Garden sorted ..... at last !

[Still Kate]

As some of you may remember with my past rants about my garden, it been a thorn in my side.  No room for the kids to play due to a higgledy piggledy design, lots of weeds and a constant battle to prune and weed. 

Well, one of Jons friends is out of work at the mo, and has a baby on the way, luckily he's a gardener, so yesterday he arrived and started digging up all the weeds, the diseased rose bushes and old shrubs. Today he's laying the foundations for a larger play area for the kids and a vegetable patch for me, then tidying and pruning all the other shrubs and the two trees ready for the winter.

In the spring I can start planting some home grown veg and the kids can enjoy lots more space.

I am on the look out for a small statue to take pride of place near the back wall surrounded by trailing Ivy.
I also got to pick up my mushroom box tomorrow, we're growing them this winter, I though it might be quite fun not to mention the fact we eat loads of them.

At last, a sensible garden to work with and Jons friend makes a good wage for doing it.
Have a good weekend everyone.
Blessings
Kate. xx

[Lark]

The garden sounds lovely.  I'd be excited at the prospects of the place as well.

And isn't it nice when we can work out a deal that benefits both parties?  And since it is a friend doing it you can count on them doing a good job and not trying to cut corners with their work.

I am also a mushroom fanatic.  I've never tried growing them myself.  I may have to give it a whirl.

-Lark-

[Still Kate]

Hi Lark, The mushroom kit I got is from UNWINS, the ones on the net are twice the cost so look out for the Unwins seed suppliers and see if they deliver to the US.

They need a warm place, above 20 deg c and dark, but I just put the lid back on the poly box. First you spread this really delightful smelling manure stuff on the bottom of the poly box, this contains the spores. Then you mist it everyday for 10 days. After this time you top with the bag of compost, keep spraying and wait. It should take about 2 weeks for the mushrooms to appear and apparently I should get 3-4 kg.   
Our garden centre also supplies morel mushroom sets, s***ake, chestnut etc etc. So if this works, I'll try the more complicated ones next season.
Have a good week.
Blessings
Kate.

[Lark]

Nom,nom, nom!

I adore morels.  When my uncle lived in Vermont I was able to go out in the woods and pick the wild ones.  Both morels and boletus grew there.

As a matter of fact my dinner last night was mushroom agnoletti with wild mushrooms and thyme butter.  I'm of the opinion that there are never to many 'shrooms.

-Lark-