October 22, 2024

Mushrooms, Winter Succulent Care, Growing for Good

Many of us have grown tomatoes or lettuce, but growing our very own oyster mushrooms is a big, delicious deal.

So, this week, Angel Schatz, one of the organizers behind the Central Texas Mycological Society, gives us the facts behind fungi–how they benefit the soil and our plants–and why they pop up after rain in cool weather.

She also explains how mushroom block giveaways got started. In 2015, after gourmet mushroom growers popped all over Central Texas, April had an idea: “We started working with mushroom farms back then to divert these and keep them out of the trash,” she said. Then, she galvanized organic gardeners who wanted to rejuvenate their soil.

From there, mushroom foraging fans came together as the Central Texas Mycological Society. “We’re a member-supported volunteer-run nonprofit that works to teach the community about fungi. . . And we teach people how to use those to grow more mushrooms and also build fungal rich soil teaming with microbes and fungi,” she told us. Energetic and passionate volunteers distribute spent blocks and knowledge all over Texas (and beyond online): here just outside our Austin PBS offices at ACC Highland.

When we visited Shaman Jesus Garcia at The Herbal Action Project, he showed us mushrooms he’d grown from spent blocks to carry on his father’s land regeneration. Mushrooms have been a part of his life since childhood. “My grandmother, who was a curandero and an Earth worker and a gardener herself, would always grow mushrooms. And that’s something that is part of our child lineage as far as support for ecological health, but also physical health for us. And when we say ecological, is that the mycelium in the mushrooms here in central Texas really helps to retain a lot of the moisture for us so we don’t have to overwater or try to water whenever we have droughts,” he told us. Watch his lovely story.

After he crumbled spent blocks of lion’s mane mushrooms under this young pear tree, it fruited again. An important note from Angel: These are wood-loving mushrooms, grown in a sterilized bag of grains, sawdust, and nutrients.

Check out the Central Texas Mycological Society for all their community events, foraging walks, and online talks about fungi, as well as mushroom identification.

We’ve got another great hands-on project this week: building stylish, budget-wise trellises, perfect to screen a view, support a climbing vine, or to define a garden niche. In Daphne’s young garden, she’s framing new spaces with cattle panel trellises she built with a friend. This shot is from May, where by now, new vines are creeping up those panels.

“I’m a big fan of industrial/contemporary garden features, so I love the way these trellises look in my landscape. But in most areas, I don’t even see the trellis, because for most of the year, it’s covered by a beautiful vine,” she said.

She needed height, too, so 6-foot T-posts elevate the cattle panel as well as to support it. At the agricultural supply store, she bought 4’ x 16’ cattle panel fencing, cut in half lengthwise and electrical conduit.

I’ve adored this earlier trellis for years, where star jasmine covered the conduit, screening her deck (built by her dad!) from the house next door. Below, butterflies and bees nestle into Salvia ‘Mystic Spires’ profuse blooms.

Sadly, one of the recent winter storms killed off the jasmine, but she’s planted it again, since it’s a good evergreen vine for us, barring too many harsh winters.

And what about this down-sized version for a container? This one supports luscious, summer-glamor mandevilla that Daphne brings indoors in winter.

Get her material list and precise instructions.

Every winter, I hear from viewers who lost their succulent plants to freeze. So, this week, Carder Nastri of Fireproof Plants spares us the grief with sizzling tips and tricks for containers and ground succulents. Your succulents will thank you.

On tour, Lenny West is only 22, but already knows what he wants to do forever. An Army Veteran, he found his anchor and passionate mission in providing fresh vegetables and tasty microgreens to food desert neighbors in the Killeen/Temple area. Young Army Veteran Lenny West finds his passionate mission in growing food for the Killeen/Temple community.
Read more and watch his segment!

Thank you for stopping by!

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