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During my preliminary garden clearance and planting stages, I happened to find an old log with a few mushrooms growing out of it. Closer inspection revealed that the log had what appeared to be drill holes and I have, since, found out that you can buy 'mushroom logs'. This one is obviously well past its best, but it inspired me to be a little bit more adventurous in my efforts to cultivate food on a budget. I won't risk eating anything that grows from the log this year but I may add some 'plugs' to my Christmas or Birthday list of wants, and try the log for next year.
Saturday 31/05/08 - I am not totally convinced that my mushroom growing efforts will be rewarded and I hadn't really intended spending much time on the project, as I can still buy a fairly large pack of mushrooms from the supermarket for under £1.50 and these can easily be split into suitably sized cooking portions, sliced, bagged and frozen. It will come as no surprise to you that I have not spent any money on this mini cultivation and am not entirely sure that the method even works, but here goes anyway. Someone told me that if I chopped a few mushrooms and buried them in a shaded part of the garden in a good mix of compost that they would begin to 'spawn'. So, I dug a small patch out next to the compost heap, chopped a few mushrooms from a Tesco value pack, planted them, watered the 'mushroom patch' and then covered it with a black bin liner to keep the cats off. It remains to be seen what will happen. 09/07/08 - Once again the cats are winning the battle for any exposed soil surfaces! I really can't expect anything to grow in the little mushroom plot next to the compost heap because as soon as I removed the blacl plastic that had been protecting it, the neighbourhood cats moved in! |
