Took about four or five months with just a tiny amount of mail order spawn and no real effort. May not be as tasty as some of the hardwood types (will know soon enough) but they are fucking huge. Gonna keep adding to the bed and move some of the spawn around till they’re growing all over my garden.
I've put a lot of arborist woodchips on the ground. No other prep, just many many wheelbarrow loads of woodchips dumped on the surface. I piled them a bit deeper where I first started the spawn (maybe 12-18" deep to start) but I've applied probably 4-6" of chips to my whole garden area.