#Gardening Tips Tuesday🌿

[pansy-buttercups]

MUSHROOMS IN THE GARDEN BED🍄

(Garden Tips Tuesday #1)

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Ft. This little guy in my starter tray <3

First off if you find a mushroom in your garden beds or containers, DONT FREAK OUT! No you didn't do anything wrong, and nothing bad is going on. I think a lot of gardeners that just started out panic at the sight of a capped stalk in their beds because they think it means their soil is messed up or that mushroom will make their plants ill. That was definitely my first reaction a couple years ago the first time a mushroom popped up in one of my containers. Mushrooms and Fungi however are actually a good sign (Normally)!!

What are mushrooms and what do they mean????

Mushrooms and Fungi while not being plants have a couple similar system. Fungi are often complex systems that can span for miles underground in a fine delicate networks called mycelium. These systems can go hundreds of years underground, but only sprout their fruiting bodies (which we call mushrooms) when conditions are right for them to emerge.

And these conditions that make it right for mushrooms to pop out also makes it the right condition for your plants usually. Mushrooms thrive on humidity, moisture, shade, but most importantly decaying organic matter in your soil. Mushrooms help break down the matter in your soil and help make it more accessible for your plants! They are also useful in remedying soil of contaminates, such as oil, heavy metals, pesticides and apparently even bits of radioactive waste. Here's an article that goes way more in depth on how mushrooms are used in land restoration projects:

The relationship between Fungi and Plants:

Finally this is less of a gardening thing and more of an environmental thing, however it still applies. Fungi and plants often share the same ecosystem, and beyond that some share resources too! Why? Simply because they both have something the other needs. Mycelium as previously mentioned breaks down organic matter using enzymes into usable nutrients for themselves. The kind that breaks down dead organic matter for their own use are called Saprophytic fungi and are responsible for recycling our dead organisms. There are however fungi called mycorrhizal fungi that do not live by this method and instead thrive on their symbiotic relationship with plants. Plants have one very important thing the fungi requires which is the sugars they produce through photosynthesis, and the plants require the complex nutrients that only fungi can give them. So the mycelium colonizes the tips of the plants roots and they pass resources back and forth, however mycelium sprawl and connect to other plants meaning these resources also get shared between plants. This also them help keep the balance between an ecosystem by sharing the nutrients of healthier plants to those that are struggling. The large network that communicates nutrients, moisture, and even chemical signals between plants and mycelium is referred to as a mycorrhizal network.

The dozen threats to the network:

The mycelium network however is very delicate often, and human activity often poses a threat to these important fragile systems. There is no short list of threats to mushrooms listing from the already harmful herbicides, fungicides, certain fertilizers, to logging which is a major detriment due to the compaction from both heavy machine and foot traffic and from the damage that comes with removing the stumps. There is however one thing a lot of gardeners do that often damage mycelium networks and that is tilling soil! Along with disrupting the network tilling already has a dozen problems it causes (Which ill probably be writing about as well in a later post). All of these things can lead to the rapidly decay of a proper mycelium network which can sudden cause harm to surrounding plants and trees that relied on them.

How to be a mutual friend to the Mycelium! :

There are however a lot of things you can also do to help promote your fungal friends! Try to avoiding disrupting the soil in your garden as much as much as possible, and looking into no-till alternatives! Leave out lots of organic matter such as fallen leaves, fallen logs, bark, straw, hay, woodchips, basically anything organic and dead. I believe the organic matter my mushroom in the starter tray liked was the coco coir which is also common mushroom cultivation substrate. Fungi also heavily appreciate humidity and shade so make sure to keep the soil around any mushrooms that pop up a fair bit damp. Lastly when you're not gardening and instead out hiking perhaps try to stay on the path to avoid compacting the earth over where precious mycelium is keeping the environment balanced and thriving!

So next time you see a mushroom pop out in your garden be sure to give it a little thank you for keeping the soil nice and helping your plants :)

[pansy-buttercups]

🌱General Information 🌱

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Basic Introduction🌿

Heya I'm Markus, I also go by Moss. I'm huge plant nerd and violently obsessed with collective wildflower feildguides. I am by no meana a professional horticulturist or botanist (though I desperately want to be), Studying plants and growing them however is a major passion of mine!

I'm hoping that by posting on this blog, I can motivate myself to learn even more about plants and actually jot down some information for other people. I belive we all need to become way more aware of the hugely important role that flora play in out world and what plants are actually helpful and which ones are damaging (I'm looking at you invasive plants/monoculture forest/ect.)

Oh, also, the last thing to know about me is I desperately hope all oil, gas, and car company CEOs fricken 💥💥💥 Ahhhh cough on smoke.... yeah.....

What this blog is about☘️

I plan to mostly use this blog to help share gardening tips, information on native plants, general ecology posts, horticulture/Agricultural/permaculture all the plant growing cultures and stuff, sustainability, and conservation Just generally, anything to do with plants and our precious earth's ecosystem, I suppose. However, as I live on the West Coast of B.C I want to focus a lot on my local native flora and ecosystem!

That's probably going to be a big point of the blog so if you too are a B.C West Coast Flora Fanatic rejoice!!

More Information under the Break🌱

Scheduling plan (That I will hopefully follow)🌧

Floriography Friday🌸Fridays

The history of flowers and their meanings are always a little bit tricky and varied depending on place to place. That's the beauty of it, though that one flower can mean a thousand different things depending on where you are, the color, what other flowers accompany it, even where it worn! Plants have always been important symbols in our art and culture.

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(Possibly) Your homes Native Plants Apprication Day🌿Thursdays

Send in submissions of a plant native to where you live that you think needs some more love or that you just really this is neat! Of course if there are no submission a random place will be picked for Native Flora Apprication Thursday!

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West Coast Native Flora Wednesday🌱Wednesday

Cause we can all appreciate our native flora a little bit more, and maybe next time you're out you may even spot one yourself! Every Wednesday there will be a post detailing a random native plant of our wonderful West Coast <33

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Gardening Tuesday🍅 Tuesday

Whether you're growing tomatoes or tulips, everyone can sometimes use some advice on what to do with their garden plants. From companion plants to what's the best P.H. for your crops, Tuesday is the day to look out for! On this day, there will mostly be some gardening tips posted, and also, alongside submissions, I will be open to send in any exciting gardening news or updates you've may have. Send in pictures of your biggest strawberries or your seedlings you've been waiting weeks to pop up. It's all welcome here :).

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Alongside these, there should be regular updates on what seeds to sow at any given time, frost dates, conservation/sustainability projects you can support, community garden information and updates, and of course random sciencey plant facts and shitposts <33

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Oh yeah also fuck of if your any of the below💥

-Bigot ( Racist/Sexist/Homophobic/Transphobic/Ableist/Zionist, General asshole) , Captalist suck up, Cop kiss ass, Mega Corpration lover, Government Stan.

Please do intract though if any of the below apply to you☘️

- Love nature, have a garden, have a passion for flora, belive in hope for future, hate big companies/governements for ruining our planet, love native plants, support your local communities , love hopepunk. are a bee, have a xylem and a phloem <33

Tags Masterlist

[To Be filled in Later]