Fungi

After years of mulching soil, I've noticed that you get interesting fungi with a regular mulch of bark chips.

I like this shot because it's managed to capture the richness of the soil of this part of the plot (by the pond). It's a lovely dark clay which, so far this year, has benefited from a crop of green manure, followed by composted horse manure, a pumpkin crop, then bark chips and green manure. You can see phacelia seedlings growing around the fungi.

I avoid leaving soil bare at all costs - it's easy enough to keep it covered either by growing a crop or mulching with something.