Mushrooms - September 9, 2025

The community garden pea patch is coming along.  The "volunteer" melon/cucumber/squash vines are trying to run the show.  I will let them, as they will likely produce more food than the pea vines will.  

The squash plants are big and green and blooming their heads off, but they do have a little mildew.  I am not going to treat them with any chemicals.  It's supposed to be hot and dry all week, and this might take care of the mildew situation.

UNLESS . . . . 

There is a network of sprinklers around the squash plot.  If I read the little meters correctly, they come on around 7 p.m. each night.  They'll be keeping the wood chips damp, which may perpetuate the mildew.  I'd better re-evaluate the situation later this week.  

Yesterday, I pulled nutgrass from the unattended plot next to the squash plot, covered it with cardboard and grass clippings, scattered mushroom spores over the grass clippings, and dumped 4" of wood chips on top.  The spores may not even be viable, having sat in a sealed plastic bag on the back porch all summer.  We'll see what happens.  If nothing else, I'll have smothered some weeds.

In a few minutes, I'll be leaving for my first chalk pastels class.  When the class is over, I'm meeting The Old Boss for lunch.

I'm excited about the class.  And the lunch.