Remember that delicious spinach I raved about in an earlier post? Well guess what: it survived the mild (for Minnesota) winter and has begun to grow anew!!!! I found it yesterday as I was picking up the weird trash that pops up in the garden occasionally. (A mechanic used to live on our property before we did, and we often find broken glass and rusted pieces of metal lying around in the soil after a rain. We found two abandoned cars out in the woods behind the garden last year, hopefully there aren't any more under the garden! At least the rusty metal adds iron to the soil.)
A couple of romaine lettuces look like they might be coming back as well, and my chrysanthemums, thyme, silver sage, columbines, and even those extremely hardy snapdragons are all sending up new growth as well. I'm so excited to finally be able to have a place to grow food and flowers on a permanent basis. It feels great to finally be able to put down roots (and to offer a place for the plants I love to put down their roots). This early spring we're experiencing up here in the north woods is getting me so excited about this growing season!
I had the day off yesterday so I ran errands in the morning while it rained and then I did some yard and garden work in the afternoon. I cut down several large branches from a ninebark that was growing too close to the garage. I spent another hour or so afterwards cutting off the smaller stems and twigs from it to burn later (perhaps with a wood gassifier/biochar generator...) and creating long, curved poles that I hope to use to make an arbor at the garden entrance. I will post photos when that happens. Have a great weekend!

indoor gardens

My indoor gardens are growing so well and the house is starting to burst with life! I have these saffron crocuses that I ordered from Companion Plants in Athens, Ohio that started sending up shoots as soon as I put them in some dirt. They are starting to flop over a bit though, and I'm not sure why this is happening. I think they might be a little too warm, so I put the worst one outside for today to see if it gets any better. The temperature is in the 50s today, so beautiful and sloppy with melting snow. On the left side of the photo you can see the wild ginger that I purchased as a bare root (also from Companion Plants--such a great company with a really impressive catalog).

Along with the crocuses and wild ginger, there is also a blue cohosh plant (large, light-colored pot--this one hasn't started sprouting yet) and goldenseal. I discovered this morning that the goldenseal is actually blooming already! The flower sort of blends into the rim of the blue cohosh pot, but you can see in the picture it is quite unique and pretty. These are the shade-loving plants, so I'm keeping them in a partially shaded south window for now, until the soil is workable and I can transplant them outside. There are several more sun-loving plants in another south window without blinds. Those are forsythia, vetiver grass (which isn't hardy here and will have to live inside for part of the year), wormwood, valerian, and chocolate mint.

I also have oyster mushrooms growing in the kitchen! I ordered these from Fungi Perfecti at the end of February and they are already producing mushrooms! These mushrooms are growing SO FAST. Four days ago, they were not even visible and today the biggest mushrooms in this picture are about 2 inches long! I am so excited to have them around. According to Fungi Perfecti, this oyster mushroom kit will produce 2 flushes of mushrooms, and then after the second flush I can add the mycelia left inside the plastic bag to some wood chips and straw and create an outdoor mushroom bed to help clean up the gas spill in the front yard between the lilac bush and the white cedar (white cedar is what they call Arborvitae [Thuja Occidentalis] here. It is a sacred and protective plant for the Ojibwes). I am so happy with the results of the oyster mushroom kit and so excited to be a mushroom farmer that I ordered some shiitake and reishi mushroom kits from Fungi Perfecti yesterday. These kits are really easy to use and they come with easy to follow instructions. The oyster mushroom kit cost me $25, and I think the other mushroom kits are around the same price. As long as I continue to feed the mycelia new substrate, I can continue to grow mushrooms indefinitely from this kit!