Blooming and Growing

 

I know I've been neglecting you blog - I'm so very sorry, but you see I LOVE to garden almost as much as I love to take pictures and that means when the snow melts up here in cold cold New Hampshire I am one BUSY  BEE!

 

I promise to tell you all about the raised beds I built this year and show you how I restored some beautiful 30 year old garden beds that had been neglected by its previous owners.  I'll tell you all about how I propagated bushes from friend's and neighbor's yards and everything else I've been up to this past month for now, but for I only have time for one quick post so I thought I'd show you what spring in New Hampshire looks like so you can see for yourself why I haven't been in front of a computer screen lately, enjoy!

 

Our Dwarf Lilacs

Our Dwarf Rhododendrons

Full Sized Rhododendrons

More Dwarf Rhododendrons

More Full Sized Rhododendrons

Wild Honeysuckle

The new strawberry patch

More strawberries

The beets sprouting up

The beets growing under the tomato plants

Some mystery pepper plants we acquired sharing a box with tomatoes

All nine new veggie beds standing proudly waiting for woodchips to fill in the walkways.

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Mushrooms!!!

So I was at the Home Depot one Saturday morning, as I often am, and while I was picking out some lettuce seeds I noticed on the end cap of the seed display, this cute little brown cardboard box that was advertising itself as a "Mushroom Farm."

I was familiar with the concept, a little box with some growing medium and mushroom spores and packed up in a kit and ready to go.  I had actually bought one for my Brother in Law for Christmas a few years ago.  I like mushrooms, and I love activity kits so I just HAD to buy it.

When I got home I called up my sister to ask how her mushroom kit experience was and to ask if she had any pointers.  The only pointer she had?  "Don't do it! Run!" 

"Its complicated, it doesn't work, it will break your heart!" She said.

So I stuck it in a corner in my kitchen and decided to wait until I had time to properly give it the attention it deserves.  I figured I might blog about the experience so that even if my kit was a dud, at least I had it well documented. 

A couple weeks later I thought it was about time to open up my kit and give it a shot, I went over to where I had it stored and low and behold...it started with out me!

My kit was too easy! It literally grew itself, and in the most bizarrely entertaining way, I'm actually a little disappointed, I was excited to water it every day and watch the progress as it grew from a clump of sawdust into tasty edibles but check out the results for yourself:

 

**I did ask Back to the Roots to replace my product since they have a policy guaranteeing the expected results but my request was denied.  They told me to remove the mushrooms and try again which I did to no avail.  I've re-issued my request and we'll see what happens but while the kit is fun I'm not thrilled with the customer service.  I also bought a kit for my best friend for her birthday and for my brother in law at Christmas neither of which worked at all and they were also unable to get replacements. So possibly a fun product but unimpressive customer service**

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