Toadstools, fungus and mushrooms

[Saxum]

 

I live in Northern Virginia which usually does not get directly by tropical storms but go between dry and wet periods over summer.  

My wife, an urban raised Hong Kong woman, loves growing & planting and to keep our water bill down we save rain water even having a large heavy duty tub at end of drain spout, an old chest freezer, at least 10 35 gallon storage bins and dozens of other storage containers a gallon or more.   We collect a lot of water.  Two months ago we emptied almost all of our stored water and was using hose to water her critical plants.

 

Right now all of our storage is close to top and I have been seeing a much greater variety of toadstools, fungus and mushrooms than I have seen before.  We try to recycle so when we had some trees professionally trimmed we told them to dump the chopped wood rather than hauling it away using it to fill holes and cover flower beds like mulch.  This might account for some of the increase in toadstools, fungus and mushrooms we are seeing but the increase is not just in our yard but in grass areas between sidewalk and roads all around us as well.  The increase is not just in number but in variety seeing varieties I have never seen before and I used to do a lot of woods walking. I wish I had more knowledge of wild toadstools, fungus and mushrooms to know which were good to eat for I used to eat a lot of wild plants.

 

Are others seeing a proliferation in quantity and variety of toadstools, fungus and mushrooms?