Got Compost: Add Organic Matter to Soil for a Healthy Landscape...

Got Compost: Add Organic Matter to Soil for a Healthy Landscape...: "If your soil and turf are healthy, you might think that the soil would be able to generate its own organic content. This is not necessarily ..."

Add Organic Matter to Soil for a Healthy Landscape

If your soil and turf are healthy, you might think that the soil would be able to generate its own organic content. This is not necessarily true.

The ideal soil is open and crumbly, giving the grass roots plenty of room to grow full and deep. When digging, you should find a large population of earthworms and microbes; these are the good guys in your soil. When earthworms, microbes and roots die off they decompose, raising the soils’ organic levels for new soil life. This cycle is referred to as the Soil Food Web, where roots, earthworms, and microbes are constantly recycling themselves.

Truly healthy soil has between 3% and 5% organic material. That level can be maintained ONLY IF organic matter is added to the soil at the surface year in and year out. Plants, earthworms, and microbes need that extra matter to support healthy soil. In the woods and grasslands, that added organic matter came from dead leaves or dead grasses decomposing each year. We need to repeat that process in our lawns to be able to maintain a healthy organic content in our soil.

Very few residential landscapes have soil this rich with organic material. The truth is soil beneath our lawns typically contains less than 1% organic material. This is because over a ten or twenty year period not only was no new organic material introduced, but the main source of these materials such as leaves and grass clippings have been collected and transported to local landfills. What a waste!

Healthy soil needs a steady supply of new organic material. It’s constantly decomposing, adding nutrients for the grass and plants, and must be replaced. Decomposed grass clippings and other organic material don’t have much food value left, but they’re valuable in aerating the soil, storing water and in feeding key microorganisms needed for other tasks. Leaving grass clippings on the lawn might provide some organic material; it is not enough to consistently provide 3 or 5 %. This is why we need to add more.

How can we add extra organic matter, you ask?

The solution is simple, and one you may not be familiar with; top dressing. Top dressing a lawn is the process of adding a fine layer of quality compost to your lawn. The quick & easy method involves simply working the compost into the grass with the back of a landscaper’s rake or a stiff broom (making sure not to smother grass with compost) and watering thoroughly. In only a few days, you’ll notice your lawn taking on a strong, healthy appearance; greening up where before there were patches of brown grass.

The “Professional” method is the same process with one exception; aerate soil before adding compost. If you have an irrigation system you’ll need to make it’s marked with flags before aeration (don’t want to poke holes in pipes now, do we?) Then proceed as you would for the quick & easy method, making sure to water well when finished.

Organic Matter on Surface Is Lunch

When you top dress your lawn with compost, this organic material eventually begins to decompose. More important, the earthworms seek it out and pull it down into the soil and eat it. Happy earthworms = Healthy soil!

If you don’t regularly top dress your lawn, it’s high time to begin. It might sound like extra work, but it’ll pay off big time in contributing to the development of healthy soil; stimulating soil life to provide nutrients and opening soil structure so it holds air and moisture.

Harvest Blend Compost contains premium organic matter necessary to raise soils’ organic levels to the recommended 5%. Locally produced from quality, recycled organic materials, Harvest Blend Compost has passed the strictest testing methods to carry the Seal of Testing Assurance (STA) label. This means our products are free of weed seeds and pathogens, guaranteeing product safety for your lawn and garden.

Healthy soil translates into healthier grass. Growing in soil with 5% organic content, lawns can expand their considerable root systems, reaching deep into the soil to tap more dependable supplies of water and nutrients. They are more self-reliant, less dependent on us for nutrition and moisture. They do not suffer stress. The result is fewer problems with weeds, diseases and pests. Naturally!

For more info on Harvest Blend Compost and all its benefits, go to http://www.gotcompost.com/

Got Compost: Give-Away Distributes Over 12 Tons of Harvest Blen...

Got Compost: Give-Away Distributes Over 12 Tons of Harvest Blen...: "Say you want to hold a workshop to educate the public on all the good stuff compost can do for their lawns, gardens and community. Getting f..."

Give-Away Distributes Over 12 Tons of Harvest Blend Compost!

Say you want to hold a workshop to educate the public on all the good stuff compost can do for their lawns, gardens and community. Getting folks to come out on a beautiful Saturday morning might sound a little tough, but we found the key: coffee, donut holes and an entertaining presentation! Oh, guess the free vegetable transplants and Harvest Blend Compost might have made a difference.

We had a great turnout at our Pro Am Series Lawn & Garden Workshop at Mussell Center last Saturday, May 21. More than 12 tons of premium Harvest Blend Compost and hundreds of vegetable transplants were given away to participants.

The City of Santa Maria Utilities Dept. set us up in a room next to the Community Garden – really handy since many of the participants have plots there. Our day began around 9:00 a.m. with Bob Engel, Harvest Blend Compost Vice President, taking the floor to introduce us to the composting process. He turned what could be a dry, scientific topic into something we wanted to learn more about.

Our garden/soil experts, Jim Gill and Chuck Nagel, then spoke about:

The importance of healthy soil for a healthy garden: the proper foundation is necessary for a healthy garden. Your veggies and flowers won’t thrive without the necessary nutrients. Compost provides those nutrients, as well as improving soil structure and soils’ water holding capacity.

Sustainable gardening: working with, instead of against, nature. Applying compost to lawns and gardens fits this definition. Buying and reusing recycled organic materials (compost) supports the diversion of these resources from landfills, lessening the impact on this already overcrowded area.

Lawn Top dressing: applying a layer of compost over a lawn, raking it in and watering, will create a strong, green lawn your neighbors will envy. Our authorized Harvest Blend dealers have all the literature you need to do it yourself. Click her for a dealer near you

Outside in the fresh air, guests were able to choose from a selection of vegetable transplants donated by Plantel Nurseries, Inc. Looks like we’ll be enjoying tasty salads of red & green lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and bell peppers this summer!

Even the kids had fun! This little guy couldn’t wait to get home to start his garden and kept asking his mom when he could “jump in the dirt pile” (actually compost, but we didn’t think that would change his mind).

  

Now it was the big kids’ turn to have fun getting dirty! Bags, pails, wheelbarrows and even truck beds were filled with premium Harvest Blend Compost. Those with a garden plot nearby trucked the compost to their gardens and began working it into the soil.

 

By 4:00 that afternoon the roll-off had been swept clean! More than 12 tons of compost had been given away to community residents who will now replenish the earth with this valuable resource; growing gardens, top dressing lawns and “Completing the Cycle”. Naturally!

For more info on Harvest Blend Compost click here

Thank you to everyone who donated their time, efforts and resources to make this event a success. We couldn’t have done it without your cooperation.

Got Compost: Sod Top Gardening - a Quick & Easy transformation

Got Compost: Sod Top Gardening - a Quick & Easy transformation: "The problem: your lawn is hurting, the grass is dying, and destructive weeds seem to be winning the battle. Here’s a solution you may not ha..."

Sod Top Gardening - a Quick & Easy transformation

The problem: your lawn is hurting, the grass is dying, and destructive weeds seem to be winning the battle. Here’s a solution you may not have heard of: create a sod-top garden where before there was only dry grass and weeds. No tilling required!

Sod-top gardening is a simple, eco-friendly way to begin growing vegetables, herbs, flowers, and other plants right in your own yard. All you’ll need are a few layers of newspaper and some premium compost to create a new foundation for plant growth. Over time, the grass and weeds underneath die, turning the covering into a rich, friable humus in just a few months.

While traditional garden prep can be labor-intensive and pollution causing (if using a gas-powered tiller), this method is much easier and non-invasive, so earthworms and other microbes that enrich the soil are not disturbed.

Sod-Top Garden How-To

1. Mow the ground at your chosen site. Cut anything to the ground that you don't want in the garden, such as weeds or tall grasses.

2. Soak newspaper in warm water. Lay wet paper on the ground, six layers thick. This is your barrier that keeps the grass and weeds from invading your new garden.

3. Top with layer of compost - four to six inches in depth.

4. You may wait several months before planting for newspaper covering to turn into nutritive humus.

5. Plant vegetables, herbs, flowers, or shrubs of your choice.

6. Use an organic fish emulsion or seaweed for extra nutrients.

7. Water, and place decorative rocks around the edges, if desired.

Tip: Some gardeners suggest building your sod-top garden in the fall so that the soil will be nutrient-rich and optimized for planting in the spring. Here on the Central Coast we have ideal conditions to begin the process year-round. If you’re tired of your tired old lawn, now’s the time for a change!

Calling all gardeners! This Saturday, May 21, you can get the tools you need to get that garden started.  Come to Harvest Blend Compost’s LAWN & GARDEN WORKSHOP from 9:00 a.m. – noon. BYOB: Bring Your Own Bucket and take home FREE Premium Harvest Blend Compost & FREE Vegetable Transplants!

Local experts will be on hand to instruct attendees on the uses and benefits of compost for lawn & garden. Top-dressing lawns with a fine layer of compost adds vital nutrients, increasing soils’ water holding capacity. Added to soils before planting, compost creates the perfect foundation for new plants, ensuring healthy veggies and colorful flower beds. Naturally!

For more info on compost use or details on Saturday’s workshop, visit http://www.gotcompost.com/

Got Compost: Compost – Buy it. Try it. My, it works!

Got Compost: Compost – Buy it. Try it. My, it works!: " This is what compost should look like!  This week, the first week in May, is the one week we celebrate all things 'Compost' – and t..."