Gardening with Fungi in Mind

                                            

    

    You may be thinking, "Why would I want to garden with fungi in mind?".  That is a great question so let me tell you!  Fungi are the teeth of the forest, for that reason, fungi are necessary to break down cellulose (which is what trees are made of).  Nature knew what she was doing when she put fungi in charge of breaking down organic matter. When you see mushrooms growing in your garden, it is a good sign that your soil is balanced and full of helpful mycelium.  Four ways you can encourage diversity, not only for fungus but for all native species, is to have diverse gardening areas throughout your property; use mulch such as wood chips or leaf "litter"; use logs in your garden design, and stop using chemical products to control what most people consider problems.  Instead of using conventional gardening practices, try employing more sustainable, regenerative gardening methods like permaculture, food forest gardening, no-till, hügelkultur mounds, and raised bed companion planting method.  I personally love implementing a little of everything because it is fun to experiment with gardening.  You can even grow edible mushrooms in your garden.

    First, let's talk about fungi! There are a lot of experts out there.  Many of which are not mycologists but citizen scientists; people who are not scientists by profession take mycology (or some other science-y subject) extremely serious as a "hobby", but I would say, for most, it is more of a passion, an obsession even.  When first learning about fungi, what I thought was interesting was how some species of mycelium live in symbiosis with trees' roots helping trees connect and communicate with each other.  The mycelium shares nutrients in exchange for other nutrients it needs and allows trees to communicate, share information, and share nutrients with neighboring trees.  There is still so much about those connections that we still don't know, but it is so interesting to think about trees talking in the forest. You can read more about this in forest ecologist Suzanne Simard's book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.  

    I get it though, not everyone loves fungus.  I can see why some people are wary when it comes to mushrooms, heck, I grew up with it myself, I can't tell you how many times my grandmother got extremely upset about me investigating mushrooms but their mysterious nature is what fascinated me about them, at least from a kids' perspective.  I heard things like, "Don't touch those, touching them can make you sick!  Don't smell them, they might be poisonous!  Definitely, don't eat those mushrooms!"  Mycophobia is quite common among most people living in the United States and many other places.  I'm sure some of the readers heard similar things from adults in their life.  But I'm here to tell you, you have nothing to fear, mushrooms are completely safe as long as you don't eat them and digest their toxins, most are quite harmless.  Mushrooms in your garden are a good thing and we want to foster their life cycles to foster healthier plants and ecosystems.  We need them.  If you want to learn more about fungus and how they can help us all check out a book by Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running  How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World.

                             

             

   Mulch.  If you don't already use it, then you should be using it now and not that crappy stuff in bags at major home improvement stores.  Mulch from those places sometimes contains chemicals and dyes that can be bad for your garden, especially if you want to grow food and mushrooms.  What you want is local mulch from local trees in your area, those trees already have fungi spores right on it and it was shredded up into wonderful mulch that can do wonders for your garden.  The reasons why mulch can be so amazing is it provides protection from drought and heavy rain events.  My previous yard was mulched yearly or twice a year depending on if I could find woodchips for free or not.  Even when people around me were experiencing problems from lack of rain or too much rain, I was still reaping benefits from the mulch, meaning my yard was still lush, not dried up or washing away.   The few weeds that did happen to make it through were in such loose soil that I could effortlessly pull them.  The mulch also slowly fed the microbes and fungus in the soil, which in turn made more nutrient rich soil.  Believe me, I started with soil that was basically sand and five years later I had almost 10 inches of worm castings as dark as the stuff that comes in bags.  My fellow gardeners know what I am talking about.  Wood chips are not the only mulch you can use, I also used shredded paper, leaf litter, branches, lemongrass clippings, lawn clippings, and cardboard as mulch.   Don't take my word for it, try it out yourself and see what benefits you can develop in your own garden.

   

     Another way I encourage fungal diversity was to create garden boundaries with logs I either collected from off the side of the road or was dumped with some wood chips I received. Not only are logs good borders, but they are home to many fungal species, insect species, and animal species.  Usually the logs I received in a wood chip load were freshly cut, so I had many opportunities to inoculate logs with mushrooms like Shiitakes (Lentinula edodes), Lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus), and Oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus).  While I'm talking about edible mushrooms you can cultivate, I think Wine cap mushrooms (Stopharia rugosoannulata) are another great edible that can be cultivated in one of your newly made wood chipped food forest beds bordered by logs, because Wine caps do great in an environment with wood chips.      

    Sustainable and regenerative gardening practices don't use chemical additives, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides.  There is no problem that can't be fixed by creating balance instead of a power play with nature.  Nature doesn't garden in neat rows with synthetic fertilizers, killing anything that doesn't do what "we" want.  Nature is about balancing everything in a cyclical ecosystem from the smallest microbe to even us.  We can manipulate our environment because we can think, so it's up to us to be a steward to the earth we get to enjoy instead of destroying the balance. Then we wonder why we are failing at gardening. Sorry, if this isn't popular opinion, we aren't meant to have lawns and rake up all the leaves leaving everything bare; leaves are how trees re-fertilize the soil. Lawns are out, and pollinator gardens are in, so get with it.  Plant a small food forest garden bed containing two fruit trees, two blueberry bushes, and some comfrey, then two raised beds of mixed vegetables or greens, but don't keep the lawn if you want to promote fungal diversity.  I highly recommend reading some books like, The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture by Christopher Shein, Creating a Forest Garden by Martin Crawford, No Dig Gardening by Charles Dowding, books by Ruth Stout, All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, and if you really want to get deep into the subject of permaculture, any book by Bill Mollison.  But, there are so many more books, many of which can be found for free at your local library.

    Maybe you will now garden with fungi in mind?  But even if you don't, at least you learned some new gardening methods to try in your garden.  Or new books to check out at the library?  Whatever it was that you took from my writing, I hope you enjoyed reading. Let me know what method of gardening you are most excited to learn more about!