Gardening with Children

A Happy New Gardening year to you all, although the weather over the festive period has been very unfavourable for outdoor gardening there are still things that can be grown indoors. One of my favourite things that I grew as a child were indoor mushrooms using a mushroom growing kit, this is very easy to do and very rewarding. Mushroom kits are available with either white or brown mushrooms which are both equally delicious. Mushrooms are excellent for children to grow and there is great excitement at looking in the box in the morning to find perfect edible mushrooms. 

White Button Mushroom Growing Kit

The mushroom growing kits include all the equipment and instructions that you need to get started including quality spawned compost, a growing container and culturals. The process involved is quite straightforward:

First moisten the casing layer contained in the black bag.

After an hour empty the bag over the compost in the growing container and spread out evenly using your fingertips slightly mixing into the compost underneath and leaving the surface rough.

Moisten the surface of the compost using a bottle sprayer.

Place the black plastic bag that contained the casing layer over the top of the kit and place in a warm environment for about a week until a white fluffy mycelium appears.

Remove the lid and place in a cooler draught free position checking daily that the contents do not dry out and using the bottle sprayer to keep the surface damp.

Mushrooms should begin to appear after about a week, these can be harvested when they are small or as large as you like.

The first crop of mushrooms can be harvested for about four days after this repeat the process for a second crop.

Mushrooms are very useful ingredient in many recipes but I think that one of the best ways to use them, if you have a plentiful supply, is a hearty and warming mushroom soup which is very welcome on these cold winter days.