I had this great idea, after reading one of my gardening magazines, that mushroom compost is a great thing to add to your soil.

All well and good, but try to find a mushroom growing farm in the Midlands! I know a man who is very good on the computer and it was no problem for him – I did the same Google search but found nothing! It must be the way he types it in….

He managed to find me farm, exactly what I wanted. They are Livesey Brothers in Leicestershire, at Lowerfields Farm, not far from Ashby-de-la Zouch. Easy from home, a short trip up the A42.

I phoned them last week, had a chat with a very nice young lady who assured me that they always have some mushroom compost ready in bags and just in case I wanted a lot of bags, they would always go and get some more. One sack is about 75kg and costs £2.50 – a bargain!

I was very happy with that and drove there today. A pleasant journey, found it without any problem, parked up and went to see what I could get.

The result was that I bought 10 sacks – amazing what can fit into a Polo – and also some fresh mushrooms. We’re having pearl barley and mushroom risotto tomorrow for lunch.

The next step was to take the precious cargo home. I took 8 of the sacks to the allotment and put them into the polytunnel and two of the cabbage cages.

Of course, as soon as the job was done, I realised that I’d like to have the compost layer much thicker. Never mind, now I know the way and they are open every day from 9am to 4pm, I’m already planning to go next week to get some more.

You can’t have too much of a good thing! There is always a small chance that in my warm-ish greenhouse I might encourage the compost to produce some mushrooms – that would be a bonus.