendom. So I guess it will be another busy day.

Mushrooms of the Woods: Polypores, Part 1

I forgot to mention this in last night's post. As I was planting in the garden, I parted the hay to fill with soil and an onion. Not much to my surprise, but certainly to my delight, I found inky caps down there. I thought I might. I certainly hope they are of a species that will enrich the hay and make my vegetables happy. I have a couple more mushroom websites to recommend: http://www.mushroomthejournal.com/ and http://americanmushrooms.com/

In my search for inky cap information, I also found a wonderful blog from the Pyrenees: http://www.stammer.nl/natureswitchedon/
It's about coexisting with nature harmoniously, featuring lovely photography and progress updates.

I am currently trying to identify more mushroom specimens I collected from the woods a few days ago. I feel that after all the frequent showers the land has received over the past few days, I should make time to do more hunting. This is a vast universe which constantly amazes me, and I always have trouble finding time for everything I'd like to do.

I feel confident in positively identifying the Trichaptum biforme due to its distinctive purple coloring. It may not have any interesting uses as far as humans are concerned, but I find it very beautiful.


caps (topside)


It has pores rather than gills. (underside)

The color is much more vibrant in person. The particular lighting conditions dulled the hue in the photographs a bit. They grow from decaying wood with no discernible stems. Mushrooms such as this are called Polypores, or commonly called shelf mushrooms. Here is a page which highly praises the Polypore: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Mushrooms.Folder/Polypore.html
"Wildman" Steve Brill's website certainly has a lot to offer in regards to discovering nature and foraging.

Progress in the Garden

I put on sunblock today, not realizing that I would have to stay bundled up if I were to function. I have been spraying our plants with our homemade pawpaw leaf pesticide. I'll report back later with my results. I planted onions and garlic, a bit late, I admit. I planted the rest of the okra. Here are a few pictures of the garden's progress.


Here is some garlic I planted a little earlier.


I planted these yellow onions a couple of weeks ago.


A bloom budding on our purple pepper plant!

Mushrooms of the Hay Bale: The Return

Yesterday morning as I was leaving for work, I was disappointed to see new inky caps growing from the hay bale. As excited as I was to see them standing tall with young fresh conical caps, I hated to accept that I didn't have the time to take any pictures or collect any specimens. However, I am happy to report that I am taking a few days off work as of today. I had to wait for this morning's rain to stop for a little while, but as soon as it did I was out there taking pictures. Ahh, fresh Coprinus...





The cap is merely a thin membrane holding the gills in place.


Even at this stage, when dragged across paper the cap leaves inky traces.


This one is just beginning to curl.


Here is a fine example of the inky spores ready to drip and spread.

Edibles

Here is a collection of some of the edibles we currently have growing on our premises.


Peaches


Plum


Pears


Apple


Figs


Srawberries


Blueberries


Broccoli


Spearmint


Chocolate Mint


Licorice Basil

Mushrooms of the Hay Bale

I have recently noticed some mushrooms occasionally growing from the hay bale we've been using to fill our garden beds. Around the third time they appeared I became interested in identifying them. Since then I've been searching madly, obsessed with my quest for answers. I have learned that mushroom identification is a tricky thing indeed, usually requiring a microscope and DNA testing for truly conclusive results. However, I feel that my diligence has adequately paid off for the time being. My study shall continue, with the help of some highly recommended books: Mushrooms Demystified and All That the Rain Promises and More, both by David Arora. For now, I bring you the Coprinus, commonly called an inky cap. I am as yet unsure of the species, but Coprinus fimetarius or Coprinus cinereus just feels right. It could just as well be wrong; further study is needed. I have had great difficulty finding helpful mushroom identification websites, so I expect to have better luck with books. Most websites devoted to the subject are more oriented to the most common edibles or the psychotropic varieties. It has been a bit frustrating. The sites that I finally found helpful are: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/ and http://www.svims.ca/

The catch to inky caps is that they are very short-lived. It rained yesterday, so I looked for them this morning. They were already reaching the end of their lifespan. Had it rained last night instead, I could have found much fresher specimens. The caps have turned to goo; the spores have spread. The End... this time around, anyway. Thanks to our friend, Jones, we have borrowed a swanky Nikon D3000; and we are able to take high quality pictures with clear detail.

The stem is delicate and hollow.

This is what you get from handling the caps: ink.

This is what happens when you try to take a spore print from an overly mature cap: a fine mess. The cap hasn't been removed but is curling up and dissolving.

The uses vary from one species to another. Obviously, an ink can be made from the caps. Some types are edible, although very mild in flavor. These don't smell mushroomy, but rather fresh, like dew. Some are edible, yet poisonous if mixed with alcohol, even up to three days after time of mushroom ingestion. Some have anti-tumor properties. Some may nutritionally enrich the medium in which they grow. I don't think any are deadly, as very few mushrooms truly are. But feeling sick can certainly outweigh any positive experience you may have upon tasting them. Don't eat something if you aren't certain what it is. I feel this to be universally wise advice.

Organic Pesticide

I've read that all the wonderful Paw Paw trees in our magical little hollow contain a natural and potent pesticide. Of course, the articles are about making extract in a lab with string solvents like industrial grade ethanol and such which, in my opinion, goes beyond what could be considered "organic". I have also read, however, that organic gardeners use the leaves, stems, twigs, and bark to make their own natural and effective pesticides.

What I can't find is any sort of recipe or anything on exactly how the hell they manage this.

The organic pesticide recipes I have found involve mainly capsaicin (the stuff that makes peppers and onions and such hot). In these recipes, you simply cut the ingredients up small, blend them into a paste, steep said paste in water for a bit, strain, add a bit of vegetable oil and a dash of dish soap to break up the surface tension of the water and there you are.

I figure this should work with the paw paw parts as well so that is what I'm trying. I intend to also make a capsaicin based solution as well and testing them against one another. I will post again in the future once I have some conclusive results.

UPDATE:

The first test of the organic pesticide; we found a spotted up leaf on one of our watermelons. Upon further inspection, we found a striped cucumber beetle just going to town on it. We filled a spray bottle with our paw paw leaf solution, gave it a spritz and WOW! the beetle didn't fall over and die or anything, but it DID start running around in circles and then jumped off the leaf, to be seen no more!

Planting Our Garden

Things are starting to come together.

Don't run off now...

I posted on how this place looks like a war zone. I've got my hands into clearing some stuff (and stocking the back of my shop building with firewood for the winter and then some) so posting has slowed to a halt, unfortunately.

However, we started planting our garden yesterday, and we're gonna go get some more plants today. I plan to take the camera up with us this evening and record a new video entry.

This blog is still very much alive. ALIVE I TELL YOU! *maniacal laughter*

Shantytown

We needed shade and this is what we had to work with. I explain all this in the video. I also repeat myself several times. I say the same thing a lot too. Also, my wife!


I'll get better at this eventually.

War-zone

(Photo Courtesy of Birmingham News, Mark Almond)

                                       
I just passed through one of the harder hit areas this morning. I had heard how bad that it was, even seen a few pictures. I thought that I was prepared and yet my jaw was in my lap the entire time as I drove. Traffic is still restricted to one lane, so I had plenty of time to go slow and just take it in.

Destroyed cars, homes in pieces, I even saw a brick house with the top half (not just the roof) ripped clean off. The civic center where many local schools had basketball tournaments and graduations was severely damaged, with daylight clearly visible all the way through the middle of it.

The Huddle House, which I would have thought to be a sturdy building, barely even qualified as a pile of rubble. Trees down by the dozens, power lines, and folks scurrying all over trying to put things to some semblance of right again. That was just the main street in Rainsville. I dared not venture down the side roads in the affected area.

Good on the people working hard to clean up and fix things, but it's gonna be a long time coming before anything is ever "normal" again. For some people, it never will be again.

Roughing it

Tornadoes ripped the hell out of the South East last Wednesday. We got off extremely easy. Our place was basically untouched by any of it. Many, many folks were not nearly so lucky. Some people lost their homes, or even worse, their families. For us,it was simply a matter of surviving a few days sans electricity.

The whole situation really wasn't so bad. I dug a small fire pit outside and ringed it with cinder blocks, scrounged up an old grill rack, gathered up a lot of fallen branches from around the property (that I should have cleaned up a long time ago), and just kept it burning for most of the time. We cooked as much as we could of the things we had in our fridge and freezer, plus some stuff my mom-in-law brought us from their damaged home as they headed for the safety of a hotel room in a nearby town. My wife even figured out how to make coffee for us! (Among other things.)

I never thought I could be sick of grilled meat, but there it is.

We even managed to cobble together a little canopy for shade out of stuff we had lying around. We took a little video of that which I hope to get edited and posted very shortly.

I kinda feel bad saying that we had a good time "camping" while so many other people were suffering but I can't help it. It felt good to test ourselves in that sort of situation and learn to make the best of things. We learned much about what we could live without, which was surprisingly a lot, also what we could and couldn't do with stuff we have lying around the place. It was a good trial run for becoming the self-sufficient people that we dream of becoming. The situation also gave birth to some intriguing ideas regarding sustainable green energy that I plan to explore in earnest very soon.

Even in the hardest of times, one can learn to make the best of what is at hand. If only free pallets and mimosa poles could bring back lost lives...

This place (like my life) is seriously under construction.

That is correct. It'll eventually look A LOT different. This is just one of the Blogger themes untill I get around to putting something together myself.

Wild Primrose

Garden Update

DIY Compost Bin on the Cheap

The Woodland Spring: Episode 2

The Woodland Spring

It's not a rash.

Not even a little. My life is changing for the better. I'm entering a whole new world of trying to live better. Growing food, building stuff, improving stuff and doing as much for myself and I can do MYSELF.

It's a learning experience, that's for sure. But that is half the fun.