Natalia Borissova's working notes about Non Green Gardening (NGG) during 'Gardener and Machinist in Residence' at Time's Up. Linz. 2012
Visit#1 14.-18.3.12 aims to:
Meet the site and analyze the given environment from the 'fungamental' perspective (sun/shadow, wind, humidity, type of plants, trees, garden wastes, inhabitants, conditions for myco/perma-oriented creativity)
Determine suitable, desirable mushroom varieties and locations for the next visit devoted to the practical integration and association of mushrooms and plants
Inoculate some available logs for the indoor/outdoor colonization
Sketch out NGG timeline, milestones and 'events' up to October 2012
Harvest some more logs
Theoretical research
Process documentation along the way
List for materials making a mushroom log indoor:
Logs (hardwood)
Sawdust and wood chips (hardwood)
Mushroom spawn
Wood twist drill/10 mm
Beeswax
Paintbrush
Mallet (preferably with a rubber head)
Some covering material for the logs to keep moist (transparent garbage bags or so)
3-4 flower pots (or any found containers, or Pflanz-taschen set) big enough to be used for putting 1/3 logs upright into it to keep indoor.
Chainsaw
3% Hydrogen peroxide
Moisture meter/Feuchtigkeitsmesser (optional)
Heat source around ( to melt the beeswax)
Host-logs available for the visit 14-18.3.12
Ash (2×100/20sm)
Alder (1×100/20sm)
Beech
Birch
Mushroom spawns ordered
1 Changeable agaric mushroom, 50 inoculated plugs
1 Nameko, 50 inoculated plugs
1 Elm oyster mushroom, 50 inoculated plugs
Matching type of wood to type of mushroom
(Oak, Ash, Poplar, Willow, Edible chestnut – possible; Conifers - less)
(Poplar, Willow, healthy wood from fruit trees – possible)
Elm oyster/Beech, Poplar, Linden (lime), Maple, Willow, Aspen, Alder and Birch.
(do not grow well on Oak)
Meeting notes (Tim, Marc, Natalia)
Beginning of May: garden and mushrooms
Inside: quickly growing. Multiple types, different methods and substrates
Calendar of various results. Keeping track of what works:
Plans
Out the back, narrow, playground, different beds, i.e. multiple structures of layers, different logs. Burying some logs in the ground (completely and 1/3) to soak up water from the ground. Danger of animals digging the beds up.
20-30 cm wide, depth of wood chips/sawdust 2 x 5-10cm
Inoculated logs completely buried in soil, horizontally
Inoculated logs upright, 1/3 flower pots indoor and in soil outside
Substrates
Mushroom types: Elm oyster, (King stropharia, Shaggy mane - next visit/garden), Nameko, Shiitake (slimy and delicious), Leion's mane, Changeable agaric. Mixing mushroom mysilia is not good.
Some logs partially buried (soil, pots, in/outdoor) first meeting
Tomato beds: half-half wooden chips-sawdust, mycelium and soil (pizza-bed). Layers for mycelium: soil, wood chips, inoculated grains, wood chips, paper/card with holes, soil with plants into the holes: tomatoes, basil,… extra foods, e.g. dog food/cat soup should be good for mushrooms
Make connection with Mykologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft, Botanischer Garten in Linz and local fungi-addicted people
Timeplan
14-18.3.12
Inoculate the logs we have and store them where appropriate.
Some logs buried - need some sawdust.
Prepare the first log-beds out the back
Chainsaw to size
Woodchips with the electric plane and pasteurize them
1st week in May
7-10 days
Setting up more or less everything!
Workshop on 5th May - 'Spawn-2-substrate techniques, low-tek propagation'
Materials all prepared: spawn, logs, beeswax, chips, sawdust, coffee grounds
Workshop for people to come and take home a next generation
Workshop people making the logs for us and maybe taking one with them - knowledge exchange
Indoor wood chips and grains - this is for the June 'clone party'
Get in contact with Leos friend (mushroom expert) - get details off Leo/set a time for an informal meeting
Practical implementations
Outdoor:
Elm/2 x Beech/plugs (upright, 1/3 into the soil)
Changeable agaric/1 x Ash, 1 x Birch, 1 x Alder/plugs (upright, 1/3 into the soil)
Nomeko/2 x Beech/plugs, 1 x Birch (long configuration/soil)
Leon's mane/2 x Beech/old grains (upright, 1/3, soil)
Indoor:
Oysters/sawdust + coffee/stem butts (flower pot)
Leon's mane/sawdust + coffee/(old)grains (log upright 1/3, flower pot)
Changeable agaric/plugs/1 x Birch, 1 x Alder (log upright 1/3, flower pot)
Oysters/sawdust + coffee/stem butts (flower pot)
Shiitake/sawdust + coffee/grains (flower pot)
Elm/sawdust/plugs (2 x toilet paper)
Pix:
http://aa-vv.org/node/147
http://www.flickr.com/photos/times_up/sets/72157629601830295/
Visit#2 4-13.5 aims to:
'SHROM-SHROOM' WORKSHOP: Some non-sterile methods and simple procedures, fast-to-grow mushroom-varieties, experimental substrates and growing mediums for starting up your potential non-green-garden at home, yard and any other in/outdoor habitat.
NGG indoor
NGG inter-planted with GG. Bed-culture outdoor. (Artificial beds in front - experimental 'hanging myco-bed' with (plants/kitchen greens and mushrooms interplanted)
Myco bed-culture outdoor ('Stopharia path', Stopharia straw bed, 'Hugelkultur raised bed'=potato interplanted with mushrooms oysters)
Material for the workshop and indoor garden:
Mushrooms spawn
Fresh (Wheat) straw
Hardwood chips
Hardwood, sawdust or Hartholz-Pellets
Hardwood logs, 10-20 cm diameter x 50-60 cm long
Coconut coir/kokosfaser
Lime (limestone)/calcium carbonate (CaCO3)/garten kalk/kalkhydrat (affects soil pH)
Garden gypsum aka calcium sulfate (CaSO4)
Recycled pelleted paper fiber (optional)
Used coffee grains
Vermiculite (optional)
Paper/nursery pots (optional)
Paper plates or plastic plates
Ordinary trash bags (transparent)
3% peroxide solution
Old cotton pillow (to soak straw and w. chips)
Paper grocery or paper lawn sized bags (to cover totem-logs)
Plastic bags, black or white, sized (to completely enclose totem-logs and
close over the top)
Bran(Kleie)
Hay mini-bales (optional)
Color pHast strips with a pH 4 to 10 range to measure the soil pH
Horse poo (optional)
Cow poo (optional)
Chicken manure (optional)
Wild bird seed
Vegetable oil (optional)
Kelp meal (optional)
to collect:
Cardboard boxes/egg-boxes
Egg shells
Coffee (clean pot/bag. do not mix it with anything else. keep it covered)
Newspapers
Cotton waste (cloth etc)
Containers/Laundry baskets with holes
Human/animal urine (the fresh one;)
Dry (oak) leaves (parks, forest)
Artificial mixed-garden in front - 'hanging myco-beds with kitchen garden and mushrooms interplanted
For instance:
Spawn (Stropharia)
Fresh (Wheat) straw
Fresh hardwood chips (up to 6 months’ old Alder, Maple, Birch, Cottonwood, Ash no more than 20% of pile)
Cardboards
plants can be used:
3 x tomatoes
3 x basil
1 x oregano
1 x thyme
1 x garlic/onion
1 x eggplant (try to find a substitute if you do not like it)
1 x zucchini (try to find a substitute if you do not like it)
1 x marjoram
Compost (later on)
Beds in the back of the building
'Stopharia path'
Spawn (Stropharia rugusoannulata)
Mixed hardwood (work best)
Dog or/and cat food soup as a fertilizer (optional)
Weeds/cardboard
'Stopharia straw bed'
spawn (Stropharia rugusoannulata)
fresh wheat straw
cover (old sesame bags, cloth, cardboards, grass shade)
'Hugelkultur raised bed' - potato interplanted with mushrooms (oysters)
We can try to experiment with hugelkultur raised (up to 2m high) bed
potato interplanted with mushrooms (for urban conditions = it can be built
on top of bare ground, concrete, gravel or hanging..)
Rotting wood/branches/woody debris
Leaves, straw, woodchips, manure, and or compost and soil
Wood ash
Weeds
Hedge clippings
Garden soil
Coffee grounds
Compost and or manure
Diluted pee
Crushed egg shells
Some logs for the edges (can be mushrooms inoculated)
Mulch inoculated with gourmet mushrooms
Veggies
Mushroom species ordered:
3 x Brown stew fungus, straw spawn 1 litre
1 x Oyster mushroom “Florida” 1 litre
1 x Pleurotus pulmonarius 1 litre
2 x Pink oyster mushroom, grain spawn 1 litre
1 x Elm oyster mushroom, grain spawn 1 litre
1 x Oyster mushroom, grain spawn 1 litre
Inoculation workshop schedule:
1-2 pm - short intro to mushrooms and 'home-cultivation TEK'
2-3.30 pm - hand's on participative demonstrations of log-inoculation methods (bolt, totem and wedge)
30 min - coffee break (to 'produce' coffee grains for the 2d part of the workshop)
4 – 4.30 pm hands-on demonstrations of inoculation
4.30 – 6/7 pm - inoculation party = 'make your hands clean' experimenting with several recipes of the bulk substrates and mushroom species for the indoor and outdoor growing.
More details and images at:
http://aa-vv.org/node/153
http://aa-vv.org/node/38
http://aa-vv.org/node/151
Visit#3 23.-30.5.12 aims to:
Maintenance of the fungal colonies indoor: transferring inoculated mediums from the incubation room/period to the growing-room/period and birthing the fungal mycelium.
Maintenance of the fungal colonies outdoor (logs and mushroom beds at the backside of the building).
Finishing the experimental design of the mushroom-hugelkulture bed.
The interplanting of mushrooms with plants at the suspended and hugel-bed/s.
Theoretical research and process documentation along the way.
Writing a set of instructions on 'how to maintain in/outdoor mushrooms in order to support the few more indoor-flushes and prepare for the outdoor-fruiting in middle summer. (I'll be away till the middle of August).
Visit#4 08.->12.10 and 21.->22.10.12
Over viewing and organizing of all the 'myco-experience' @ TU-and-Home NGG into on-/off line smth.
'Lets have a nice “fest”' = (un-)presentation while harvesting, cooking and consuming fruits of all over summer labor of NGG and GG.
Preparing beds and logs for winter.
What's 'next'?
Evaluation:
Some thoughts: