mushrooms and moss

It’s been an unusually “normal” English summer, by which we mean cool and rainy. After the blistering heat we had for the past few years, this mild weather was a relief.

After so many damp days, the garden sprouted a carpet of mushrooms!

There were so many that when we sat outside we could smell the fresh, earthy smell of them, like a farmers’ market.

The trees in our yard were sadly cut down years ago but they still provide life for many other species: mosses, flowering grasses and more fungi.

English moss has many different varieties and textures, from the cushiony velvet of swan’s-neck thyme to the long ferny fronds of tamarisk.

It hugs trees, softens up stone and concrete and provides a base for other plants to grow, as well as food for bugs and birds.

Mosses, like fungi, reproduce by spreading spores. This helps them reproduce faster and spread more quickly.

They’re often the first plants to appear on barren ground and help more fragile plants to root.

This growth is the foundation of most forest life and supports a healthy ecosystem. It gives the garden a living, breathing energy.

The mushrooms die out very quickly, leaving a healthy mulch for more plants to grow, but the moss lives on as long as the summer heat isn’t too long or dry. Long live damp summer days!

Originally published at https://wonderwanderwomen.blogspot.com.