Just built a new outdoor mushroom bed for Maitake Mushrooms . No pics yet, but basically a wooden frame about 2 ft by 5 ft. I lined the bottom with card board, filled a few inches with moist hardwood saw dust, placed the inoculated saw dust blocks on top of the saw dust. covered with the remaining moist sawdust , and then a few inches of relatively fresh wood chips. The saw dust and wood chips are more to keep the blocks from drying out than anything else . I also got a 'mushroom fruiting blanket'. Which you cover the bed in for both shade and to maintain the moisture. They say I should see mushrooms in a few months.
Usually this time of year I focus more on my outdoor mushroom beds ( Shiitake logs and Wine cap bed which are perennial ( for a few years), and the Almond flavored mushroom which is a warm weather mushroom and needs to be be reinoculated each year, and now the new Maitake bed). Once fall sets in, I focus on my indoor mushrooms ( Oyster , lions mane and a few others), but still periodically check the outdoor beds. Depending on the weather, a rogue few mushrooms pop up every now and then, even In the cold months .
That's the one thing I like about the outdoor mushrooms is their unpredictability. With other outdoor crops, I have a pretty good idea when I'll be harvesting once they make it into the garden. With mushrooms, you can get nothing for months , check the bed in the morning and nothing in sight just to come home from work and see a dozen full sized mushrooms, then nothing again for a month. What I dont like about the mushrooms outside are the slugs and if you have a mushroom that has deep gils, it's a great place for bugs to hide. ( indoor is basically bug free).