Photo by Ralph Lauer

Fire ant mounds and mosquitoes aside, we welcomed the heavy spring rains; even our drought-tolerant plants looked extra healthy. And while we normally wandered around in our garden trying to scope out the first tomatoes of the season, we were instead mesmerized by the appearance of several types of shapely fungi in our lawn, more byproducts of the wet weather. The plant nerd in us marveled at the fact that these fungi grew from tiny spores most likely carried in the wind from one place to another. Nature never ceases to amaze us. And while most fungi are beneficial to the soil, we did worry about our dogs, who tend to eat things they aren’t supposed to because they’re dogs. We also didn’t want to add “ate poisonous mushrooms” to our already long list of vet bills. So we plucked them out of the ground carefully, thanked them for their service and added them to our compost bin, knowing that someday, they’ll be back again.