QUESTION: An embarrassing fungus keeps appearing in mulch. It is orange with a purple tip. We dig it out, but it returns. It has been identified as "Phallus impudicus."ANSWER: "Phallus impudicus" - Latin for "phallus without shame" - is a mushroom with the common name of stinkhorn, for it often smells horrid as it matures and the tip turns slimy.It is growing on the decay of the mulch. Its season is summer, especially warm, wet summers. Like all mushrooms, it reproduces by spores, which are found in the tip slime. They both fall to the ground and are carried away by flies that like the slime. No doubt the mulch was already loaded with the spores when you got it. They develop into "eggs" - an egg-shaped immature stage near the surface, which, when ready, sprouts overnight into its namesake shape.The only real way to eliminate them is to remove all the mulch and the top layer of soil.The eggs are, according to mycologists and other mushroom devotees, edible. Perhaps the Tom Sawyer fence approach is called for - put up a sign and charge for people to harvest and/or gawk.

QUESTION: I am responsible for seeding a field that is used for athletics. We have a chance to shut down the field this fall and keep people from playing on it. Would there be a difference between planting the grass seed in the middle of September versus two weeks later?ANSWER: Earlier is better. The best time to sow grass seed is the last week of August through Labor Day - it's not too hot (longer nights help), and there's time for the grass to establish itself before winter.If the fall stays on the warm side, a two-week delay wouldn't make much difference. But if it turns cool in October, inhibiting development of the grass, you'll wish you'd done it around Labor Day. In other words, it's a gamble.Send your gardening questions to Michael Martin Mills, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101, or send e-mail to: Millsm@phillynews.com.By KRT News Service