fungi galore: a virtual feast of mushrooms

Mushrooms are an unusual grow-your-own crop that’s increasing in popularity. Mushrooms take more effort than most crops to grow, but mushroom growing kits offer easier growing methods, and give you the opportunity to grow ‘gourmet’ varieties such as oyster and shiitake, as well as the more usual button mushrooms.

Mushroom compost for the garden has been promoted as beneficial for some time now, but it’s important to note that not every plant reaps the benefits of mushroom compost. What plants don’t like mushroom compost? Acid loving plants, for one. Is mushroom compost good for a vegetable garden? The following contains information on plants that do and don’t like mushroom compost and how to use it in your garden.

The early insect damage on my runner bean leaves (above) has not damaged the crop of beans. Cool evenings and warm sunny days with adequate rain, has helped produce a bumper crop of tender beans.

I wanted something to look forward too and another trip to Madeira seemed appropriate. For the time being a virtual trip to this garden paradise of an island must suffice.

2020 has been a year of walking and observing nature in the raw. As autumn approaches the mushrooms and toadstools or fungi will be out in force. This will provide you with new observation opportunities on your nature walks. This week I spotted this gigantic fungi over 2 feet in diameter growing in a local graveyard.

Growing Mushrooms in Buckets is an ingenious idea that’s great for anyone with a limited space like a patio or balcony! Let’s have a look at how to do it.

2 tbsp canola oil 12 oz package original breakfast sausage links 4 green onions chopped with white and green portions separated 8 oz portabella mushrooms, sliced 1-pint cherry tomatoes, halved 1 tsp dried thyme or 1 tbsp fresh thyme ½ tsp salt 3 cups water 1 cup milk 1 cup grits (white or yellow) ¼ cup butter 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese Heat oil in a large sauté pan. Add sausage links and cook until browned and thoroughly cooked. Remove sausage and keep warm. In the same pan used to cook sausage, add the white portion of the chopped green onion and mushrooms. Sauté until tender. Add tomatoes, thyme and salt and sauté until the tomatoes are tender. Add sausage back to the pan and gently stir to evenly heat.

Q: Can you tell me what this insect is? It’s feasting on my dahlia leaves. I don’t use insecticides in the garden so can handpick and squash them if I have to. If they’re not going to do too much harm I’m happy to leave them alone. DK, Co Waterford

T ODAY IS OPEN DAY AT A WAY TO GARDEN, THE FIRST THIS SEASON. It’s been a little hectic (understatement), but I’m as ready as I can get.

Now Ruth Rogers Clausen, one author of that well-used 1989 book, has teamed with another longtime horticulturist and garden writer, Tom Christopher, to create a volume that better matches the palette of plants packing the benches of today’s nurseries—and also better serves gardeners in the hot, humid Southeast, not just cooler and drier regions, something the earlier book didn’t.  (I’m sharing a copy in the latest giveaway; enter at the bottom of the page.)Their new book is “Essential Perennials: The Complete Reference to 2700 Perennials for the Home Garden,” and it is a collaboration with a special backstory: Ruth, a British-trained horticulturi

Perhaps it’s Omphalotus olearius–the jack-o-lantern mushroom. Silly me: I forgot to photograph the underside–to see if there were true gills beneath the cap and how the stem and cap attached to each other–but it had disappeared before I realized my oversight a couple of weeks later. (UPDATE 9/10/11: From commenter Kristy, the suggestion is that these could be honey fungus, or Armillaria; read about those here. The colony was about 20 feet from the nearest tree, a spruce, but I’m still going with Omphalotus.)I’ll hope for its return next year, and if it ever stops raining, I’ll be sure to be more detail-oriented when admiring the growing collection of fungi who have joined me in my garden.You may recall my fascination with (yup!) fungus: read all about it.Categoriesmushrooms & other fungi

I’VE BEEN TAKING WALKS lately, relishing the extended fall I know can’t last, enjoying the press of sole to soil before it gets slippery out there—before it’s winter. A handsome stand of mushrooms has been catching my eye the last few weeks, and you know me: always curious.