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Organic Edible Gardens, LLC is a sustainable garden design+build company servicing the Northern Virginia and DC Metro areas. We specialize in creating edible and ecologically-sustainable landscapes that sustain and regenerate local ecosystems while providing material and aesthetic benefits to people. Established in 2010, Organic Edible Gardens is a vibrant response to the lack of individuality, productivity and sustainability typical of Northern Virginia landscapes. We look forward to working with you to create your own personal Eden!

Making Mushroom Logs

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Growing your own high-quality, organic mushrooms is pretty simple.  We’re going to show you a bit about the process by which we put together the logs which we currently have for sale.  Enjoy!

First of all, you need wood.  The best logs for Shiitake mushrooms are oak.  It’s best to use wood that has been cut very recently, so you can avoid contamination from unwanted fungi.  For our logs, we used an oak that came down during Superstorm Sandy.

Logs that are between 3 and 5 inches in diameter are best because they allow for good inoculation throughout the entire log.  You also want to allow for a length of between about 2.5-5 feet.  This keeps the logs in a manageable size while still allowing for maximum production.

At this point, you’re ready to start inoculating the logs.

You want to drill holes throughout the log about 6 inches apart lengthwise, and then alternate rows so that you get a decent amount of spawn throughout the log.

Next, you insert mushroom spawn into the drilled holes. We used hardwood sawdust that had been inoculated with Shiitake spawn from a local source. We use a neat little tool that injects the sawdust & spawn into the holes and really jam-packs it in there.

Then, you seal the spawn-filled holes with cheese wax. This prevents the inoculated sawdust from spilling out, and protects the wounds on the log from being contaminated by unwanted fungi and bacteria.

Voila!!! Done! The logs are now ready to be stacked for storage. It will take about a year for the spawn to fully grow throughout the log and start producing mushrooms. Once fruiting begins, you can stimulate heavy production by soaking the log in water for about 24 hours and then setting it upright in a shady spot.

 

 
There you have it! If you are interested in purchasing inoculated logs from us, please visit our Plants for Sale page for more information!

Shiitake Mushroom Logs for Sale!!!

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Shiitake Mushroom Logs!!!

Logs are fresh-cut oak, 3-5 inches in diameter and 30-48 inches long.  They have been thoroughly inoculated with Shiitake mushroom spawn, and will begin to produce high-quality, organic mushrooms by fall of 2013.  The logs will produce heavily for about 2-3 years, and will decline after that, though they will continue to produce some for several years.  After production declines, the logs can be used as firewood, borders for garden paths (that will occasionally produce mushrooms!), or shredded into organic soil-building mulch.  Log-grown Shiitakes are vastly superior in quality to commercial sawdust-grown mushrooms – while sawdust-grown Shiitakes sell for about $4/lb, log-grown Shiitakes sell for up to $40/lb.

These logs are incredibly easy – just stick the logs in a shady spot in your yard and let them sit.  Once you notice mushrooms beginning to fruit, you can either leave them alone and harvest a few mushrooms here and there, or you can soak them in water for 24 hours (in, say, a garden pond or kiddie pool) to stimulate heavy production.  This is a very easy and very low-effort way to get quality mushrooms in your own yard!

Prices are $50 for logs between 24-36 inches in length, $75 for logs between 36-48 inches in length.  Free delivery within 20 miles of zip code 22207.  To purchase, or for more information, please call 571-282-1724 or email info@oegardens.com.

Storm Damage?

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We are expecting a pretty heavy storm here in Northern Virginia this next week due to Hurricane Sandy colliding with a westerly storm and an influx of Arctic winds from the north – all of which is a recipe for some crazy weather in our area.  We’d like to remind everyone that we offer clean-up and debris removal services.  Unfortunately we are unable to perform anything that involves climbing or felling trees, but we can cut and remove trees that are already on the ground.  If you need assistance getting your yard back together after what might be a “billion dollar storm” according to NPR, please call us at 571-282-1724.  Stay safe and have a great weekend!!!

Sustainable Sites Initiative

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The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) is a project that aims to provide guidelines and prerequisites for the creation and certification of sustainable landscapes.  SITES developed as a complement to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a similar rating and certification system created by the U.S. Green Building Council to promote sustainable and environmentally-responsible building practices.

SITES released their first Guidelines (PDF) in 2009 as an experimental pilot project.  Three years later, much more information, research, and results from trials based on the earlier guidelines have been obtained and reviewed.  SITES has created proposed new guidelines for the 2013 release, which will become the new standards for designing, building, and maintaining sustainable landscapes.  These proposed guidelines are currently available for public comment – information received in these comments will be considered for revision of the final version to be released next year.

We here at OEG feel that it is very important to be part of the larger conversation regarding ecological landscape design/build, and we have participated in this opportunity to contribute to future national standards (after all, one of the proposed credits regards providing food production in the landscape).  If you are an individual and/or a company with an interest or stake in ecological and sustainable landscaping, please consider adding your voice to the conversation.  To participate in the public comments, please visit the SITES page, create an account, and then comment on the guidelines.  You can make a difference!

Gardening in Polycultures

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©2012 by Jon Storvick and Organic Edible Gardens, LLC

I’ve been doing lots of reading of late, especially in the field of agroecology. Agroecology attempts to view farming through the lens of ecological thought, viewing farm fields and so on as ecosystems. Much of this information is very similar to what we find in the permaculture literature, though agroecology is much more academically and scientifically based. One of the key elements of both approaches is the idea of growing in polycultures.

Gardening in Polycultures

This is a healthy polyculture.

A polyculture can be defined as growing multiple species of plants together in a stand or patch. This stands in contrast to monoculture (growing a single plant species in a stand), which is the way we typically grow plants. A lawn is a monoculture. A corn field is a monoculture. A row of lettuces is a monoculture. The problem with monocultures is that they are unnatural – you simply don’t see stands of single species of plants growing anywhere in nature. The reason for this is pretty simple – groups of single plant species are highly vulnerable to pests, diseases, and other problems. A monoculture in nature would be decimated pretty quickly and would not survive.

Gardening in Polycultures

This is a sterile monoculture.

Ecosystems are systems, obviously. They are networks of multiple species of plants (polycultures), animals, microscopic organisms, and other elements. While there is a food chain – life must eat, after all – generally no particular element suffers too much. Overall, the system is stable. This is why gardening in polycultures is a pretty good idea – we are lessening the possibility of our desired plants being overtaken by insects, diseases or competition from weeds.

Here are some of the benefits of growing in polycultures:

Decreased pest and disease problems– Including different plant species can confuse pest insects, leading them to ignore our crops. Since disease organisms also generally infect a single plant species, by including “buffer plants” between crop plants we block the vectors of infection. By including various flowering plants, we can attract beneficial insect predators that prey upon pests.

Increases in yields – While the yield of a single crop may be less than in a monoculture stand, if we include multiple crop species in our polycultures we can obtain total higher yields per square foot.

Decreased competition from “weeds” – By filling ecological niches in our gardens, we leave no room or resources available for undesired plants.

Increased plant health – By looking at how different plant species interact, we can design polycultures where each plant has a positive effect on the other (this is sort of an ecological version of “companion planting”). By including soil-building plants like nitrogen fixers (plants which form a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants) and dynamic accumulators (plants which “mine” nutrients from the subsoil and concentrate them in their tissues, making them available at the surface), we can create healthy soil for our plants. By choosing plants which have similar water requirements and complementary root patterns, we can effectively partition the available plant resources (soil, water, nutrients) so that each niche is filled and no plant needs to compete with its neighbor.

This is, of course, a very basic and incomplete treatment of the subject. For those that are interested in learning more about polycultures and how to design them, I strongly recommend you read both volumes of Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. For a consultation on designing a polyculture that is right for your yard, call us at 571-282-1724 today!

Working on New Stuff

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Hi all,

I sincerely apologize for the lack of new posts – we’ve been quite busy here at OEG with new designs and landscape installations – it’s been a crazy summer!

I’m working on a new article on the benefits of gardening in polycultures (growing more than one species of plant together), and hope to have that up in the next day or two.  So stay tuned and happy gardening!

Jon

Holy Jeez, It’s Hot!!!!

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It has been a HOT few days here in Northern Virginia!!!  Plants all over are suffering from the heat (and lack of water, too).

 

We design and install automated drip irrigation systems so you don’t have to worry about your prized plants keeling over on you.  If you need a little extra help keeping your plants happy and healthy, give us a ring!