Jeri, I am so happy for you all that rain has finally come. I hope it is just rains to beat the band tonight. I can imagine how good it must smell in your garden right now with the wet earth and refreshed roses. Sometimes I take my Great Lakes State for granted until I read about what you go through to grow roses, then I know just how blessed I am here. The worst I have to worry about when it comes to water for my gardens is DH's good-natured grumbling about my running the well now and then in between rains (because of the wear and tear on our pump which I attribute to being "a guy thing," worrying more about motors than plants.) But no one would ever dream of telling me that I could NOT run my water on the plants if I needed to do so. And the times I really can't rely on rain to do the job are few and far between. I may have to live through months of snow, but I really think you have it harder as a gardener. Wishing you inches of rain yet to fall, Anne

You think I am a joker? hahaha It rained almost 8 inches in a week in Arizona. The usually dry river that runs through out town had almost 30 feet of water in it. It was the 2nd worst flood in the history of the town(at least the white people's history anyways). My point being that everyone always talks about Cali and how bad it was there and crap and yet like some people have said its a huge state. The el nino effect is going full tilt so we can expect to get lots of rain here in Arizona and in Cali as well. Deal with it people. WE have in my town, they are already rebuilding the bridges that got washed out and moving the silt outta the trailer parks. I saw some of the damages up close today and all manner of trees/cactus/everything else you could imagine was swept down the river and deposited everywhere. Only lucky thing is I didnt see any saguaros that got washed out, but there might have been some in those huge log jams.

it is not a problem if you inject them with a known species. Also shelf - like mushrooms can be good or bad to eat, but never deadly. IMHO it is always best to inject under controlled conditions, then transfer the injected mass into larger bodies. example, one gallon spawn to ten gallons, ten gallons to a large bed. and keep in mind that regular oyster do not eat conifers. they don't have the enzymes. It has to be phoenix. I put some of my dried shiitake dust in soup most nights. If and when you become good at it, you can inject mulch in shaded situations, for example under corn. Then you get your compost and eat it too.

8" of rain? That would be 1/2 our annual total. No wonder I can't grow big hostas. We had less than that annually for the last 5 years. And it all happens in Winter. Never rains in California in the Summertime... la la la. Just feeling sorry for myself after seeing those beauties. SWEET! -Babka