WOODCHIPS AND GOUT WEED

I had been in great hopes last fall that the mountain of wood chips dumped on my garden by the Hydro crew would solve my on-going gout weed problem once and for all. It didn't. A gardening friend had gently hinted that the gout weed would simply grow through the chips, deep as they were. The spring shoots were only a little challenged by the chips -- I thought that destroying them as they came up would eventually make them give up the battle. But once again the gout weed won. The road side area is covered with plants. I am ashamed to admit this, but I have begun to spray them.

What I should have done is placed a relatively impermeable but biodegradable mulch, like layers of paper, over the cut plants and then put the heavy layer of chips on top. The photo (the identical view from the January 25th blog) shows the area where I had placed the tarpaulin the year before -- the gout weed there is virtually gone. The wood chips destroyed smaller weeds but some of the perennial plants that I hadn't relocated managed to come up.

Phlox loves my damp and rich soil and has become one of the dominant plants  --  I have been moving them around the yard and have promised spring plants to a friend who hopes that they will grow in his sandy soil  -- it will be interesting to see how they will do.

WILD OYSTER MUSHROOMS

I've known for some time now that this old beech tree trunk supports a colony of oyster mushrooms but I've never quite managed to get to it before the mushrooms are invaded by insects. We have had many days of rain and cooler weather and I knew that the mushrooms must be out, but I was also reluctant to set out in the rain and humidity. When my collie and I set out for our walk to the mushroom tree this morning I assumed that once again I would be too late to find harvestable mushrooms. It was too late for the Chanterelles (in the foreground of the photo) -- they had been spoiled by insects. Sorry as I was about the Chanterelles, I was delighted to see that the oyster mushrooms higher up on the tree were still fine. I gathered all that I could reach and look forward to a fine dinner tonight.

GARLIC HARVEST

I harvested the garlic from my garden this morning -- my biggest and best crop ever. A neighbour brought in cattle manure last fall just before planting and I also spread the contents of the compost container over the area to be planted. It all made a huge difference -- some of the bulbs are as large as onions and I have more than I can either possibly eat (and I do eat a lot of garlic, mostly raw) or replant. A friend living high up in the Mulmur hills will welcome the extras for his garden.

My garden is small and doesn't get full sun -- a corner of it is visible in the photo -- but garlic is predictably a good crop. Because of the early summer, heat, and regular rainfall, everything seems to be doing very well.

I have to see what I can do about eliminating weeds from the garlic bed and then plant cloves -- probably in September or October -- for next summer.