Raccoon and Lobster

Day 18

At the mushroom fair 2 weeks ago, I picked up an oyster mushroom growing kit. My instructions were to stab it a few times with a clean fork and stick it in the closet. As the days went by, it went from looking like a sack of dirt and mulch to a sack of dirt and mulch that was slowly being taken over by a white growth. The bag had beads of moisture inside and I was worried that I had somehow messed up my simple task and I was growing a container of mildew and slime ooze.

The white growth was firm instead of slimy, so I assumed that it was the mycelium spreading and that the plastic bag would contain it all. Probably nothing to worry about, right?

This is what greeted me on February 27, 13 days after I first stuck my bag o’mushrooms in my closet.

My perverted oyster mushrooms flashed me and now I’ve passed that indecent exposure on to you. You’re welcome.

Once the primordium formed, it was time to let the mushrooms out of the closet.

48 hours later, the mushroom indecency was transformed into mutant alien buds and now instead of just two growths, I had three.

This last picture was taken a few minutes ago, a little over a day after the previous photo.

The buds are  starting to look like actual mushrooms!

Today marks day 16. In about 5 or 6 more days I will be able to make my first harvest of fresh homegrown mushrooms. My total effort exerted so far consists of stabbing the bag with a fork and moving it from the closet to the living room. Even my black thumb can manage that. Fungus among us indeed.

Edit: Want to get your own mushroom growing kit? You can order them online at Fungi Perfecti and Mushroom Adventures or check with a mycological society near you about mushroom kits and forays.

Hey! You know what category hasn’t received an update in a long, long time? Plants! The last time I posted, the garden was still green and thriving, but that was all the way back in July. Stacy’s garden seems to be doing quite well, she was even able to plant new seeds in October. Let’s see how my garden is doing, shall we?

Oh.

Oh dear.

Well, this one at least has a touch of green.

Yikes.

Whatever grim affliction has struck my plants seems to have spread to the insect population too. Take note, readers, this is ground zero for the next dark plague. Hug your loved ones and enjoy this holiday season. It may be your last.

It’s been almost a month but the tomatoes are finally ripening. Soon the first harvest will come. Although, sadly, I am not as skilled at being the third in a tomato blossom ménage as I thought and about 1/4 of them were left unfertilized and will not come to fruit. Hopefully the long California growing season will give me a chance to practice my skills.

Remember how my mint was being attacked by earwigs? And how most gardeners consider earwigs to be a beneficial insect because they eat aphids? Well…

This was supposed to be a post about the fuchsias blooming and the tomatoes growing bigger (there are now 5 baby tomatoes!) but I went to take this picture of the fuchsias

and noticed small green spots all over the flower buds and leaves. If you zoom in you can see them on an unopened bud in the bottom right. Hundreds of tiny aphids. Meanwhile, the leaves on my aphid-free mint are still being destroyed by earwigs. Is this irony? Or is Demeter just being a bitch? Do I move the earwigs to the fuchsias or the aphids to the mint? (Yes, I know about the soap spray. I’m using it now. It seems to be working. But I’m still irked.)

Fortunately, my prized Sun Sugar tomato plant which has reached chest height in a mere 6 weeks appears to be pest free. For now.

The plants category is finally getting some love. And apparently, someone has been giving my Sun Sugar tomato plant some love too because it’s pregnant with twins! A few weeks back, a case of blight threatened to kill off the entire plant, but it looks to have bounced back beautifully.

One of the really nice perks of moving was that we got our own private yard, which meant that my dream of killing massive numbers of herbs and plants in parallel (as opposed to in series) with my black thumb could finally be realized. 

It was an unexpected turn when things actually began to flourish. 

Like the chives

and the thyme.

But then the mint plant, which rapidly grew to fill the giant pot 

went from

to

and an evening inspection revealed an earwig infestation. Earwigs are typically considered beneficial garden insects because they eat aphids and other pests, but apparently my Kentucky Colonel Mint proved too tasty to resist.  Lines have been drawn and traps have been set. We’ll see who consumes the lion’s share of the mint this year. I have rum and sugar just waiting to be put to use. As soon as the icky feeling of watching an insect with forceps on its butt crawl all over my plants has faded, that is.

Fuchsia buds from the windowbox