In the Gardens with dee

dee elle, our wonderful Housekeeping staff and Place Team member, (also lovingly now known here as steward of cabins and tender of gardens) has taken on our gardens - both the herbal/culinary garden by Thomas Berry Hall and the beloved West Garden - and will be checking in with us regularly with around her work.
dee started talking to me (Karina, Communications Steward) about what she was doing, and I asked her to explain it to me like I was in grade 5. dee did a great job! Here is her first missive:

"Ok. I’m just following the guidance I hear from the gardens. I'm sending you pics (see below) of my mushroom adventure. I will be adding the 'spent substrate' to the herb garden and West Garden! I'll also be making some compost tea of sorts."  'Of sorts' right now means - nettle and comfrey tea for fertilizing.

"I got the spent substrate from Understory. Caleb was happy to donate the goods." (More about Understory here - they are part of Whidbey Island Grown and you can find Understory Mushrooms on the Whidbey Island Grown Food Hub, The Tilth and  Bayview Farmer’s Market.)

"The substrate can be different things. (Understory owner) Caleb Schulte uses wood chips and soy that he inoculates (adds mushroom spores to), and then there’s a whole magical process of time and temperature and humidity and light to grow mushrooms. After a few rounds, the mushrooms have used all of the nutrients and so the substrate (wood/soy) is now - spent. 

It makes a great nourishing addition to gardens! Any spores still hanging around may grow some mushrooms. Mushrooms also do a great job of cleaning the soil - I used them once in a garden that was poisoned/killed by herbicide overspray. 

I’m feeding the soil so we can grow lots of yummies. (Vegetables, herbs.)

Also. I went to an organic farming conference once and heard a farmer say something that had always stayed with me - they said - ‘some people think the soil is just there to hold the plant up. No! Soil is a living ecosystem that feeds and nourishes the plants. We must feed the soil so the soil can feed what’s growing.’ "

Thank you, dee!