Category Grow

Shiitake mushrooms are the yummiest variety, in my opinion. They’re also the most expensive in the shops, and it’s virtually impossible to find organic ones, at least where we live. Solution: grow your own.

You’ll be happy to hear that making your own shiitake mushroom log is very easy. It would make a great holiday project for any family, or a great skill-share workshop in your community. Here’s how you do it.

Making a shiitake log:

Materials

• one recently cut log – ideally 100–150 mm in diameter, and preferably no less than 600– 750 mm in length
• shiitake spawn (plugs or sawdust)
• hand drill

Melbourne. Inner city enough to grow bananas, thanks to the heat-island effect.

Describe your property

We live in an old weatherboard, painted pale turquoise. The whole garden is full of fruit trees, edible vines, currants, berries, vegetables and flowers. When we’re in the front yard, people walking by often stop to tell us how much they like it.

Who do you live with?

My wife Annie, our dog Little and Lucy our housemate.

Food forests are production systems that try to mimic nature. Rather than growing trees in grass, we aim for a variety of plants of different shapes and sizes among the trees. Like natural forests, food forests include layers from the ground up. By selecting plants relevant to each layer, space can be used efficiently and competition reduced. We also want to replicate the interactions between animals, soil and plants that make a forest ecosystem function.

In 2010 I was invited by a Canberra primary school to revive its garden which was started in 2008 and develop a food forest. The following guide uses that project as an example (see green text).