No, no, nothing like that. This is a family blog. Just a couple of garden notes from around the ‘hood.
First, our friend Matt over on Ashworth tells us he started trying to cultivate morel mushrooms at home, carefully laying the spores on a bed of manure, ash and other select medium. It’s not an easy undertaking, as evidenced by the fact that morel mushrooms have never been successfully farmed on a large scale. Virtually all the morels you eat are foraged.
So imagine Matt’s surprise when he stepped out his door this week and discovered, growing between the cracks of his Wallingford sidewalk (where no forest fire has primed the earth in some time), two healthy, lush morel mushrooms (right). We’re assuming he’s smart enough to know the difference between morels and false morels (or that his wife Jo has Mr. Yuck on speed dial).
Second garden note: have you noticed all the dead rosemary plants around the neighborhood? Take a look next time you take a walk, you will. We suspected Rosemary Blight, but it turns out we made that up, there is no such thing. This is the not the first time we have been so mistaken.
Instead, our horticultural friend Briar Bates informed us that the hard winter we had wiped out rosemary across the Western Washington.
If you’ve got a live one, take good care. She’s precious.
I’d wondered about the Rosemary issue– we have a veritable grove of the stuff that just looks awful. I was checking it out yesterday, however, and noticed that new growth is appearing at the ends of some of the dead stuff. I’m wondering if pruning it back might help….
Yep – I lost 1.5 rosemary plants over the winter. One I just took out completely – it was ornamental. The other — the one that was about 4’x4′ — I trimmed back to the living branches and am hoping for the best. But I heard someone on KUOW’s gardening talk the other day say it was best to just start over — sigh…..
Thoughts from any master gardeners out there?
Morels grown at home! That would be a dream come true. Well done Matt.
Oh well, no more free herbs as I walk along..
I have seen morels in Wallingford too! I have been told they arrive here because of the mulch people use in their yards.
So funny you wrote about rosemary! I saw a bush — while walking the dogs on a slightly different route this morning — in full bloom, taller than I am. And (fortunately) MUCH bigger around. It looked in perfect health.
The hebes around town also took a beating this winter. (I’m referring to the shrubs, not the chosen people.)
There were morels growing along the fence next door until they started spraying Chemlawn on their yard. Never picked any as they weren’t technically mine, but I regret that now 🙁 It was a nice mossy, partially shaded slope.
the rosemary bush in my yard survived the winter, but over heard a few plant nursery people saying (this past spring) it was the cold that killed em. less noticeable were the austrialian bush mint’s around wallyhood that really got wiped out. a wonderful ‘sweet tart’ smelling plant with extreme volatile oils good for tinctures etc.
great blogging! glad to find something about the hood!