Wild, late summer mushrooms

 Sept 1, 2013

The summer of 2013 will be remembered as one of the wettest in a decade.  It was a terrible summer to decide to travel instead of planting a vegetable garden!  All that rain would have been a terrific boost to my sandy garden soil.  It was a Good Decision to go to The Maritimes, and I am still eating local veggies, thanks to the farmer's market.  Yep, I get it all.  Again.

Look what I found this morning in the leaf/wood chip mulch.  I googled images of NC wild mushrooms, didn't find anything similar, but after checking out the website for a  couple of images, I believe these are puffballs.  I propped them up with wooden skewers, and they are soft  as a marshmellow.  Yuck.  About 8" tall.  Curious!













A closer view of the top of the "shroom"...
























I worked in the gardens this morning.  Stuart helped me position this turtle, a gift from him. He found her at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  A generous homeowner at the beach donated everything Habitat could haul out of the house:  cabinets, furniture, appliances, plumbing, hardware, yard art.  Stuart, who loves the construction part, usually helps with the deconstruction jobs, too.   He painted her before he gave her to me.  She is living where I can see her from my studio windows.








Another Habitat ReStore find, from the same beach decon job.  This one will eventually be surrounded with hellebores seedlings I'm transplanting from the Mother Bed.  The deer don't like them!  I can see this from the south studio windows, and in the winter from the kitchen sink window.  Only in the winter from the kitchen, because that view is filled right now with the hugest Confederate Rose, mutablis.  The early October blooms on this one open white, and by the afternoon on a warm day, turn screaming pink.  The change takes several days if the weather is cool.




A birthday gift from Kari and Julie! last year...this vase is on the porch, and I put some dried hydrangea blooms it it, to give her hair.  The freaky part:  the Sistahs had a face drawing session one night last spring, and the face I drew was remarkably like this vase.  Before I saw the vase!  Think I'll cut some more hydrangea blooms, this is a good time to collect them.

Not much to show from a nice, wet summer, is it?  Really, the hydrangeas were mostly awesome, particularly the caged Limelight and the uncaged oakleaf hydrangeas. And, the rain kept the recently transplanted Lenten Roses watered. I'm sure the deer will find the oakleaf group next spring!