mushrooms slugs and soil structure

[podshell]

i would like to know how to encourage as many varieties of edible fungi to grow in the garden,there is a big lawn ,compost some wild cherry trees,pine and fir trees.

i would also like to say that i have heard so many complaints about slugs and snails yet i have never had a problem with these perhaps because i always keep compost and they are kept busy on breaking it down .

im a great believer in keeping the soil structure intact as much as possible,this means leaving weeds inbetween veg,(not hoeing and breaking down the structure)at the moment the brussel sprouts mixed in with the weeds are doing better than the hoed bed,but could the weeds cause a future problem?

[Summer House]

Hi Podshell,

I was always taught that you hoe the garden to kill the weeds and loosen the soil surface, by killing the weeds you stop competition and by loosening the soil you help to keep the soil moist below the hoed level.

You are very lucky if you have little or no problem with snails or slugs, I would suggest that it is the area you live in or the type of soil you have that keeps them away rather than your compost heap.

As for the edible fungi I have no idea how you can get them to grow, you may try looking in the library for some ideas.

I hope this will be of some help.

Summer House

[podshell]

when the brussel plants were young i pulled the weeds out but let them grow when the crop became established .also yesterday i pulled some lettuce up which had gone to seed,the lettuce had been very healthy and no slug damage but under each one there were slugs and i realised that they were eating only the bottom leaves that were touching soil,and i believe this is an ideal set up as they rid the plant of the old leaf and turn the leaf to fertiliser.