Mushroom Compost For Gardens

:: This is an older post, but since it is spring and you might be putting a garden in, this is a great way to get some cheap compost!::

We have lived in our house for over 10 years and every year I announce that I want a garden. Then I don’t do anything about it and no one does it for me, so I have never had one. This is year is different. I made the announcement and got a slight reaction from my husband, I took the little eye blink as a definite, “Honey, I would love to help you put in a garden!”

~This is a picture of my husband tilling the spot for my garden at 10:20pm.

~This is after I had already cut the buried cable line, about 15 min. earlier. Who knew it was there?

~This is only 6 hours before we have to be at the mushroom farm to pick up REALLY cheap compost. They open at 4am and you have to be there at 4:30am to get any, 95 miles from our house…

Now, the pictures that are missing are the ones you really want to see. But unlike me I DIDN”T BRING MY CAMERA, I am still kicking myself!

My sweet husband calls me at 7:30am on his way back from the mushroom farm. “Honey, I think the trailer is way to heavy, I told them only 2 yards and they dumped the entire bucket full (5yards) into the trailer. We had a communication problem.”

“OH, MY GOSH, I’ll have to call you back I just blew a tire!”

The next 9 hours went something like this… call and borrow another trailer and industrial jack, drive up to find husband on the side of highway 70 miles north of here, spend 7 hours on a SUNDAY trying to find a new wheel for a 68 chevy, and laughing until our sides hurt at the stupidity of it all.

Thankfully we were accompanied by our good friends the DuBois’ who pawned their kids off and joined us on this adventure.

We had to transfer half the compost, which I forgot to mention smells worse than manure, to the other trailer and we dumped about 2 yards on the side of the highway to lighten it. All of this on the side of a MAJOR highway. If you are interested in some compost, north of Huntsville, TX on the side of the road there is about 2 yards of good mushroom compost for the taking. But I will warn you, it is HEAVY.

~This is us at 6:30pm that night finally getting home. This is Shawn D. riding the trailer into the backyard!

~This is our slave labor unloading one of the trailers. They enjoyed the smell as much as we did!

~ This is right after the DuBois’ Grandma drove off our driveway and into the ditch in front of our house. That was another little 45min. adventure trying to get the car out… It was quite the day.

~ This is the picture I am going to put on craigslist advertising my brother in laws babysitting service…

The garden is coming along. I will post a picture of the completed space another day, it is raining today, so you can see how beautiful it turned out! Thanks to all the family and friends who helped us, I would have left Paul in the middle of nowhere smelling like rotting mushrooms on a Sunday…

If you are interested in mushroom compost:

Mushroom compost is available at Monterey Mushroom near Madisonville, TX. They also have locations all over the country, so you might have one close to you. The price will go up as the season continues, always call ahead and find out when they are open and the price.

Just keep in mind… A  full size pickup will hold 2 yards. A bucket heaped will hold 5 yards plus and weigh about 7500 pounds, just FYI.

They also deliver, you just need to call and ask!