Just finished finals week and I'm looking around to see if any of my life has survived to go back to for the summer.
My figs overwintered in an unfinished semi-pit greenhouse. They seem to be doing really well, all things considered. It was a sharp lesson in semi-pit greenhouse construction. If that was all I had to do this summer I'm sure I could get it done right. . . as it is, we'll just have to see.
One thing I've been wanting to try is mycorrhizal fungi. I pulled a couple of the kiddy pools out of the pit so that I could get to everything in there and weeded it all then inoculated pretty much everything in sight. I'm going to have to pull the figs out of there so I can work on the pit but they are going to have to go in the rotation of projects. They're good for now and I'll get back to them someday.
I bought a che plant from Bass last year. When the heavy snow collapsed the cover on the pit it got the graft broken off. There's a branch growing from the top, and I'm hoping there was enough left of the graft that that's where it's from, but I'm pretty sure that I have an expensive osage orange on my hands.
I swapped for a couple of varities of early garlic from another member. They were yellowing a little before this last warm wet spell and there are a few that still don't look well. I think they just need to get used to the different climate. They are putting on scapes, way ahead of all the others so they definitely are earlier and it may just be where they are in the cycle.
The sawmill where I have been getting slabs for firewood has put in a chipper and I can't get slabs any more, but I can get chips. I'm building a stove to burn chips and sawdust, and I'm going to mulch my garden with chips. That just begs for growing stropharia mushrooms. These are what they're like. Check out that big one he's holding at the end of the video. They are suppose to have a taste and texture very close to portobellos. I'm multiplying out the spawn on cardboard now.The cardboard lets it spread fast but doesn't have the mass to support the mushrooms. You hear him say it can be expanded 1 to 10, 10 to 100. I started with a gallon of spawn, in cardboard, I should have it up to 100 gallons in 6 to 8 weeks. Then I'll start inoculating wood chips with it. The size of the mushroom depends on the size of the food supply. He said those have 500 lbs. Here are some in a smaller tote, and in a bag. Note the difference in size. I'm going to put them in the garden, (that guy has another video on multiplying them in cardboard but I'm doing it different. If you have a better way let me know). I'm thinking of putting some in a really big tote and seeing how big I can get them.
I have a couple of old garden hoes that I cut the blades down to a spear point to get them to work better in my heavy clay and rock soil. When I saw this it was like "Whoa! That looks good". I cranked up the forge and made one out of an old lawnmower blade. I really like it. That twist lets it slice through the ground like a stirrup hoe is suppose to work, but doesn't. If you do much hand cultivating it's worth looking in to.