Fungi are remarkable, and after many trees fell in our yard we discovered the beauty of living fungal art.
Trees–they’re beautiful when healthy, but even long-living, solid trees can meet an untimely end. When we moved onto our one-acre country lot, we were thrilled with the bits of forest that surrounded our house.
Not only did we have the gift of privacy, but we had the ability to plant flower and vegetable gardens. Unfortunately, the first winter was harsh and we lost a number of those trees. The following spring, we noticed seedlings sprouting everywhere, assuring us that Mother Nature was hard at work reforesting our land.
The downed trees, however, posed a problem. There were just too many of them.
So, out came the chainsaw, as we prepared next winter’s firewood stack. Noticing some interesting patterns in some of the logs, we chose to leave them or place them in various locations around our garden.
A Beautiful Surprise
Mother Nature is a gifted artist, and our dead tree stumps evolved into an art gallery of their own. Some of the stumps were also good mounts for flower pots, especially those on pedestals.
I liked the shape and contours of some of the felled trees. Mostly devoid of bark, they added a touch of class to my garden. While my wildflowers consumed the surrounding space, the barren trunks started to sprout lives of their own in the form of mushrooms.
各种形状、大小、颜色和特征的真菌在贫瘠的树干上随机而明显地出现。
在第一个春天,肆虐我们小小的伊甸园的狂风暴雨不断地刮倒大树枝和树木。许多倒下的树枝成了我们不断扩大的花园的边界。当然,我们还收集了大量的引火材料。
然后,就在春天播种之前,一棵巨大的曼尼托巴枫树倒在了我们的菜园里。
再一次,我们带着链锯出去了。树干必须得去掉。我们把树干砍成两英尺长,把砍下来的圆木竖立起来。这些圆木的直径只有一英尺半,是大小合适的。
问题来了:我们是否要把这些原木进一步切割成可用的木柴?还是让它们保持原样?
To Keep Or To Burn?
Manitoba Maple does burn well, though very fast, so it makes good kindling when cut up into small pieces. However, when these logs were positioned along the border of my veggie patch, they were perfect ledges to stack gardening tools while working, or to use as a bench when rest was needed.
The decision we made? Keep the logs as is, creating a perfect border.
A Changing Of The Seasons
Over the course of the summer, the bark lifted off the logs and various forms of fungi started to appear. The fungi kept growing until the entire circumference of each log was a mass of Polypore (Coriolus versicolor) and Coriolus hirsutus.
The sudden appearance of many different fungi inspired my interest in the study of fungi types. I wanted to understand and appreciate the many varieties.
One particularly large log, from a Manitoba Maple tree, had a trunk that was at least two feet in diameter and twenty feet long. We decided to leave it where it lay. Clean of bark, its smooth surface added a stylish touch to our expanding wildflower garden.
夏天晚些时候,我们欣赏到了一场真菌艺术的盛宴。那里有各种形状、颜色和大小的真菌。我不需要成为一个真菌专家来欣赏大自然母亲给我们的花园增添的艺术。
One fungi fanned out from the fallen log, a half umbrella of sorts with multi-colored (mostly shades of brown) designs etching a pattern from one end to the other.
Mother Nature could be very creative in her methods of decomposition. It was a marvel, really, to watch. As the logs and trunks were quite large, we knew for a fact that there would be many years of fungal explosions to compliment our garden décor.
The Stinky Stinkhorn
However, not all fungi are to be enjoyed. There was one fungi in particular that I did eradicate, and quickly! It was unattractive and lured hordes of flies, causing an endless stream of greedy buggers.
Why did I eradicate it? Other than being so terribly ugly, it stank. Hence the name: Stinkhorn.
这种恶心的真菌还会产卵,看起来像鸡蛋一样,散落在它的底部。我们第一次发现臭角号的时候,它在甲板下很深的地方。虽然不容易挖掘和移除,但我们确实做到了。
No matter where we disposed of this fungus, it was determined to re-appear and, quite literally, stink up the place. So it went out with the garbage.
It was not something we wanted to bury, burn, or compost. It just had to be removed, totally, from the premises. And remove it, we did!
Fungi As Art
我们保留了剩下的菌类,并对它们的艺术瑰丽深表欣赏。活的真菌艺术的一个美妙之处在于它是不断变化的。尽管在冬天的时候,它会逐渐消失,但明年的艺术展将会比往年更加壮观。
Today’s post is brought to you by award-winning author and artist,Emily-Jane Hills Orford.当这位作者不写作、不创作拼贴画、不做针线活或作曲时,你会发现她在花园里。即使在冬天,当她计划和准备下一个季节和下一个成长冒险时,园艺也不是她的想法。这位作家/艺术家/作曲家利用她花园里的压花,在画布上重新创造了多面花园想法,在室内园艺。
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