Question
Why did a whole line of big mushroosms suddenly pop up along the sidewalk in the grass last week?  I live on Long Island and I would appreciate a prompt answer as I am worried one of the dogs might try to eat one.

Answer
Wow, do you live on my block?  I noticed these on lawns all over this past weekend.  Strangely enough, they are not a problem at all on my strip of sidewalk/grass.

Mind you, I take no credit for this whatsoever.  My theory was that people were walking their dogs along that area, but they do this along our area as well.  The urine would acidify the soil, and some extra lime would be needed to correct the pH.

Add to that the cool nights and the wet weather and you have a perfect Mushroom habitat.  If anyone wants to try eating these, we might be sitting on a goldmine.

However, they might not be the finger lickin' kind of mushrooms, you're right, and we would not want any innocent, hungry dog to taste one.

Children pose a problem too.

So what can you do?

Rake like mad, my friend.  Every morning, they will be there waiting for you; rake them before you go to work in the morning, or school, church, wherever.  Every morning.  And sprinkle down some pelletized lime to raise the pH.  Those shrooms won't like that one bit.

Drainage is sometimes to blame, but not always.  How's your soil these days?  Do you think it could use some organic matter - vegetables and fruit?  Just like humans, soil needs to be fed, too.

Mushrooms often appear over spots that were the site of a large tree.  The stump, way underground, is disintegrating years later.  Lignin won't decompose without a good microbes population to do that.  All boils down to that famous Nitrogen Cycle we love to talk about.  The Cycle that you ruin with things like Roundup and Weed N Feed.  The Cycle that Scotts doesn't want you to know about.

Sometimes thatch becomes so thick it needs extra help to rot and join the cycle underneath.  The wrong pH will lead to all kinds of problems.  Raise it, asap, to 6.5 or higher, and do it organically because the less messing up you do with the microbes, the better for everyone.

Any more questions?