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Growing mushrooms is one of the easiest gardening projects to share with kids.
And is perfect in winter when still too chilly to grow stuff outside.
You don’t have to be remotely green fingered to get mushrooms to grow.
And once started, mushrooms are super speedy.
Every day the mushrooms will be much bigger.
Your kids really will see them grow before their EYES!
And within a fortnight they can be harvesting them.
AND popping them in the pan for a yummy breakfast.
Seeing something they can eat, grow so fast, is wonderfully rewarding for kids and a great way to excite them about growing more food in the spring.
You can grow mushrooms from packets of dry spore from your local garden centre.
But first time round I recommend using a mushroom growing kit.
We’ve had several and they are great fun.
Our favourites are kits from Merryhill Mushrooms – a little company in Sussex – but there’s quite a range of suppliers in the USA and UK.
You can buy them ready growing.
BUT I think it’s more fun to buy the spawned compost.
So when the kit first arrives there’s nothing to see and THEN they grow.
And grow. And grow. And grow.
BECAUSE the OTHER super cool thing about growing mushrooms with kids, is that it lets them start to get their head around fungi.
AND how fungi are different from other plants.
Some good questions to explore these differences are …
- Do mushrooms have a seed?
- Do mushrooms have roots?
- Do mushrooms need light?
- Do mushrooms need water?
- Where do the next crops of mushroom come from?
As once you’ve gobbled up that first crop.
You will get another and another. And if you look after them, more.
So there you go, a really simple – very rewarding – gardening project with kids.
And if they enjoy growing mushrooms, try these …
- Growing mint in water
- Growing pussy willow in water
- Growing radishes with kids
- Growing peas with kids
- Growing lettuces with kids
AND for more simple ideas for exploring nature with kids follow my new page on Facebook.
