Well it took a couple of days, but I did get back to the landfill, where they make the mulch. Just so you have an idea of how deep I like it to be to have the desired effect (see earlier post) here is a picture, partly through the process...BTW, it is $7.50 a "bucket" and a bucket does half my 1500 sf garden...
April showers bring May flowers...but, along with warm teperatures (at last!) they also bring out the fungi. Here is a picture of our Morel harvest from yesterday. Idiscovered a few by chance last year along a path I oftern walk, and this spring's find confirms that there is a solid (if small) colony there! Where? Don't ask...<G>
The benefits of mulch in the growing beds of a potager are pretty obvious, but we shouldn't forget just how nice it is to have a good, deep mulch on the main paths as well. We got 4-5 inches of rain over the course of two days last week, and during one particular downpour that benefit became especially clear. I have been in the process of renewing the path mulch as part of my spring maintenance, and last weekend I only had time to get about half the garden done. In this picture it is pretty easy to tell which part!
Look at the growing bed in the right foreground for a sense of just how soaking a rain it was. At one point the center background path was flowing water, lifting silt from the unfinished part of the garden in back (more on that at some point) and washing it down the path (spreading weed seed as it went, no doubt...). But the deeply mulched parts of the path never even showed a wet surface; it was clean walking and no erosion throughout the whole storm. Today I am definitely going back to the landfill for that last load!
I really have to get to putting by my winter food supply! This basket of San Marzano tomatoes came off of two plants, and I didn't even put a dent in what is there...
And "behind" them I have another half dozen or so that are just beginning to ripen! Fortunately there is nothing better than a San Marzano for freezing, sauce or drying. Plenty of X-Mas gifts in the making, I think!
Just harvested the last of the summer lettuce that was under the shade cloth with the broccoli and the curly endive (I suspect I am going to pull both of those, too. I wanted to get the lettuce out of the sun so it would be in good shape for the graduation / garden party happening this Saturday 4-10 PM. All you readers are invited...should have plenty of fresh garden munchies, but if you want something more substantial you can bring a side dish or something for the grill!
It is still in pretty good shape considering the weather we have been having. Next in that bed? Beets and carrots, I think...stay tuned.
Two of the great mysteries of current life here in the Mid-Atlantic: where do all the stinkbugs come from, and what can we do about it? I love my new camera - all $129 worth of it! - and carry it in my pocket pretty much all the time. That means I get to record a lot of stuff I see when I am down close with my plants.
Example? I was picking scales off the ailing 40 yr old gardenia I was given and noticed a new hatch of Harlequin Stink Bugs (thanks, Bug Guide for help with the ID) and as I cruised the rest of the plant for more, came across the other side of the garden friend - foe equation: a Mantis looking for a meal!
Change is good
