since spring is coming I thought id share. over the years I always watched my fathers and grandfathers gardening process, they'd rototill spread artificial fertilizers maybe some lime and mushroom compost, and plant seeds in rows then water every time its dry. and always in short order it would be covered in weeds much faster than the crops and they'd have to go back and keep rototilling between the rows and pick weeds around each crop. and I always thought there must be a better way to do this but I didn't know what.
then one day I was watching a podcast where they were talking about mushrooms and I had a "duh" moment where I realized an area with only dirt and plants is an incomplete ecosystem that needs your intervention. so last summer I convinced my dad to bury his whole garden in a layer of straw, then spread wine cap mushroom spawn in the straw, and bury that under 3 inches of small wood chips. the mushrooms will quickly root the whole wood layer into a matt as one big organism.
and I realized how much better this is. the top mushroom layer keeps the soil underneath always moist during dry spells. the mushrooms decompose the wood into mushroom compost fertilizer that runs down to the dirt layer for the plant roots to eat. since the top is just wood instead of dirt and already rooted with mushrooms not much weeds grow or atleast an easily manageable amount. no need to rototill anymore. just poke a hole in the wood layer and drop a seed in and It roots down to the rich layer underneath. and the best part you pretty much double your food yield since you get gourmet mushrooms and plants.
the only real maintenance you need to do is add a bit of woodchips every year or two and the mushrooms do all the work for you since its not a partial ecosystem.
most people can find a place that gives out free woodchips from a forestry or tree service, you probably drive by someplace that has a huge pile. as for mushrooms, wine caps (king stropharia) is among the best species for this in my opinion as they are easy to identify, have large temperature range for producing and will survive winter freezing, and produce lots of good size mushrooms. wont go over mushroom planting process but its pretty simple, places like field and forest products sell 5.5lb blocks for 25 bucks and you crumble and spread it. the first year you'll probably spend more than you would otherwise but afterwards assuming you can get free woodchips your pretty much set from then on.
id really recommend this practice to anyone who gardens and is willing to try something new. I really enjoyed checking for mushrooms everyday as one day there will be none and the next day there's big mushrooms out of nowhere, its certainly more fun picking mushrooms instead of picking weeds lol.