Lucky me! More stinkhorn mushrooms today. I tried to dig up the mushrooms and found a whole nest of stinkhorn eggs under the rocks. Now that was a treat! I hope you know I’m being ironic. Stinkhorn, as I mentioned yesterday, has a horrible smell. I’m not sure if the eggs have a smell because the stench of the mushroom is so strong, it overrides any other odor. And anyway, I dug up the eggs as quickly as I could, bagged them, and threw them in the dumpster.
The eggs, from what I can figure, are what the adult mushroom grows out of, but I don’t know how the eggs got in my rocks. Just grew there, I guess. If you, too, would like to participate in the stinkhorn experience, you can buy stinkhorn eggs (the price I saw was $15.00 per pound). People actually eat the eggs; apparently, the taste — and texture — is like a cross between a radish and a water chestnut, but frankly, there is no way I would ever put one of those things anywhere near my mouth, no matter how hungry I am or how delicious it might be. I couldn’t even get beyond the slime factor to simply touch them with bare hands. Besides, if I want something that tastes like a radish, I’ll eat a radish.
I was being ironic about the “lucky me” introduction, but this really was a lucky day for me, stinkhorns aside.
A couple of workers came to finish building my raised garden bed in preparation for the fill dirt this weekend. The bed looks a lot larger than when it was just a frame on the ground, and it seems to crowd the pathway. Of course, the plants bordering the path around the raised garden have grown and spread beyond what they were when the frame was set a couple of years ago, which makes the path seem narrower, but that’s not a problem. Come fall, I’ll trim back the plants so that I won’t feel claustrophobic.
I still don’t know what I will be planting in the raised garden. Most probably, next spring I will plant tomatoes and cucumbers and other simple vegetables, and not many at that. If the growth of the tomato and cucumber plants this year is anything to go by, a mere four to six plants will fill the entire garden. If it feels too much like a jungle when everything is grown, then I might switch to a different plant the following year — an evergreen groundcover, perhaps.
All I know for sure is that I will not purposely plant stinkhorn eggs!
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August 24, 2022 at 5:35 pm
I don’t envy you your encounter with Stinkhorn mushrooms at all — I can’t imagine eating them — but I’m admiring your raised garden bed. Long years ago, when we first moved here, there was a moderately large rectangular garden bed that I found awkward to work. I created four raised ‘quadrants’ in it by digging out the pathways, then shoring the sides up by adding the planks, and I really liked it. Somehow it seemed much easier to cope with planting, weeding and harvesting when everything was within easy reach from one side or the other.
We’re in the process of downsizing and hoping to move to a smaller property in town this fall. Depending on when that happens, I’d like to prepare a couple small raised beds at the new location. It would be nice to have them ready for spring planting although, like you, I’m not entirely sure what I would want to plant. I guess that’s something to contemplate over the winter. 🙂
August 25, 2022 at 5:30 pm
It’s something for us both to contemplate. Let me know what you decide.
August 26, 2022 at 4:32 am
If I have a garden like you I try to have a place for aromatic plants and Tisanes/Herbal teas
Leaf: French verbena, lemon balm, mint, lemongrass
Flower: Rose, chamomile, hibiscus, lavender
Bark: Cinnamon, black cherry bark, slippery elm
Fruit/Berry: Raspberry, blueberry, peach—any type of fruit infusion, really
Seed/Spice: Cardamom, fennel, caraway
Root: Ginger, chicory, echinacea
(Some examples from internet)
It is simply a suggestion
August 26, 2022 at 7:26 am
I did plant some chamomile, but it never came up. I’ll try some of the others. A tea garden really would be nice.