mushrooms

Posts

• BobTheGardener Posts: 11,385

  June 2020

  All you can do is brush them off if you don't like the look of them.  There are harmless to plants and are feeding on already dead wood in the soil (probably the roots from a dead tree or a dead shrub.)
  

  A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  

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• josusa47 Posts: 3,530

  June 2020 edited June 2020

  You lucky gardener!  Apart from honey fungus, most fungi do nothing but good in a garden.  They are like an iceberg, in that most of the organism is out of sight, in the soil.  The main part is the mycelium, a network of fine threads which permeate the soil. The growths you see on the surface are the reproductive apparatus, the equivalent of flowers. 
  
  Plant roots can't absorb large complex molecules.  Fungi make the nutrients in the soil available to plants by breaking them down into smaller, simpler compounds.  If there were no fungi in our gardens, we wouldn't be able to grow much.  They are a sign of healthy, fertile soil.
  
  If the look of the surface growth offends you, you can knock them off with a rake or the back of a broomhead, scoop them up and put them in the compost.  But they don't usually last more than a few days, then shrivel up and disappear of their own accord.

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