Yet another wet week, giving very little opportunity for gardening, but I did manage to cut the grass yesterday and do some weeding and pruning during a dry couple of hours. It was better this morning, with bright sunshine and less wind, but the heavens opened again this afternoon just as I arrived home with new plants, putting a stop to my planting a couple of Autumn pots – grrr! The forecast for tomorrow is better, so hopefully they’ll get done before the weekend is over. My six this week are all fungi – these fascinating organisms are springing up all over the garden at the moment. I’ve been unable to identify them all, but will err on the side of caution and refrain from cooking them – all advice is to take great care when foraging for mushrooms and never depend on just one source of identification.

These mushrooms seem to be travelling along root trails still in the ground following the death of a huge silver birch a couple of years ago. Having referred to Gardener’s World’s ‘Garden Mushroom Identifier‘, it looks like agaricus campestris, the field mushroom, which is edible but I’m not confident enough to risk a mushroom omelette! However, there is nothing to indicate that they’re harmful to surrounding plants and as Ollie isn’t showing the slightest interest in them they can stay put – in fact I think they’re a rather lovely addition to the lawn.

These tiny frilly specimens are rather pretty, but I’ve given up trying to identify them.

Research is telling me that these specimens are ink caps, although there seem to be many varieties of this mushroom – some edible when young (before the cap turns inky), but can produce a mild poison if consumed with alcohol! Again, and particularly as one variety has the Latin name coprinus comatus I certainly won’t be risking making a meal of them!

This is a tiny mushroom, just over a centimetre in diameter and about an inch tall. All on its own, it’s another I haven’t been able to identify.

Possibly coprinus atramentaria, the common ink cap. If so, this one is inedible – growing happily in the grass at home and in the Arboretum, they’re a great colour.

Finally, one that does worry me, although I can find no evidence of black bootlace like strands, it does loosely resemble some pictures I’ve seen of the dreaded honey fungus (although the pictures are so varied, it’s difficult to confirm). Last year we had a large amount of this fungus growing on the remains of the dead birch’s root ball, but it hasn’t reappeared there this year. However, this clump is growing in ground from which we lost a couple of shrubs and a rose two years ago. Thankfully, the viburnum and surrounding box hedge have not been affected. Needless to say, I have carefully removed and bagged it.

That’s my six for this week – for more, please visit the home of SoS at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/