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
- Changeable agaric/Beech, Birch and Alder
(Oak, Ash, Poplar, Willow, Edible chestnut – possible; Conifers - less)
- Nameko/Beech, Oak, Birch
(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:
- Wood type
- Mushroom type
- Location
- Method
- Substrate recipes
- How to sit the mushroom logs, type of bed layered, content and construction
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
- Mid April fresh sawdust and wood chips - 2 weeks beforehand is optimal. 3 weeks less so but okay.
- Also collect used espresso grounds.
- 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
- Third phase depends on when the mushrooms come. 2 weeks later for indoor. Outdoor will be even later (2 month) - late July through October.
- Logs might take 0.5 years to start and be (fully) productive.
- Cloning event in June - say around 18-27 June
- We will see the mycelium 2 weeks beforehand. It looks like a cake. Then shock it (light, maybe cold), open it slightly (fresh air), wait a few days 3-4, then pinning. Then 7 days to the mushroom. 5-7 days of mushrooms before they dry out.
- Cloning from stems.
- Main event mid/end September. Details to follow.
- Ongoing - every 2-3 years beds expending. Logs can produce 2-8 years depending on the type of mushroom, wood, size of the log and conditions.
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://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'?