Attack of the lawn mushrooms
Q: Help! Our front yard looks like a mycologist’s dream, but it’s our nightmare!
Dozens of mushrooms of various shapes and sizes abound. What can we do to squelch this growth? Where can we take samples to find out which are edible?
A: I’m the wrong one to ask about mushrooms. While I admire the beauty and curiosity of these diverse fungi, I haven’t touched one since I was traumatized as a child when I read a Babar book in which the old elephant king turns green and dies suddenly after eating a mushroom. In truth, out of the thousands of mushroom species in North America, only about 20 are deadly, but there are many others that can sicken people.
Luckily, there are a great number of knowledgeable mushroom enthusiasts in our area. Check out the Puget Sound Mycological Society’s web page at www.psms.org, or call their office at 206-522-6031. The group offers classes on mushroom identification and has frequent shows, meetings and displays. (Do not eat any mushrooms that an expert has not identified as edible.)
It can be difficult to get rid of mushrooms in the lawn, because they’re merely the fruiting bodies of fungi that grow from underground, so picking them doesn’t eliminate the problem. The good news is toadstools tend to come and go, so may well disappear on their own. It helps to rake and destroy them before they have a chance to develop reproductive spores. Good drainage, as much sun as possible, and dethatching the grass all helps reduce the number of mushrooms in the lawn.
Q: I was told at a hardware store when I went to buy a weeding torch that it would only provide a temporary fix and that each weed would soon grow back, because torching doesn’t kill the root. Is that true? We want to use it in our gravel driveway and parking area.
A: Your question sent me to a number of Internet discussions on the efficacy of flame torches, and certainly some gardeners are disappointed in them. Since other weeds always seed in, it’s hard to be certain you eliminated the original ones. I’ve had good luck using a torch on my gravel driveway and between concrete pavers. It works best to sizzle weeds when they’re still small, and the soil is dry. To kill broadleaf evergreens, such as dandelions, it takes a longer sizzle, and sometimes two applications. It sure seems to me that this method works very well, and you don’t need to bend down, dig or get dirty.
Q: I have a 7/8 basement in an old house. We’ve decided to dig out the dirt in the so-called “dirt-room” and use the space. This old, pale 1914 dirt was the original hardpan. People tell me to just get rid of it, but I don’t like to do that if it can be used. Can these cubic yards of lifeless soil be brought back to a productive useful life?
A: I’m sure you could use that dirt for something, but I wouldn’t try to grow living things in it. Your description of the dirt as old, pale hardpan should be enough to warn you off of it. Starting any garden project with bad dirt - you can’t even call this soil - ensures a struggle to grow much of anything.
Valerie Easton also writes for Pacific Northwest magazine in Sunday’s Seattle Times. Write to her at P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111 or e-mail planttalk@seattletimes.com with your questions. Sorry, no personal replies.