Mushroom compost: It does a garden good

                                                                             Photo: S.Smith
It's a dire situation when you have to enlist a 2-year-old to help
shovel a mountain of mushroom compost on a cool spring day.

Moving into a new home with its infinite to-do list  is enough to make you want to tear your hair out. Where do you start? 

Especially when it's an older place where the previous residents thought  that landscaping meant searching for all the river rocks in Northern California and lugging them home to blanket the front and back yards. 

Where the soil was dry and clay-ey, dandelions were over five feet tall and not one earthworm could be found (but there were hundreds of happy snails taking refuge in between all those rocks).

In my zeal to be a "real" gardener and plant things in the ground, I announced in the tone of an emergency room physician that we must have some soil amendments stat.  And I knew just where to get some- cheap - a word every new homeowner appreciates.

A husband and wife delivery company would deliver four tons of mushroom compost for $25 on a Saturday morning in March.  At 7 a.m. the phone rang and a deep gruff  voice said the compost truck was just around the corner and asked where it should be dumped.

"Oh no", I said, "it was arranged with your wife that you would be by at 9 a.m. " Pause.  "I am the wife".  After an apology was cheerfully accepted, she laughed at the prospect of dumping it on the driveway.  "Honey, there's way too much" she said.  She suggested delivering it behind the property and breaking down the remaining  fence boards to retrieve it. I wondered why she kept chuckling when I showed her my two small shovels.

I realized why when the truck bed let loose its contents which seemed to never stop flowing. In minutes there was an enormous pile of steaming fragrant mushroom compost. The dogs, who normally love strong farm smells, took two deep breaths and staggered off cross-eyed. They hid the rest of the day.

The neighbors immediately appeared to complain of the odor. Frantic, I called  every friend and relation and told them there was an urgent need for their presence - oh, and bring a shovel.  My sister, a fellow gardener, asked if she should wear her ladybug clogs. Skip the clogs, I told her. Wear waders if you have any.

It took a village - of good natured shovelers- half a day to move all the compost inside the yard. That year I had roses that could have won blue ribbons, tomato plants nearly 7 feet tall and best of all, earthworms. The mushroom compost helped transform my yard of native river rocks into a landscape of  native perennials.

For more info:  Monterey Mushrooms in Morgan Hill provides spent mushroom compost but it's BYOT (bring your own truck).  A small pick-up truck amount is free.  A mid-size truck (approx. 3 tons) is $25.  They are located at 650 Hale Ave. Morgan Hill; phone:  408-779-4191.