The following is status report on various expirments in my garden. Skip if not a garden fanatic <grin>. It felt funny to be pounding on a stack of log in the forest. I think this is done in Japan so the mushrooms have a place to grow. Fortunatly, no one is around to ask questions or mention the event to the other neighbors. Later i came back and poured water over the logs and made sure they would stay saturated for over 8 hours. If all goes well the logs will fruit and we will have a large supply of shittake's soon. The rice paddy is a different story. It is visable from the road and i walk around in mud boots careing for what looks like a bunch of grass. The rice is growing slowly and our weeds are able to go through a complete life cycle before the rice is over 6 inches. We still have a few months of warm weather so hopefully these plants will produce some rice. The bamboo is another expirment that is becoming visable. They grow to 60 feet in Japan and get 4-5 inches in diameter. For the last few years they have looked like an few asparagus plants so i decided to try some tests. I planted comfry around some and mulched the others with cut grass. On another i added some compost. Whoa, the one with the compost is now 20 foot high. In early July i found an old bag of lentils that had been stored for many years. No way was i going to eat these. Last time i ate some 10 year old beans it was a social catastraphy. So, i spread them at a site we are concerting into a kitchen garden. To my surpries they all sprouted and made an excellent cover crop. This says the bulk bins at the food coop is a source for cover crop seed. Building trellis for peas and beans is a pain. The cleanup in winter is also a pain, but i may have a solution. We are now using circular rounds of farm fense and it is much easier. The rounds also work around trees to keep the deer away and they can be used to hold tomatoes up. It is even possible to cover them with plastic to make temporary greenhouses. ---------- Jeff Owens ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Zone 7, http://www.teleport.com/~kowens Underground house, solar energy, reduced consumption, no TV
