Sunday, April 18, 2010

Oops missed a year


Well, that's a year missed out since there was any work on MegaGarden, lets get the gardening fleeces on and get the hammers out. The pile of stone in the front is pretty much all we have left to use up. The red stone in the back is from the fireplace and next to it are some unused mushroom logs, but more about them later...



Tighten up the guidelines, I think we're just going to work up to here and then get the coping on. The front face only needs one course but the side is a bit wonky and will need 2-3 courses to get up to height. Not sure how we got so far out of wack but at least the end is nigh.



Nick whips through with some super-fast precision walling as usual. I was shocked at how much progress we made, could have been something to do with not stopping for a 3-hour full English break like we used to.



On Saturday I had a bit of a play with my Christmas present from Nick. He'd got me a few bags of mycelleum impregnated wooden dowels, that i've had in the fridge since December. The second part of the present was a boot-full of freshly-cut birch logs which got the chop on Wednesday. Working for Trafford council has its perks, when you can pick the trees to be removed that aren't quite right for that park (and need a new home all full o' mushies). I had to drill about 30 holes in each log, knock the dowels in, and then seal them all with sizzlin' mushroom wax.



I've got Oyster, Shiitake and Lion's Mane logs all plugged up and waxed - next thing to do is cover them in black bin bags and either bury them or leave them in the shade (behind my dad's shed). All you have to do then is wait 18 months for the fungus to spread throughout the log, then you leave it out for another year and hopefully the critters will sprout. This is not a hobby for the impatient.



I couldn't help feeling that it looked a bit dodgy to be loading up a red Golf with limb-sized, bin-bag covered packages. Hopefully my mum won't get stopped by Operation Ringmaster on the way home.

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