we bought cocoa bean mulch (I think it was because it is supposed to keep down the bugs and we wanted to put some in next to the house where we don’t want bugs) and we liked it so much we mulched all the new yard plants with it. It smells very good, which is a plus. (Sally still has the two unopened bags in her van.)
Then it rained last night, and the chocolate-colored mulch got light-ochre colored mold all over it. All the faqs about cocoa bean mulch say that this mold is “harmless”.
The cool yet eerie thing is that when I watered the plants just now, as soon as the chlorinated city water hit that mold, the mold smoked. I felt like I was in a Sci-Fi Channel movie of the week, and kept looking over my shoulder for the aliens.
A "surly curmudgeon[], suspicious and lacking in altruism." (Robert A. Heinlein)