I had two small oaks on the edge of my property taken down. They grew as volunteers right in the middle of a large lilac bush and were shading out the lilac as well as some of my garden beds. Now, with the trees removed there should be full sun on my plants, and hopefully a healthier future for the lilac (though it needs a heavy pruning). If all goes to plan, the wood will become fodder for a 3rd Hügelkultur bed this fall.
Two years ago I built a bed on the shady side of my house to grow wine cap mushrooms on wood chips and pellets. Unfortunately all it ever grew was unidentified wild mushrooms, but it did turn all the wood into some nice dark black soil.
Since wine caps don't want to play nice, I dug it out and decided to try my hand at oyster mushrooms on straw. I layered ~16 lbs of sawdust spawn on to two bales of straw. Then I took a shower, because it's 90F and also I'm allergic to straw 🤧
While I was convalescing Hügel number 1 became infested with ragweed, which I finally pulled out. However, the roots on that stuff are no joke, and I lost a significant amount of soil. Luckily I had plenty of compost to back-fill it with and enough straw mulch to make it look halfway decent again. Unfortunately it's a little late in the season to be planting new things, but I'll see what I can do.
A few weeks ago I came home to find what appeared to be a pretty heavy weed outbreak on the top of one of my hügelkultur beds, but I took a closer look this morning and it's actually all volunteer marigolds. I'm more than happy to have them, and it's less work for me :)
Just put the final touches on the new Hügel. This is the first time I've done it the right way and built it in the fall so it can rest and settle over the winter before planting.
@[Peter Lindelauf](/people/5bbee3d093d1013911d9002590c0bfb8), you asked for updates on the Hugel. Here she is as of tonight. The one cucumber plant has so far filled 6 half gallon mason jars worth of pickles and doesn't seem to be slowing down.
Last summer I used a ton of wood chip mulch around the house, and I inoculated all of it with wine cap mushroom spawn (Stropharia rugosoannulata), kind of just for shits. I didn't expect much from the small mulch piles around the bases of shrubs, and I'd mostly given up on the idea of any of it surviving, but then I found this just now, so... hey!
@[Peter Lindelauf](/people/93d5cdb0ad8901364692005056268def), here it is. The back end was the original, and has strawberries and English thyme which were planted last year. The rest is all new plants from seeds or starts, but they're still small as it only recently decided to be spring here 😄
We have wild strawberries growing on the lawn, but I wanted to see if I could get better fruits by cultivating them, so I transplanted one to the Hügel. We’ll see.
We have wild strawberries growing on the lawn, but I wanted to see if I could get better fruits by cultivating them, so I transplanted one to the Hügel. We'll see.
I saw this fellow when inspecting the garden this morning. At first I thought it was a wasp, but then on closer inspection it looked like a mantis. It turns out it's a "wasp mantidfly" which is in fact neither a wasp, nor a mantis. I don't think I've ever seen one before.
Considering they weren't even visible until yesterday, these wine caps are massive. The stipes are crazy. The big one's nearly as thick as my wrist. They got chewed on a little by squirrels, but no insect damage. 👍
I'm going to sautee some up later and give them a taste.
I'm so excited. As some of you probably know from following me, I've been trying to grow wine cap (AKA kind stropharia, aka Stropharia rugosoannulata mushrooms outdoors since last spring. I got good colonization last year but no mushrooms. I wasn't expecting anything this spring either, with my hopes pinned on the fall. I was just out tending the Hügelkultur mound and saw a bunch of mulch pushed up like something had been digging at it, and this is what I found underneath. :D