Yesterday at Home Depot I was looking for some soil components. Pushing one of those big flat carts, in search of the right ingredients for a nice soil mix.
First disappointment - big, noisy, flat cart with one cockeyed wheel... second disappointment - aisles narrowed by the inclusion of sale plants, other people's carts, fallen pots, old people who take twenty minutes to decide which flat of marigolds to buy....third disappointment - they didn't have any of the components that I most wanted.
Anyway, while looking through the big bags of components in the back, I came upon "Cocoa Mulch". It's ph neutral, etc. and it was cheap, so I bought it. I remembered reading that coconut fibre could be used as a soil component. Okay, so I was tired and irritable and the brain cells weren't communicating.
Later, at home, (after a trip to another nursery, for the right components) I opened up the Cocoa Mulch and started to screen it. Funny, I thought... this doesn't look like coconut. Or smell like coconut.... okay, you caught on quicker than I did.
Yes, it seems to be from cocoa beans, the outer hull of cocoa beans. And it smells faintly of....
CHOCOLATE!
The dog was suddenly more interested in the cocoa mulch than he had been in the unopened bone meal. (Which he nuzzled and whined at for a few minutes... "Mommy, BONE! Bone, Mommy, Bone! Bone? Please?")
A little more reading on the package reveals that it gets a little gelatinous when wet, but remains porous, and retains water. Which, in some applications, may be good. I'll use it in the new growing bed as a mix-in. With lots of landscape paper and redwood chips to keep the dog, raccoon, squirrels, etc. out of the chocolate.
Just thought you might be amused by my chocolate soil adventure...
Joanie