Naptime DIY: Return of the Stinkhorn Mushrooms

Last summer stinkhorn mushrooms invaded our garden.  Stinkhorn mushrooms are phallic shaped mushrooms that smell like rotting flesh.  We killed them once, they came back and then, mercifully, winter came and killed everything in the garden.  We saw traces of them a couple weeks ago and chose not to write about it.  However, something happened that was so stealthy and insidious that it merits another mention.

Preparing the garden for a new season

We’re expanding the number berry bushes that are in the garden and put in multiple varieties so they’ll be able to pollinate.  In doing this I was digging up the soil and noticed the white tendrils that make up the roots of the stinkhorn mushrooms.

HA! Suck it stinkhorn mushrooms, I’m onto you this year and will kill you all before you can stink up my yard.  Freshly fueled with rage and adrenaline I dug up the entire area with a maddox and then raked it flat.  When I found the tell-tale signs of the white ‘veins’ I pulled them out, sprayed the area with vinegar and raked it some more.

I also cut back the tall bushes around the area so that the berry bushes, which will need lots of sun, can thrive.  In doing this I was also able to get the mint roots out, thin out some bulbs that I haven’t seen in a while and found 8 brick sized rocks.

The discovery of the remnants (and seeds) of stinkhorn mushrooms had given way to hope, a clean garden and new rocks to edge it with…until.

Planting for the new garden season

I dug the holes for the new berry bushes, trenches for the various seeds and got my brand new bag of topsoil that I had purchased last summer.  As I opened the brand new bag I noticed the familiar white tendrils, but didn’t think anything of it.

I dumped the bag of dirt on the ground and it was like the mother Alien had plopped a series of eggs out with her nasty, dead meat smelling spawn.  The only thing missing was Sigourney Weaver, a little blond girl and a cat named Ripley. *

This was a brand new bag of dirt and these filthy mushrooms had gotten in there!

I promptly sprayed the dirt with vinegar, removed the solid stinkhorn mushrooms and spread it out to allow for quicker drying and death.

I wanted to share this as reassurance in case anyone else has found stinkhorn mushrooms difficult to kill.  With luck my initial work in preparing the garden this year did the trick.  If not we’ll continue digging out the root sacs until the winter and remove 100% of the mulch.  My fingers are crossed.

*Side note, we actually do have a cat named Ripley, but that was prior to our stinkhorn mushroom episode.

As a stay at home dad I miss having the spare time to fix things. Even though the child is my full time job, things still break or need a fix in the house. Sometimes the repair will be something that I can easily complete and other times it’s a repair that I simply should’ve paid to have it done.  Regardless, I’ll write it up here in hopes that you may be able to gauge what you can do and when you need to call in for help. The series is called, Naptime DIY because the tasks are hopefully accomplished in 60 minutes, which is a good naptime period.   If you know that you can stop and complete a certain area of your garden then this is a Naptime DIY project.  If not, then wait until the weekend and spend a good couple of hours doing the job.