Are you really set on mushroom compost and no other compost or fertilizer? If you are interested in compost other than mushroom, there is free compost, mulch and horse manure in Palatine. There is also free horse manure in Morton Grove at the horse stable in the forest preserve on Golf & Central. If you are interested, I can give you directions to the compost in Palatine. Please let me know.

Congratulations Daisy! So how big of plant did you get? Bboy I couldn't agree more with you that the soil should match the plant, and I can't think of many plants that need more water & more nutrients than gunnera. I read some of the articles from your link, but most had to do with excess nutrients -- not so much of a concern with a plant that can grow leaves up to 8' across (a real nutrient pig) and is being heavily watered. The real concern for success with this plant is moisture retention, which this kind of compost does well. The year we started using it at our last house (1 1/2 dump truck loads) it cut our summer water use almost in half. Our plants exploded like they were on a super fertilizer even though we used none. Everything was healthy and darker green than the year before. In this house, I have 2 areas where they only put the thinest skim of of compost under the grass, instead of the 6" I wanted. Those 2 areas are always way behind the other areas in growth and are the only 2 areas I've ever had disease on the grass. If a phd like Dr. Chalker-Scott who is high on opinion & low on facts wanted to come & tell me compost is too high in nutrients & it won't hold moisture, well I think I might have to say she needs to get off the lecture circuit & out into the garden more. ;^)

Sheri, To encourage them to stick around, mix up one of the formulas given in the link and spray it on your plants, if you use the sugar water, or put the wheast paste on wooden stakes,...especially on/near the plants with spider mites. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Food That Attracts Beneficial Insects

I don't want to speak poorly of folks working hard to make good organic products, but I took delivery of a bunch of the Compost Farm compost and don't have a lot of great things to say about it. I had to do alot of work once I got it to get the Ph to a reasonable level and an analysis of the nutrients present showed that there was a lot that needed to be added to get my veggies to grow. As a medium, it was alright - a bunch bigger chunks of wood and and wood chips in the mix lead me to believe that it was not quite done composting. I was hoping for a product that I could fill my raised beds with and forget about for a season and this certianly wasn't it. In retrospect my expectations were unreasonable as the more I learn about composting and organic gardening the more I realize that there is nothing like that. That being said, this stuff needed more attention than I (and most of my gardening buddies) thought that it should. After the addition of some supplements ( I really should have been keeping a journal - but I'm pretty sure I put in a buch of cotten seed meal, rock phosphate (?) and greensand and some pressed fish liquid) I got some great veggies and some fun hands on soil education. Also, the guy who sold it to me and delivered it was a pleasure to work with - I'm more of a settler than a complainer (I told myself that if I was really concerned about these issues I would have done some tests on the stuff before buying it) he seemd very friendly. Again, I don't want to knock the hard work of a local compost farmer, but I thought that my experience would be helpful. I'm new to the forum and exctied about learning and sharing with folks on the list. Greg/cyclome