If you don’t have access to a soil test kit, check out your local university extension office. Some offices will test your soil for you. If you can wait a year before planting your garden, grow a cover crop, such as alfalfa, in the garden plot. At the end of the growing season, you till the cover directly into the soil. This is known as green manure, and it provides many nutrients naturally that will allow you to build your garden.

Mushrooms go through three states to become the fungi you enjoy in various dishes. The first stage is the spawning stage, the second stage is the vegetative growth state and the third is the fruiting stage. The production of spawn is difficult and best left to professional mushroom growers. Obtain your spawn from them after you've prepared your own mushroom growing box at home and seasoned the compost properly. If you do things right, in about eight weeks, you should see a crop of mushrooms in the final fruiting stage.