Greeting me on a recent foggy winter morning garden walk was a specimen of the fascinating Clathus columnatus, better known as column stinkhorn. It lives on dead and decaying organic matter, so is often seen growing in mulched areas. In the US, it’s typically seen East of the Mississippi, but many mycologists theorize it was actually introduced into the US. It has a unique fragrance to lure flies to disperse it’s spores, but the temperatures were so cool when I took this image, I couldn’t pick up any scent. What a cool gift of nature.
We love fall not just because of the weather, the colorful foliage, the fall bloomers, but also for the fall fungus. It seems like some of the most incredible fungus of the year happens in fall. When we go outside to take plant photos, it’s hard to resist the amazing fungi as well. Like sand castles at the beach, fungi are quite ephemeral, so our only memories are through captured images. Here are few shots from the last week.
Last week we had a few rainy days, which resulted in some amazing patches of Dog Vomit fungus (Fuligo septica) on mulched areas in the garden. I remember back to my Master Gardener days, when you could always expect early spring phone calls from frantic gardeners looking for something to spray to rid their garden of this terror. The reality is that it causes no ill effects in your garden.
Dog vomit fungus, which has a worldwide distribution, was first named back in 1727, so it’s been around a lot longer than most of us. Why can’t we learn to embrace this amazing natural phenomenon? Other than not appealing to folks who were raised as germaphobes, this is one of many amazing shows that nature provides.
Not only does dog vomit fungus not bother your plants, it’s not actually a fungus. It belongs to a group of saprophytic slime molds, meaning it feeds on decaying organic matter. If the common name turns you off, you can use the newer PC name, Scrambled Egg slime mold. Within a couple of days, the color of the fruiting bodies will fade to brown and it will fade away, but isn’t it cool while in fruit!
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned our landscaping project on the north side of Mt. Michelle to create more intricate planting pockets, while raising the planting heights significantly via the use of rock assisted berms.
Phase 2 of the project was to create a cut through on northwest side through a previously inaccessible bed. Phase 2 is now complete, and visitors can now traverse the new path, exiting into the northwest side of the Mt. Michelle waterfall. This path takes you under the large speckled-leaf loquat, Magnolia macclurei, and several large conifers, so be sure to look up as well as down.
Phase 2 new path cut through on the north side of Mt. Michelle
Last week, Jeremy and his staff tackled phase 3 of the project, which was the two 50 degree slopes on the west side of Mt. Michelle. Despite being planted for some time, we had lost some soil due to runoff, and the plants were screaming for more compost, and we were screaming for more rock pockets.
In less than a week, Jeremy’s team stacked these new retaining planting walls, which provide hundreds of new planting pockets for small woodland treasures. Each is now filled with our garden compost mix as well as an array of small, little-known plants. Just remember, if you garden on flat ground and think you are out of planting space, the key is to learn to think like a Pythagorean…a² + b² = c²…go vertical.
You’ll be able to see these newly planted areas during our winter open house, although it will take a while for the plants to mature.
Jeremy and the rock wall projectJeremy and Andrew designing the new rock walls.Project complete and planted, with hundreds of new plant treasures added
