What is this growing in my flowerbed?!?!?!

[uneasyrider]

About a month ago, I finished remodeling my flowerbed. This morning, I found these 'things' growing through the mulch and I have no idea what they are or if they are harmful. Here is what I did to my flowerbed, followed by pictures of the new growth.

-I had holly bushes growing all around. I cut down the holly bushes to the stumps.
-I pulled the stumps up using a truck & a chain. All traces removed.
-Tilled the soil using a cultivator. Removed all weeds & leftover roots.
-Used a wood chipper to make mulch out of the holly bushed in addition to several small trees I cut down in my back yard.
-Dug up all of the monkey grass surrounding the flowerbed.
-Put down stone pavers to line the new flowerbed.
-Put down 3-4 inches of topsoil/potting soil/compost mix
-Planted Japanese boxwoods
-Put down 2-3 inches of the mulch from the ground up holly bushes

I live in a very humid climate and it just rained yesterday. A few of these things have 'helmets' on them sort of like a mushroom. They pull up easy and don't seem to be stuck into the ground. They seem to be attatched to the mulch.

Here are the pictures.

[img]https://www.kandcpics.com/upload/IMG_0935.JPG[/img]
[img]https://www.kandcpics.com/upload/IMG_0936.JPG[/img]
[img]https://www.kandcpics.com/upload/IMG_0937.JPG[/img]
[img]https://www.kandcpics.com/upload/IMG_0938.JPG[/img]
[img]https://www.kandcpics.com/upload/IMG_0939.JPG[/img]

[opabinia51]

Looks to me to be the reproductive structure of some sort of fungus that is in your soil. Nothing to worry about, quite healthy to have fungi growing in your soil.

[uneasyrider]

I think you're right. When I got hhome from work yesterday afternoon... they were all gone!! I looked closely and it was like they almost dissolved. Although last night... we had a bad storm and it rained very hard. This morning was about 85% and VERy stick outside... and what do you know... they were back in full force!!

[opabinia51]

Perhaps a basidiomycete but, I can't be sure without closer inspection. If you can cut open the top part and use a magnifying glass to count the number of spores in each case, we might get a better idea but, don't worry.