The Scoop on Spawn
Now that I’ve been seriously gardening for a while, a terrible truth has come to light: I have several sun-loving plants situated in shady garden beds that are suffering. I was so desperate to fix up this yard when we first moved in that I just started building garden beds and putting in the plants I knew how to care for.
The property had two swamps, one tiny and one quite large, that had originally been ‘beautiful koi ponds’ (as per the realtor).
My darling husband spent countless hours picking rocks from around the ‘ponds’ and we filled the gaping hole in our yard the weekend before my stepson’s 3rd birthday. It was a close call.
After months of picking rocks, pumping and shoveling out sludge, and finally pulling out that horrible pond liner, a truckload of soil was delivered and we filled two long garden beds in the front yard and the swamps in one weekend. But with my limited experience on this property, I didn’t know where the seriously shady spots were. Looking back, the missing front yard beds should have been a clue but – alas.
Correcting Mistakes
Now that I am out in the open about my dreaded shade mistake, I’ve begun moving plants. Some were plants that don’t overwinter so they had to be dug up anyway – lucky. The last to be moved are gorgeous roses that have been scraggly their entire lives; I am so excited to see their potential, poor things. I’ve already moved one and it was surprisingly easy! Amending and building a healthy garden soil has been my mission for the last several years and the soft, crumbly compost-rich soil the rose bush was planted in was so easy to move out of the way. The roots just gently came loose.
Some of the replacements are Christmas Fern, dwarf Irises, and yellow Wakerobins, which happen to also be native plants that I purchased from my local nursery. I was very excited to see natives there. The Graham Thomas roses moved to a spot out in the open which will provide it lots and lots of sunshine. That bad boy is going to need a trellis at some point (unless it refuses to grow out of spite). We shall see.
The New Plan
Meanwhile, I have put in some other beautiful plants like hellebores, rhododendrons, and chocolate chip ajuga that live it up in the shade. Now it’s time to add something truly amazing to those beds: culinary mushrooms! The folks over at North Spore shared their resources for growing mushrooms in outdoor beds last season and I’ve been dreaming about it ever since. Their step-by-step video is so excellent and when I searched the types of spawn suggested in the video, I was able to narrow it down by grower’s experience (which for me is beginner) and find all of the cultivars they recommend for noobs. I’ve watched the entire outdoor mushroom video several times now, I feel so ready and excited! P.S. They are having a sale on sawdust spawn right now which happen to be exactly the type of mushrooms they recommend for outdoor beds.
So now I have a serious plan for those shady beds and some studying to do so I can correctly identify those mushies once they surface. Of course, I’ll need recipe recommendations, too. Something they mentioned really surprised me and I’m totally going to try it out. If you incorporate mushroom spawn into the straw mulch in your vegetable garden, preferably your broad-leafed vegetables like cucurbits, there should be enough shade for the mushrooms to fruit. I have a really cozy spot under the cucumbers already picked out and a bag of tropical oyster mushroom spawn in my shopping cart, I’ll keep you updated.
If you’re a mushroom lover and interested in growing some of your own in the garden or you’ve been growing mushrooms in outdoor beds for a while, I’d love to hear some of your ideas and stories.
Perennially,
Elizabeth the Forest Witch
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