Should You Intentionally Grow Mushrooms In Your Yard? Here's What To Know

Mushrooms are healthy, hearty ingredients that can be used for a variety of dishes, but some varieties can be relatively expensive or hard to find in stores. If you're a mushroom lover, you may wonder if you should intentionally grow mushrooms in your yard. If you've seen wild mushrooms popping up around your yard, it's safe to assume that you have a good environment for cultivation. However, that doesn't mean you should attempt to cultivate those mushrooms. Attempting to cultivate wild mushrooms can be difficult and dangerous. Still, your yard may be the perfect place to cultivate specific varieties of mushrooms like shiitake (Lentinula edodes), oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus), or lion's mane (Hericium spp.). These are all delicious, healthy varieties that you can easily grow in garden beds or logs right in your backyard.

Growing mushrooms in your yard is easy and low-maintenance (once the initial work is done, anyway). Plus, after the first installment, you could have a reliable mushroom crop for years to come. Not to mention, certain species can fetch a pretty penny at the farmer's market if you find yourself with an abundance. You can start cultivation in the fall or spring, though the mycelium will lie dormant over the winter after fall prep. It takes about six months for mushrooms to be ready once the mycelium is active. There are some mistakes to avoid when growing mushrooms at home, but outdoors, your biggest concern should be pests like slugs and insects. You may need to collect earlier during harvest season to prevent pest activity.

Growing mushrooms in raised beds is one of the easiest ways to intentionally grow mushrooms in your yard for a harvest that keeps producing year after year. The process is relatively simple. All you need is cardboard, wood mulch, mushroom spawn, and straw. If you place the bed in an area that gets a lot of sun, you will also want shade netting.

Start by selecting the space for your mushroom garden. You can use wood to create a border around the garden for a simple raised bed. When it comes to mushrooms, you don't have to be as considerate about the border or the materials as you might need to be when starting a raised bed garden with vegetables. You can even choose an area under trees, bushes, or any other plants as long as the area has room for wood chips and stays moist.

Once you have the area identified, put down a single layer of cardboard covering the entire mushroom garden area. Then cover it with a layer of wood chips or garden mulch. The most important thing here is to use organic material; plastic mulch will do you no good. On top of that, spread about half of your mushroom spawn evenly across the entire space. Repeat the layers as follows: wood chips, spawn, wood chips. In the end, you should have three layers of wood chips and two layers of spawn. Finally, cover the garden with a thick layer of straw. Heavily water the bed regularly to maintain moisture. If it is in a sunny area, cover the bed with the shade netting.

You may also notice mushrooms growing on trees in your yard. That's because decaying wood is the perfect environment for mushroom cultivation. Growing mushrooms on logs is a bit more complicated and labor-intensive, but if you are looking to sell your mushrooms, it is by far the best option in the long run. This method also requires some tools, including a saw, drill, and 7/16-inch drill bit.

First, start with a fresh log that is under three months old. Cut the log into 3-foot sections that are about 4 to 6 inches thick. Drill 1¼ inch deep holes about 4 inches apart and offset each row by about 2 inches. You should end up with 30 to 40 holes in the log.

The next step requires a tool called a spawn inoculator, which you will use to pick up the spawn and inject it into the holes. Experts recommend using sawdust spawn for growing mushrooms on logs. Fill the spawn inoculator and follow the instructions for your specific tool to inject it into the holes. Next, seal the holes with food-grade wax to keep moisture in. Stack your logs in a shaded area with space between each log. After about one year, the mushrooms will be ready to begin fruiting, or producing the parts we eat. Soak the logs in water for 24 hours and then stand them up on a fruiting rack. You can begin harvesting about seven days after soaking. You can resoak every six to eight weeks between June and October and harvest the mushrooms each time.