So they are slimy and rotting? Mushroom compost is expensive and you are getting it for free. :) I love seeing mushrooms; it means my soil is alive. Yes, fungi it a good sign. You will also at various times have critters and other kinds of seemingly odd visitors and residents. Relax and enjoy the show. Takes pictures and document their comings and goings and how your garden does before, during and after they arrive. Unless you can specifically show that something living in your garden is causing appreciable damage (like squash bugs, for example), leave it be. Gardens are spaces which are alive and attracting biodiversity is good. Even something which causes only a little bit of damage should be monitored but ignored, because the predators that will solve the problem for you always show up later and need something to eat. However, it doesn't sound like your garden gets much sun. 5 hours might be okay in OK, but some sun-lovers like tomatoes might under-perform. If so, next year choose a smaller tomato or a grape tomato. They need less sun than their larger-fruiting cousins. You might be okay, though -- 5 hours of direct afternoon sun is marginal but sufficient here.

bonecarver, LOVE your garden! And that's a nice thing you're doing for your neighbor. Must help keep them occupied. You can also make small mushrooms by hand. With your gloves on, take some hypertufa and roll it into the shape of a hotdog, the mix has to be a little wet. Then tap one end on a hard surface to flare it out on that end. Use your thumbs to make hollows in the sides of the cap. I have small funnels (really small from candy making) that I oil and work into the flared end. That helps with the flaring of that end and makes a hollow for your stem. If you don't have small funnel use a teaspoon to hollow out the end or sharpen the end of a stick/dowel to make an opening. Set on a piece of plastic and lightly wrap. Take another hypertufa hotdog shape; you make this shape around a piece of rebar. Taper the opposite end to a point that will go in the hollow that you made in the bottom of the cap. It will look like a corndog with a piece of the rebar sticking out one end. When the piece is finished you push the rebar into the ground. Roll up (like rolling up cookie dough to refrigerate) in a piece of plastic wrap or dry cleaner bag to start curing. For each piece, come back in about 20-30 minutes to carve or wire brush the cap and stem. Place back in a plastic bag to finish curing, wrap lightly so you don't mess up your carving. After both pieces are cured you can cement them together with hypertufa or mortar mix. Billie

When I have bark in my soil this seems to happen and as you said, is harmless. I still pluck them out as I dont want them attracting other pests.

That sounds like a great place, and very nice people, Beachlily. I bet they'd love to hear from you. There's a couple of videos out there (at least) showing some techniques to making risotto. One is by Mario Batali, (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/dining/02mini.html?_r=1) and he's making asparagus risotto. He doesn't actually stir all that much. The other is Tom Colicceo, making roasted tomato risotto. I made that the other night, and it was quite good. In this video he shows his way of telling when the risotto is done. The only change I made to his recipe was to use vegetable broth. I'll put a link to that video below, but I don't know how to do more than one link, so I just included the address for the Batali video above. ) (By the way, I stumbled across that website when I did a search for tomato risotto [I have an abundance of tomatoes right now]. It looks like a pretty cool website, but I haven't had or taken the time to explore it further.) Sally