Growing Mushrooms

In your garden, mushrooms are generally a good thing. They tend to pop up when the soil is wet and in shaded areas (underneath the foliage, for instance). Mushrooms are not a reason to flip out. The vast majority are safe for consumption or composting. The mushrooms and its underlying fungus are normal in soil and absolutely expected in composted wood scraps.

If you are interested in eating them or just curious, you can use a book or website to help you identify them. I would be very careful, though. I am well-versed in mushroom identification and love their flavor, but I wouldn’t eat them unless I bought them. Being decomposers, they do make great compost. 

If your soil is healthy, there is fungus growing under the surface. These beneficial microbes help your plants to reach water and nutrients faster and more efficiently. They are a good thing, so don’t run out and buy a mycocide to kill them. You may be simply watering your garden a bit much for the current weather conditions. Reduce your water and the mushrooms will likely go away.

Some people love to grow their own mushrooms. There are kits available that are far safer. Fox News recently did an article on a small company that sells kits for your backyard or patio.

Sorry......

            Yep, I’ve been absent. Really, though, I like to think of it as really, really tardy. I will be updating the blog soon, I promise. Lots of lessons learned this season. Can’t wait to share them.

Oh Those Tomatoes...

      So far this year I have had some ups and downs with my tomatoes. Since I have had more time than normal this summer, I have spent more time studying the growth and development of my tomatoes.

      The run of the mill Better Boy hybrid tomatoes are available at any nursery or home improvement store. They are fast growing, fast fruiting, and a hearty plant overall. I have had at least a dozen good tomatoes so far. My wife made a great tomato sauce from them. No issues at all with this plant except that it grows really fast and some of the fruit tops have split.

      A new variety I am using is the Pink Brandywine. This is a Heritage variety and not a hybrid. It is the same plant grown in locations around the world for thousands of years. The fruit grows up to a pound and a half in weight. My plants have been loaded with tomatoes and take quite a bit longer than the hybrids. The real drawback has been no bug resistance. I have spent a lot of time bent over the plant pulling Cabbage Looper caterpillars off the leaves by hand (at least until the birds noticed them). However, the wife made a sauce from them that tastes INCREDIBLE. A far greater tomato flavor and I wholeheartedly endorse them.

      The real heat is now upon us here in the valley. Temperatures above 100F mean that most tomatoes stop producing much. The next month or two will not see much in the way of tomatoes. However, the Fall will bring an increase in production. Can't wait.

You’re into Urine?

            Yep, it grosses people out, but you should be peeing in your garden. Typical urine is very high in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the elements that makes plants grow so thick and lush and fruitful. Why use fertilizers, even organic ones, when you make a great fertilizer that you just flush away?

            I know what you are thinking. “But my dogs pee on the grass and it burns it!” OK, you are right to an extent. First, the pee needs to go into the soil, not on the plants. If pee gets on plants and sits there for too long, it forms ammonia which will “burn” the plant. Second, what do you do to keep the dogs’ pee from burning your lawn? You water the heck out of that spot. You need to dilute the urine as much as 15 to 1. In the summer time, it’s not really a problem because you are probably watering every day and that will dilute it pretty well. Think about how much your dogs pee (but not too long or it’s weird). If urine burned grass on contact, you wouldn’t have any grass left. Watering your lawn dilutes it to a point where it doesn’t burn the grass and the lawn is healthier because of it.

            So what is the plan? For guys, it’s easy. At night, when you have to “go,” step outside in the backyard, go to your garden and pee on the soil. If you hit the plants, give them a quick wash-off.  Pee in a different place each night and make sure your garden is getting plenty of water. For women, you may need to collect the “yellow gold” indoors in a well-marked mason jar and pour it in the garden in various places each night. In cooler months when you water less, dilute the pee before you apply it. In Africa, they have seen plant yields double using this method! 

            Some people have worried about medications getting into your soil. Smart thinking, but no need to worry. The small amounts that actually get filtered out by the kidneys will be will diluted by watering.

            Try it, but don’t tell anyone right away. Let it be your little secret until AFTER they eat.

Links:

Urine:The Ultimate Organic Fertiliser

Human Urine as a Fertilizer?

For The Motherly Gardeners

           I recently stumbled across a very neat little website for gardeners. If you are a mother and a gardener, you need to visit Bloominthyme.com. What a wonderful resource for women who like to incorporate their kids into their gardening. Diane, who runs the site, has gathered lots of information about gardening, through trial and error, in the Florida. Be warned on that note because the climate in Florida is very different than the rest of the US. She will probably be planting and harvesting at different times than the rest of us.

            The site also contains lots of recipes and links to other recipes so you can use your bounty. She also reviews products and has several pages devoted to children. Apparently she has some know of relationships and is a romance writer, but I won’t comment on those aspects. All around it is a good site. For women, it is an even better site.

Pruning Tomatoes

            I never knew it was done until last year. There are determinate tomatoes, indeterminate tomatoes and mixtures. Determinate tomato plants grow to a certain size then stop. Indeterminate plants keep growing into large bushes that fall over and need cages to prop them up. Mixtures do both.

            My “Early Girl” plant is living up to its name. It is already a large plant needing a cage to keep it upright. There are a half dozen or so tomatoes growing on it already. Last year this same variety grew and grew until it lopped over the neighbor’s fence. Not this year.

            The problem with just letting them grow is that the plant uses a lot of energy to do it. That energy could be going into bigger, better tomatoes. The suckers, shoots that grow from the branches and often fruit, can become so numerous that it is hard to find the ripening tomatoes.

Indeterminate plants need to be planned out a bit. There are many gardeners with lots of space that allow their tomato plants to grow all they want. They do require a lot of water and space as they get bigger, but if that is not a problem, go for it. You will have to search for those tomatoes, though, in the giant plant ball that ensues.

If you have a small space, there are two options. You can keep the indeterminate plant trimmed up (a job that requires daily inspection in the warmer months). Or you can buy a determinate plant usually noted as a “bush variety” on the packaging.

Below are a couple of websites I have found dealing with tomatoes. Check them out. By the way, it is not remotely too late to get some plants in the ground. Go to your local nursery this weekend and get started.

WeekendGardener

Tomatofest

Why Garden?

            It wasn’t that long ago that most people outside of urban areas had small vegetable gardens in their back yards. Potatoes, corn, carrots and lettuce were all vital parts of a comprehensive home garden. Patches of ground, small or large and everything in between were utilized and nurtured in order to supplement dinner tables all across the country. Nearly everyone outside the city was a mini-farmer. 

            In the last 10 years, the number of home gardens has increased substantially. According to the National Gardening Association from 2007 to 2008 the number of home gardens increased by 10%. From 2008 to 2009, it increased another 19%! Most likely fueled by the sluggish economy, people are looking for new ways to stretch their dollars. The average home garden offsets household food costs by $500. 

            The rural and suburban areas are not the only areas with gardens any more. Urban areas are filled with raised beds, container gardens and community gardens. If you have a patio or porch, you can grow some tomato plants and carrots. Vertical gardening and square foot gardening have made it even easier to have a bountiful harvest.

            Gardening is a great way to ensure inexpensive, healthy food makes it to your kitchen. It is also a vitally useful skill to have and to pass on to the future.

Penny Wise or Pound Foolish?

            I recently came across a website I thought I would share. PennyWise is a website devoted to frugality, but it incorporates a lot of old fashioned, country advice for living. I found a lot of good information in their Homemade/Handy section dealing with gardening, etc. Their recipe section is also full of old-fashioned advice that a lot of people have forgotten including how to stretch out those garden ingredients to last longer. 

When you have a minute, check them out.