Many of us know the common garden vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and kale, but did you know you can grow mushrooms, too? One couple on TikTok showed off how they grow mushrooms at home, and it's easier than you might think.
The scoop
Jordan and Silvan (@homegrown_handgathered) have almost a million followers on TikTok and share how they live off the land — gardening and foraging for the majority of their food. In one clip, they take us through how we can improve the soil while growing wine cap mushrooms in the garden.
@homegrown_handgathered How we grow wine caps in our garden to improve our soil and produce food! #gardenharvest #growyourownfood #gardentips ♬ Walking - Flock of Dimes
The video begins with them showing how to get a wine cap patch started. "We just spread some sawdust spawn on the ground around our fruit trees and the pathways between our garden beds … then we cover them in wood chips and keep them watered."
They go on to say that the mushroom spores will begin to take over quickly but may take up to a year to produce new mushrooms.
Mushrooms grow from spores that can spread in a variety of ways. When choosing to grow mushrooms, you will often buy something called mushroom spawn. According to a mushroom grower called North Spore: "Spawn is the living fungal culture, called mycelium, grown onto a substrate. It provides the backbone to any mushroom-growing operation. Think of it as the equivalent of seeds for a mushroom farm."
These fungi are also great for your soil, the TikTokers tell us: "As their stringy white mycelium works its way through the wood chips, it breaks them down into a beautiful mushroom compost that releases a ton of nutrients into the soil."
Mushrooms can also easily be spread around your garden by digging up a chunk of their mycelium and moving it somewhere else.
How it's helping
Gardening is a fun way to get outside and get into nature more regularly. Not only is gardening great for your physical and mental health, but it can also help you with your grocery budget. According to our guide, many gardeners can save around $600 during the growing season.
Mushrooms, in particular, are great for soil health. As the creators in this clip said, they create their own compost as they grow. According to The Spruce, this compost is rich in nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, and iron.
Having your garden not only grow your food but also create its own compost will save you even more money.
What everyone's saying
Commenters were excited about the prospect of growing mushrooms. One person wrote, "Looks good! Can't wait to give this a try."
Someone else simply said: "I need to do this!"
While another commenter asked: "Question: do they just keep growing? Like do you need to keep feeding them wood chips?"
The creators responded, saying: "We usually replenish the wood chips every year or two, but it just depends how quickly they're breaking them down."
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