Grow a Mushroom Garden at Home
Learn the skills you need to create & cultivate an edible and medicinal mushroom garden patch, in your own backyard
Join beginner mushroom growers around the world who've established thriving mushroom-growing systems at home, and cultivated a new relationship with the fascinating world of fungi...
All using low-tech and low-waste methods. We will show you how to create a garden FULL of 'shrooms!
A short course to help you create abundant, edible & medicinal mushroom gardens throughout your backyard...
We want to help you create a home with: beds of delicious winecap mushrooms under your fruit trees, tasty harvests of mushrooms growing along your garden edges, and maybe even cultivating some glow-in-the-dark mushrooms (not edible, but very fun) to light your garden path!
All grown at home in your garden, by YOU!
In this short online course, you'll learn everything you need to know about the types of fungi that you can grow directly in your garden beds - guided by friendly mushroom-growing experts (hi there!).
And how you can work WITH these fabulous fungi to produce seasonal supplies of all types of edible and medicinal mushrooms - to increase your household resilience, and make some seriously delicious meals.
We'll show you all the steps, tips and tricks you'll need for successful mushroom garden cultivation - with detailed gear lists, species lists and DIY workarounds for every possibility. And we'll answer all your questions personally, as you learn. We WILL get you growing - promise.
You'll have access to your entire course immediately, so you can learn at a pace that suits you. Here's what's inside...
On-demand video lessons
...that will guide you through garden cultivation in detail, step by step - there's closed captions and detailed downloadable notes for you to access, too.
Resources & Downloads
All the extra notes and resources lists you'll need - checklists for all the gear, step-by-step notes, and info on all the mushrooms species you'll want to grow.
Personal Guidance
...this might sounds too good to be true, but it's how we roll at Milkwood. We answer ALL our students questions personally, as you move through your learning journey.
"This course gave me the confidence to grow mushrooms easily and sustainably, it added to my sustainable lifestyle, allows me to take better care of my health and best of all it gives me so much joy. Seriously... just sign up - it's the best."
Fiona
Australia
"Had I not done the course, I would have been limited to mushroom grow kits. Instead, I am scaling what I've learned to suit my needs. I was grateful for the support of the Milkwood team, who were right alongside me as I worked through the modules."
Jenny
Ireland
Your Mushroom Cultivation Teachers
More than two decades of experience, with thousands of happy beginner growers...
Nick Ritar
Nick founded Milkwood with Kirsten in 2007, and started growing mushrooms at home soon after.
He has trained with various world-leading mycologists such as Paul Stamets, and taught 1,000+ students hands-on gourmet mushroom cultivation through Milkwood's courses.
When he's not growing mushrooms, Nick teaches permaculture, grows veggies, keeps bees and scoots off foraging at any opportunity.
Kirsten Bradley
Kirsten founded Milkwood with Nick in 2007. Since then, she has established farms and community gardens, and grown a LOT of vegetables.
She is author of the best-selling books Milkwood: Real Skills for Down-to-Earth Living - which includes a full chapter on low-waste mushroom cultivation.
Kirsten is also known for her advocacy and workshops in permaculture skills - from fermenting to natural beekeeping to foraging for wild food.
Mushroom growing techniques that work worldwide...
Yes, these techniques WILL work where you live - and if some tweaks are needed for your climate or country, we'll assist you personally, to make that happen. Here's our current mushroom students map...
"Amazing course!! Loved every minute of it! You guys are amazing teachers and managed to create an interactive & fun way for us to learn virtually & apply in real life! Thank you."
Mariane
Australia
"This is THE definitive, all-rounder mushroom course, and you can do it from home! If you're curious about the world of fungi, this is your chance to become a fun-guy or gal."
Marita
Australia
"Probably the most comprehensive course I've ever done. Mind definitely blown. I honestly don't think I'll have to seek out a resource of mushroom cultivation ever again."
Simone
Costa Rica
If you have a bit of garden space, growing mushrooms outside in your garden opens up a whole swag of new, delicious species you can grow.
This first lesson will explain the similarities and differences of mushroom gardens to indoor mushroom cultivation, as well as which species of fungi work best in gardens, and why.
This lesson introduces one of the critical differences with an outdoor grow: you can’t control the conditions, so you need to tune in and work WITH the conditions at your place.
Setting up your garden grow in the right place at the right time can make or break your vchance of a first harvest. We'll also take you through our 2-step technique for ensuring a thriving mycelium (which leads to lotsa mushrooms!)
This lesson is the big “how to”. We are going to pasteurize, innoculate and incubate our mycelium.
By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to confidently prepare and set up your own garden grow in a tub.
While you're not in control of the weather, if we work with the seasons there are many things we can do to help our tub of mycelium to fruit.
This lesson will show you how to confidently encourage fruiting, and to know when and how to harvest.
This lesson introduces the second stage of your mushroom garden - moving it from the tub to a patch of earth under a tree in your yard.
You'll learn how to continue to care for your in-ground mushroom garden, pest management, and all about the the Soil Food Web, which will take your mushroom garden efforts to the next level!
In addition to your lessons, you'll receive downloadable myco-notes, extra resources on making your own cardboard spawn, an extensive species directory and our Milkwood mushroom glossary.
On each lesson page, there's space for you to ask questions, and get them answered by friendly mushroom experts on the Milkwood team (hello!).
We answer each question that you have personally, because we know that learning new skills can sometimes be a bit tricky, and everyone learns differently!
But we're here to ensure you succeed in gaining new skills, and growing LOTS of mushrooms. Together, we will grow.
"Doing this course SAVED me money - it showed me lots of different methods that would not cost anywhere near as much money as I had initially allocated."
GA
Australia
"The love and fascination Nick has for fungi is truly transmitted through his teaching. You leave the course with a new respect for mushrooms and their role in the world."
Emmy
Australia
"I loved the focus on using recyclable materials and moving away from single-use plastics in my mushroom cultivation."
Jennifer
Australia
Yes it is - you have instant access to you whole course, but you can take as long as you like. You have lifetime access to all your course materials, too.
YES! Our course is designed to help you get started, wherever you might be in the world, with the fundamentals of low-waste, low-tech, organic Mushroom Cultivation.
If you live in an extreme climate, we can help you choose the most suitable species to grow where you are - using the techniques your will learn in this course.
The good news is - species of fungi exist in the furthest reaches of this planet... from the icy poles to the bottom of the ocean, to outer space. So there will be edible mushroom species to suit your context, wherever you live.
Viewing all the classes and reading all the resources could take you anywhere up to 4-5 hours.
The amount of time you spend actually 'doing the things' and cultivating mushrooms is in addition to this.
If you’d like to ‘grow along’ with us during the course, that's totally possible - we've planned the course that way, and we tell you what to get ingredients and such in readiness for the next lesson.
Or you might choose to complete all the lessons and start your cultivation afterwards, in your own time. That's fine too.
While most folks doing this course will have a garden space of some kind, the answer is technically no - you can grow these mushrooms in a big tub on your balcony (we've seen it done!).
We've also had a lot of students that take this course while they're in an apartment... to use the skills at their community garden, or in readiness for having a bigger place.
Because you really can't have too many skills for household resilience, and there's always a way and a space to use those skills, once you know what to do.
Our course is designed to cater for all budgets and scales of home mushroom cultivation.
You will need a few things, but most of these can be repurposed from around your house or local community.
You won't need to buy any expensive lab equipment.
We recommend that you do purchase some mushroom spawn to get you going. (Grain spawn is the living culture of the fungi that will produce mushrooms for you.) We will point you to a range of reputable online suppliers around the world who can send you high-quality grain spawn through the post, quick smart.
We will show you methods that will help you grow the most health-giving, organic, homegrown mushrooms you can - in the most cost-effective way.
Lifetime access means you will be able to access this course, and all its resources, for as long as we have it available online.
Milkwood has 15+ years experience of delivering stellar education - and we're not going anywhere, anytime soon.
This is a long-haul commitment for us, and for our family business. No tricks, no fine print. We want you to have access to this knowledge for as long as you need.
Yes, it does! All videos are fully captioned and the cations are searchable.
We'll do our best to make your course the best experience we can. However, it just might not be for you. That’s ok! If you decide that’s the case, let us know.
Notify our team within 30 days of your purchase and we’ll refund your payment. No questions asked. At this point you should be about a third through the course.
- You may request a refund for any reason during your first 30 days after payment.
- You must contact us by email at [email protected] before the end of the 30th day.
- The money-back guarantee is available on both upfront and payment plans.
- Refunds will be provided within 5 working days (often much more quickly).
- That’s it! No catches and no fine print. We want to let you try our course absolutely risk free – that’s how confident we are that you’ll love it!
We've made this course for anyone who wants to get started with mushroom growing, regardless of how much or how little you might already know about fungi.
There are no prerequisites or required reading. No previous experience is necessary - we’ll walk you through the whole process, and we can answer any questions that arise.
Just bring your enthusiasm.
Nope! If you can view this page and the video on it, you can access the entire course just fine.
The course is delivered via our special course portal, web pages and email.
You can access your course hub and private community (which is not on facebook!) via any web browser on any laptop, PC, Mac, tablet or smart phone that is connected to a reasonable internet connection.
You don't need any other special applications or memberships to other platforms. You are not required to have a Facebook or Google account.
It's simple and easy.
Although we do have many past students who have gone on to create thriving small mushroom-growing businesses, this course is focused on low-waste growing in home-based situations, helping your household become more abundant & resilient.
The core concepts and techniques you will learn ARE applicable for use at a commercial scale, but there are also many other considerations, that we do not cover in this course, that you would need to take into account before investing your time and money into a successful mushroom cultivation business.
Yes, you will! We send you a Certificate of Completion once you finish the course.
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