MotherVine

Spring Flowers in Texas 2021

Flowers are becoming my favorite thing…next to mushrooms.

Gardening in MN 2017

Gardening in Minnesota was a special time. Our focus was on growing soil and beautiful food and figuring out what to do with ourselves after traveling the Caribbean. We were lucky to have stayed with family as worked on our broken hearts and figure out what went wrong. Our dream of traveling had fallen short. We were lost, but honestly, we were found. We figured out that we could really do…

It’s been years since I’ve written on this blog. It feels like I’ve lived many lives and learned so much along the way. I started with no garden to having many to now having none. But I still crave the slow mornings… walking through my garden to see the butterflies and my veggies who survived a bug invasion. One day though, I’ll have a farm and will look back today and think about how much I…

Clay Vs. Humus Click here and find out the difference

Clay and humus play an important role in soil structure and plant growth, however, too much of one of them is frustrating and too little of the other is a pending death sentence. What is clay? Clay in soil is a fine-grained natural rock or soil material and appears in deposits due to weatherization. ( If you are living in Brazoria County, Texas then you are living on a deposit- ha!) Clay can…

Too Much Coffee + Worms = Tears

I did an embarrassing thing last week. I added waaaay too many coffee grounds to my worm bin and suffered the consequences alongside my poor misshapen worms. Okay, so I didn’t suffer as much as my worms did, but it brought me to tears. My worms’ bodies were bulbous on one end and super thin on the other while their insides oozed onto my hands. It was traumatizing!!!!! I watched this happen and…

“When released into the soil, nematodes seek out the larvae and pupae of susceptible pests by sensing the heat and carbon dioxide they generate. They enter pests through various orifices or directly through the “skin.” Once inside the host, they release a bacterium that kills it within a day or two. They will continue to feed on the remains, multiplying as they do, before exhausting it and…

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Great article on the decomposition process (aerobic and anaerobic)

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/landscape/dont-bag-it/chapter-1-the-decomposition-process/

Compost pile #2 in Haiti

As many of you already know, I REALLY love composting. It is one of my many passions, and I get to focus on it while my stay in Haiti. I really lucked out on this opportunity thanks to Zach Wright and William Clark <3. This compost, like the first one, was VERY hot. I tend to get overly excited on high nitrogen, maybe I am secretly pyro? I don’t know. However, I did use less hi-nitrogen compared…

Cover your Earth. Period.

The Mother does not like to be naked. How would you feel if you were hanging out on a beach, dressed in your swimsuit with your pina colada, then all of a sudden a snow blizzard came blowing through on your beach day? Okay, so that is a bit extremely, but it is essentially what happens to the creatures that live in the soil when we do not cover it. The Earth begs for its protection by covering…

Week 5 in Haiti

If I could have anything in the world what would it be?- What I already have. During my stay in Haiti, I am learning how to stay chill, patient, observant, and always ready to take action when the opportunity shows itself. During this week we tackled a few things, one of them being the compost tea aerator design. We worked with what we had and I must say I am very impressed with the men’s…

Cool Websites on Mushrooms, Herbs, Recipes, etc.!

Tyrant Farms: Their website is full of interesting information about mushrooms, gardening, DIY projects, recipes, and much more.  I fumbled upon their website while I was looking for information on mushroom spores, foraging, etc. They were such a blessing to come across. Enjoy! https://www.tyrantfarms.com/category/foraged/?utm_source=sidebar-widget Herbal Academy: I came across this wonderful…

Hi Friends, So lately I’ve been on this kick on researching about how to identify and propagate fungi. Any suggestion on good reads ? Other than Mycelium running by Paul Stamets.   Thank you in advance! <3

The difference between compost, compost tea, and extract

What is compost? Compost is the end product of decomposed organic matter that is aerobic and full of active beneficial soil microorganisms. What is compost tea? Compost tea is soil microorganisms extracted from compost into a continually oxygenated water process with added foods to proliferate appropriate beneficial soil microbiology for 24-48 hrs. **If well aerated, must be used within 4-6…

Compost pile from day 1 to day 5

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