Looks so benign, doesn't it?!? This rut is actually over one foot deep! It will take at least 8 wheelbarrow loads of dirt to fill! As the delivery truck, bringing the large load of mushroom compost....(which I've claimed as my Mother's Day gift) began to enter the field from our driveway, it's front left wheel sank to mid-hub depth. The truck driver and I were very alarmed! While I was wondering outloud 'if the guys, with their heavy equipment, are at the sawmill up the road'.....the driver was able to keep his wheels perfectly straight and back it out and up onto the drive!!!! That was a BIG relief.....I was mentally adding many $$$ onto the price of the cost of the compost.
Looking for an alternate plan/route, the driver asked for a chainsaw to trim some limbs from a large white pine to gain access to the field in a firmer spot. After getting the chainsaw for him....I lost my nerve completely....just had a vision of all 4 wheels buried up in the middle of our field....and opted for a location just across from the end of our house on the other side of the driveway. We had an old chip compost pile there years ago....and it's just about the same distance from the garden as our current mushroom pile......just a little more public view!
BIG truck just finished dumping compost....the pile looks so small compared to the truck.....but, it is really a small mountain....about 10 tons! Let it be entered into a permanent record that getting this much at once was my dearest husband's idea.....saved time driving (an hour each way) to get pickup loads...and saved him shoveling it all out of the truck when we got it home.
This should meet all our 'compost needs' for 2 gardening years.
My very own mountain of 'black gold'......mushroom compost is so valuable for gardening....adds some fertilizer and holds water....just the greatest soil amendment I've found. This pile weighs about 10 tons! Mushroom compost, having as part of it's composition, chicken manure and urea, does possess it's own 'aroma'......wonder if the 'essence' will be be lingering when our family gathers for events at the picnic area down by the lake? I'll just hope for a 'favorable wind'.....
