WE’RE used to thinking of fungi negatively in gardening – but that really must stop. There are good and bad fungi, separated by a mighty chasm. Yes, mildew, blight and scab are unwelcome, but how about plonking some home-grown chestnut, button, oyster or shiitake mushrooms on your kitchen chopping board? That will impress the domestic god/goddess in your household!
Know your growing kit
Autumn is the natural time to think about growing mushrooms – moist soil and chillier temperatures stimulating their production. But home growing comes in kit form today, allowing us to force mushrooms into growth at any time. To get scientific for a moment, while nuisance fungi are parasitic (in other words, they feed on living material), the mushrooms we are discussing here are saprophytic, so they feed on dead material and won’t harm garden plants.
“Many types are easy to source and grow”
Most break down and feed off lignin and cellulose – the two major
