Growing edible mushrooms in your garden beds can be super easy and cost-effective. You don’t need any special equipment, just a shady spot, some mulch and a hose. Our DIY Mushroom Garden Bed Kit will teach you how to incorporate edible mushrooms into your backyard or garden in three easy steps.
DIY Mushroom Garden Kit
Regular price $54.95
Unit price per
Skill level
Beginner
Time to set up
15 - 30 mins
Time to grow
See mushrooms in 8 weeks - 6 months (depending on species)
Grow location
Outdoors
Shelf life
Check the "Grow By" date on the bottom of your kit or store for 3-6 months (refrigerated).
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Create your own mushroom eden with our DIY Mushroom Garden Kit. Make the most of that permanently shady patch and watch the mushrooms pop up!
Included in this kit:
- Mushroom inoculum of your choice
- Mushroom garden markers
- Online access to our in-depth instructional video
Follow our short step-by-step video tutorial to learn a super simple method for your personal supply of delicious home-grown mushrooms. It takes just 15 minutes to prepare your garden bed and you’ll have fresh mushrooms in 8 weeks or so depending on species.
GROWING CONDITIONS
Choosing the right spawn for you and your climate is key!
Your perfect match could be:
Pink Oyster: Grows in 18°C to 30°C
The Pink Oyster Mushrooms love the warm weather and aren't fussy when it comes to substrates. If you choose Pink Oyster make sure you use the spawn straight away as it can't be stored.
Wine Cap: Grows in 10°C to 30°C
The Wine Cap or Garden Giant loves to be grown outdoors. As its common name suggests, it can grow really big and it is quite robust once established when it comes to growing temperatures.
Expect to grow: Seasonally
Mushrooms are a living organism and it is very hard to predict exactly what you'll harvest! As you'll be growing with the elements, outdoors, your mushrooms will pop up when conditions suit - usually after heavy rain or a drop in temperature.
Once your mushroom garden bed is established, with a little bit of care, it can produce mushrooms for years to come!
Storage: If you're not going to start your Mushroom Garden straight away, store your mushroom spawn packet in the fridge for 3-6 months. Except for the Pink Oyster, which will die if refrigerated! Best start it right away.
SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER
This outdoor growing method is ideal for people wanting to grow mushrooms at home but don’t want to bother with fussy fruiting rooms or expensive equipment. Let nature do its thing, and with just a little bit of attention and care, you can grow hard-to-find species while introducing beneficial fungi into your garden.
SHOP YOUR VALUES
Local
- Certified Australian Made
- Support our small (but mighty) independent business!
Ethical
- Locally designed and printed packaging
- Organic/chemical-free and non-GMO ingredients
Sustainable
- Shipped using landfill biodegradable tape, in a recyclable cardboard box
- Grow mushrooms naturally with the seasons
- No equipment or energy use required
- Introduce beneficial fungi into your garden
- Learn how to grow your own food!
SHIPPING & DELIVERY
We’re a little team doing big things here at Little Acre and we do our very best to get your goodies on their way to you ASAP.
Gift messages
You can now add a gift message to your order 🎁 Simply enter your message at checkout and we’ll print it on a gorgeous card - free of charge!
Dispatch
We ship orders Monday to Thursday. We do not ship Fridays to avoid extending delivery times. Please note this applies to all orders, including our express post shipments.
Click & Collect orders
Pick up your order from the Little Acre warehouse in Geebung, on Brisbane’s northside. Pick up is free - simply select ‘Pick up’ at checkout.
Pick up is available Monday to Friday, between 8:00am - 3:30pm.
Tracking information
Once your order has been shipped, you’ll receive an email with your tracking link so you can stay up to date with where your order is at.
Delivery times
Delivery times are tricky to provide these days. You’ll be able to check your unique delivery estimate provided by Australia Post via the tracking link in your email with the subject “Your order has been shipped!”.
Shipping costs
Orders under $45
Standard Shipping via Australia Post - $10.20
Express Shipping via Australia Post - $14.20
Orders $45 and over
Standard Shipping via Australia Post - flat rate $14.20*
Express Shipping via Australia Post - flat rate $18.20*
(*This does not apply to bulk growing supplies.)
Shipping destinations
Yippee! This product can be shipped Australia-wide. And we currently do not offer international shipping, sorry team!
How to grow a mushroom bed in your garden - a quick guide
Now, team, this is just a summary to give you an idea of what’s involved. We really recommend watching the video tutorial start to finish and playing along step by step. The video contains extra tips and helpful hints to get your fungi flourishing. You'll be able to watch it as many times as you like until you feel like you're ready to start your mushroom garden bed.
1. MULCH
Spread a layer of straw in a clear, shaded spot and wet down with water.
2. INOCULATE
Distribute mushroom inoculum across the bed.
3. WATER
Add a layer of hardwood chips on top and water well. Keep the bed moist.
Choosing which mushroom species to grow
WINE CAP
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
Species name: Stropharia rugosoannulata
The Wine Cap Mushroom can grow as big as your head! That's why it's also known as the Garden Giant or King Stropharia. It can produce mushrooms in as little as 8 weeks and keep fruiting for several years once established. This big boy can't be found in the grocery store so why not try and grow it for yourself.
PREFERRED SUBSTRATE
Wine Cap mushrooms like all sorts of woody debris so hardwood chips are an ideal substrate to use when making your mushroom bed. You can use a mix of straw and hardwood chips - if straw is hard to find, sugarcane mulch can be substituted.
Make sure there’s a mix of particle sizes so the bed doesn’t get too compacted but avoid large branches or other large pieces of wood as these will slow down the colonisation of the bed.
If you can, source freshly cut wood chips as these are less likely to contain potential competitor fungi. A bag of hardwood chips from your local garden centre will do the job and be the perfect amount for a 1x1m bed.
PREFERRED LOCATION
Choose a nice shady spot for your mushroom bed. Wine Cap mushrooms can tolerate some direct sun so partial shade is OK. If you’re in a hot dry climate, full shade is best.
Ideal locations are around the base of trees or as part of the mulch in and around vegetable gardens where larger vegetables will provide shade.
Wine Caps like contact with the soil so make sure you lay your bed down on a clear patch of dirt.
HOW TO IDENTIFY
Before you pick and eat any mushrooms from your garden, it's extremely important to correctly identify them. While unlikely, it is possible for other native fungi to pop up in your bed so best to be sure what you’re picking. Thankfully, Wine Cap mushrooms are quite distinctive and easy to identify.
The Wine Cap is characterised by its medium to large size compared to other mushrooms. It has a large cap, often 10-15cm or more in diameter. The caps are wine-red and bell-shaped when they first appear and fade to duller reddish brown as they mature. When fully mature the caps will flatten and can be a straw or tan colour. The gills start out white and turn dark purpley black in maturity. There is a toothed ring around the stem which is thick, usually 3-4cm wide and a creamy colour and bulbous at the base. The spore print of a Wine Cap is dark purple-brown, almost black.
There are some great identification resources available online and mushroom foraging forums on social media can also help with identification.
Once you’re 100% sure on your identification, harvest your mushrooms before the caps upturn and release their spores - this can affect the flavour.
OYSTER
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
Species name: Pleurotus djamor
Oyster mushrooms are the most vigorous cultivated species and super robust. They're not too fussy about what they grow on and can handle tropical and subtropical climates. Oyster species are the easiest to grow in straw mulch or sugarcane.
PREFERRED SUBSTRATE
Oyster mushrooms will grow on a range of organic materials including straw, sugarcane, coffee grounds, wood shavings and other agricultural byproducts. For garden bed cultivation we recommend straw or sugarcane mulch. Don’t use hay or green material as these contain seed heads which will sprout in your mushroom bed.
PREFERRED LOCATION
Choose a nice shady spot for your mushroom bed. Full shade is best. Ideal locations are around the base of trees or as part of the mulch in and around vegetable gardens where larger vegetables will provide shade.
HOW TO IDENTIFY
Before you pick and eat any mushrooms from your garden, it's extremely important to correctly identify them. While unlikely, it is possible for other native fungi to pop up in your bed so best to be sure what you’re picking. Thankfully, Oyster mushrooms are quite distinctive and easy to identify.
Oyster mushrooms form clusters of multiple fruiting bodies. They don’t form much of a stem, instead the caps are all joined together at the base. The edges of the caps curl down and flatten out and upturn once mature and releasing spores.
The Pink Oysters have a very distinct pink colour which starts off deep pink and fade to a blush pink as the mushrooms mature.
Although Oyster mushrooms are relatively easy to identify, there are some lookalikes that you may want to be aware of. This will depend highly on your location, so the best bet is to ask your local mycological society, or pick up a guidebook that is specific to your region.