Since most mushrooms appear when cooler fall weather begins, they are a welcome sign here at My Garden Path. Moist, cool conditions with high humidity are what helps these fungi to flourish. When mushrooms pop up in a lawn or garden it is a sign that there is plenty of fertile soil.
Most are beneficial, helping to break down organic matter and release important nutrients in the soil. Admittedly, they don't make a lawn particularly pretty. Removing them by hand and keeping them mowed down while disposing of any debris that may contain any part of the fungi will eventually lead to their control if not complete elimination. Do not put lawn clippings containing spore in the compost pile if you wish to keep them out of your garden.
The different forms available for viewing here at My Garden Path are quite varied and interesting. Some people differentiate between "mushrooms" and "toadstools" with the former being edible and the latter being toxic. Distinctions are not that easy. Please do not eat any fungi without complete knowledge that the one you are eating is truly an edible variety. Please be careful to watch children playing in an area that has these fungi growing.
Mushrooms have had many uses throughout history. As food they provide dietary fiber, protein and some vitamins and minerals such as niacin, biotin, selenium and potassium. Dyes can be made from them to use on natural fiber textiles. Those fungi with psychdelic properties have been used in rituals by cultures around the world. Medical science is researching properties in certain mushrooms such as the cholesterol lowering qualities of the oyster mushroom.
Here, in this garden, we are observing only. No eating, dying, ritualizing, or medical treatments will be done with the mushrooms growing here. They can be quite interesting to observe from the time they first pop up, through all the changes in form that occur, until they disintegrate and return to the soil.
Such lovely forms they take. Some stand in solitude. Others form small colonies. Different shapes and colors abound.
If mushrooms are spoiling the look of your lawn or garden, remove them carefully being sure to dispose of them in the trash. Do not compost them. But, if the mushrooms in your garden are not in a spot that detracts from its beauty, why not enjoy them? They will be a short-lived addition to your plantings and could be enriching your soil with the recycling of organic carbon.
