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.