frugal life – Echidna Home

Cheap compost that bears gifts.

This is how the mushroom logs looked when I first picked them up (Above). They have a plastic bag on the bottom to hold moisture. I have removed it as spores from the mushrooms often have gone down into that area.

Being frugal I try to find things with more than one use. Here in Tasmania you can buy used mushroom logs, from a mushroom farm. They are really sold as a compost material, made entirely from natural products. I do get them for the compost factor they help keep moisture in the soil.

Before they become compost I moisten them and leave them in my mushroom cupboard. A put together structure that currently is forming the fence between my drive and my wood pile. It is made from a solid second hand cupboard frame, picked up for free, and the shelves inside are fairly in tact. The damp logs go inside and corrugated iron, also picked up for free becomes the wall, The roof is old rubber mat from one of our cars we no longer own. To hold the iron in place I put a very old and broken rabbit hutch in front.

The photos above and below are a mere four days after moistening the logs and putting them in the cupboard. I have picked a couple as they were getting to large and inhibiting some of the smaller ones to develop. I know I have white oyster and grey oyster mushrooms.

They are an art work in their own right. I love photographing fungi in the wild but having these at home is also quite fun. They develop so rapidly and I am pleasantly surprised with the number of mushrooms that are growing on these spent logs. So for a small donation I am getting artisan mushrooms for very little, and superb compost material too.