Mushrooms!

Mushroom in the mulch.

Okay, so several of us gardeners here have been complaining about the wet weather lately. It’s not great for some of our plants, and it limits what we can do and grow at the moment. One unexpected turn of events for me has been the appearance of mushrooms in several locations…

As you may remember, I had that nice big shipment of organic compost delivered a few months ago. I’ve used it as a layer of mulch to retain moisture in the hotter months. I’ve used it to level out part of the lawn. I’ve also mixed it into growing beds and in potted plants to enrich the soil. So, it’s all over the place.

I’ve also been using Tref – a mixture of black and white peat – for growing several of my young plants from germination until they can be planted out. Tref is of a similar consistency as my medium-grade compost – kind of spongy but with fibrous stuff mixed in.

So, with all this rain that’s been pouring down lately, everything has been quite damp and waterlogged, and between the excessive moisture and the nice, spongy growing materials, we’ve been noticing mushrooms sprouting up all over the place…

Mushrooms sharing space with potted plants topped with compost. These look like a bunch of eggs to me!

Mushrooms growing on the lawn that had been levelled off with compost.

Some that I saw started out as little yellow lumps and grew into cute yellow, then light beige mushrooms.

Mushrooms in what I believe is the intermediate stage.

I doubt they’re edible and I’m not going to experiment, but they’re so cute that they could be a bunch of cartoon characters!

It's no wonder creative people get their inspiration from different facets of nature... Sorry, just being a little silly with Photoshop :P

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The first short cucumber

First fruits are always exciting. Okay, they’re also not always the best either, but this first fruit of the short cucumber looks nothing like the picture on the packet of seeds:

From the top, it looks like a lime, from the bottom, like a green onion - but it's a cucumber!

We had a hearty laugh about it, but the other cucumbers growing on the vine look just as short and round as the first. I would have left it on the plant longer but it was already starting to turn yellow.

I think I’ll ramp up on the fertilizers and see if that helps at all…

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The flower of the white snake gourd

You’d think that I would be overjoyed at the appearance of the first flower on my white snake gourd plant. Just look at it…

The highly unusual flower (to me) of the white snake gourd.

How beautiful and unusual is that? Such a pristine white flower shaped like an X or a cross with those curly thready edges… It’s clearly one of the more breathtaking flowers I’ve ever seen on an edible plant in our garden!

So why can’t I simply delight in the moment and anticipate getting fruits?

The highly stunted plant growing in a tiny flower pot. sigh.

Because the plant is still in a tiny 10 cm pot and should have been planted out at a trellis at least 3 weeks ago! I am so kicking myself right now. >:(

Possible plan of action for now: snip off the flower buds so the plant doesn’t spend more energy on reproducing itself, then come rain or shine, get the darned trellis up and transplant the poor plant and hope it can adapt and grow to its full size, eventually.

Bad Mommy CG… :(

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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The ladybug saga continues at Stage: Eggs!

I thought I’d seen all I would be able to with the life cycle of ladybugs, but it looks like it’s going to continue being a jigsaw puzzle slowly falling into place.

Making what I could of the afternoon sunshine after this morning’s showers, I was checking my plants and was irritated to notice that whiteflies had been laying eggs at my Ladybug Brinjal plant (so named after we discovered ladybugs breeding there). I was about to squish them when I noticed a small cluster of yellow eggs right next to one of the dotted white swirls of whitefly eggs.

Ladybugs lay their eggs close to a food source so that when the eggs hatch, the food is right there waiting!

Hmm, I thought, they look like …ladybug eggs!

Yes indeed, after doing all my online research on ladybugs and their life cycle, the sight of those little yellow eggs rang a bell loud and clear in my head. I hope I’m right, then I can see what ladybugs look like when they’re in the first instar stage. (Ha, just listen to me, the budding entomologist! :P ) Let’s hope I’ve got this right!

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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