ICYMI, Here is An Encore Presentation of Your Favorite Laurel Valley Soils Team Members Presenting The 12 Days of Compost!
And no video is complete without its Bloopers! Check out The 12 Days of Bloopers here!
Category Archives: Green Roofs
May 2016 Was the 10th Rainiest May Since 1900.
But it didn’t stop our customers, because no matter how WET it was yesterday, we will deliver DRY topsoil and compost today!
Laurel Valley Soils Enriched Topsoil is ALWAYS dry!
With 15,000 cu yd of covered topsoil storage and 30,000 sq ft of production capacity for blending custom engineered soils used for bioretention basins, rain gardens, green roofs and general stormwater management, we definitely have you covered!!! As soon as you are able to get back out on the job site, we have dry soil and compost ready and waiting to be delivered to your location. No more dealing with wet product, or delaying work while waiting for it to dry out.
Our Enriched Topsoil contains our nutrient-rich Premium Compost, which provides the following benefits:
- Improves soil structure
- Adds organic nutrients
- Stabilizes pH
- Improves disease resistance
- Supplies beneficial microorganisms, bacteria and fungi
- Increases soil’s cation exchange capacity, helping the plant to absorb more nutrients from the soil
Want to learn more about ways customers have used Laurel Valley Soils? Check out our blog post “Jake and Suzanne Go Site Seeing in Philly”
So to help you celebrate, and to provide great Memorial Day Party Conversation Topics, Here are 5 Awesome “CLICKS ABOUT COMPOST”!
- How does COMPOST help SOIL?
- How does COMPOST give your neighbors LAWN ENVY???
- Composting 101—a Five Minute Overview
- Healthier Plants, Less Watering, Less Disease??? Tell Me More!!!
- I want some compost! Where can I get it???
And we wish you a very happy and safe Memorial Day, too!
Just think–with all your party scraps, it may be the perfect time to start your compost pile!
“Site” Seeing is not a typo! Jake and I were attending an event hosted by the Delaware Valley Green Building Council in Philly, and decided to make a day out of it by visiting Laurel Valley Soils “sites” throughout the city!
Our morning meeting wrapped up with a tour of Central Green, the 5 acre park located in the middle of Philadelphia’s Navy Yard. This oasis contains lifestyle amenities for the 10,000+ person local work force and includes a fitness station, amphitheater, a hammock grove, bocce courts, ping-pong tables, a huge communal table, and a bioretention basin for stormwater management. As you can see in the photo below, this is not your Daddy’s bio basin! We are extremely proud to have provided the soil to help create this masterpiece of function and beauty!
After the Central Green festivities were done, Jake and I headed out, with compost cam and gps at the ready, to check out our dirt piles all around the city!
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has hundreds of PHS Vacant Land Site projects, and the photos below showcase five of them, after they have been cleared of debris and received our soil delivery.
Below is a great photo, as it shows the various stages of Vacant Land Site completion. In the background, you can see where the debris has been cleared, and a pile of soil that has just been delivered. Then you see a lot where the soil has been spread, and in the foreground is a fenced space that was completed in past seasons.
Next was Rodin Square, where Laurel Valley Soils custom blended the soil for rooflite, and the mix is being used for tree planting on a roof garden, around a to-be-installed pool! Soil must be blown up to the roof site, as shown in the photo below.
Our final stop was at the Pennovations site, where Laurel Valley Soils are being used for several bioretention basins as well as for planting trees.
Want us to grab the compost cam and visit YOUR installation? Call us!
Until our next site seeing trip…..
Like Top Chefs, We Know That Quality Ingredients, Blended Perfectly,
Create MASTERPIECES!
Compost can be derived from many different types of materials, including yard trimmings, food scraps, leaves, manure, and post-harvest mushroom compost. In the previous two blogs, we discussed why you should use compost, and why you should use STA Certified Compost. Here, we are going to explain the benefits of using post-harvest mushroom compost from Laurel Valley Soils.
Many types of compost are made using whatever unused products are available at that time, sort of like when your Mom would make soup from all the leftovers at Thanksgiving. Creating Laurel Valley Soils Compost is more like baking your Great Grandmother’s famous, award-winning upside-down carrot, macadamia and bourbon cake. It requires using only the finest ingredients and carefully following the recipe, as there are high expectations on the line!
Because our compost is initially created to grow fresh mushrooms, we follow a strict formula containing only the highest quality, purchased and inspected ingredients including hay, straw, recycled horse bedding, cocoa shells, poultry litter, corn cobs, and gypsum. After the crop of mushrooms is complete, we take back the post-harvest mushroom compost, let it compost down some more, and then upcycle it as premium compost or repurpose it to create enriched topsoil.
So why should YOU specifically select Laurel Valley Compost? What separates LVS from the crowd?
- STA Certified: which means it meets the quality and consistency requirements of the US Composting Council
- PA Certified Organic
- Stored indoors.
- Screened and Dry
- Consistent recipe = consistent reliable performance
- DNREC and PennDOT Approved
- Punctual delivery for wholesale clients
- Widely distributed through garden centers for homeowners
At Laurel Valley Soils, we specialize in providing the exact product you need, including creating custom engineered soil blends. Whether you are looking for straight compost, compost-enriched topsoil, or blends for bio-retention basins, rain gardens or any other need, we have the skill, expertise and experience to meet all your project requirements.
Good Housekeeping, Energy Star, United Laboratories, USDA Organic. These icons invoke a comfort level; a feeling of trust, safety and quality endowed on the products that carry these coveted seals of approval.
For compost, the United States Composting Council is the governing body which sets the standards for this product. Like the certifications listed above, the Seal of Testing Assurance (STA) assures you that the compost products you are purchasing meet all the quality requirements set forth by the USCC by independently testing products on a regularly scheduled basis.
So how does the STA Program work?
- STA Certified compost products are tested on a regular schedule, which assures the production of consistently high quality products.
- Test results are completed independently by appointed accredited laboratories, and available upon request from, the US Composting Council and the manufacturer, for your peace of mind knowing exactly what you are buying.
- STA products meet or exceed all related product quality and testing requirements prescribed by state and/or federal regulations, assuring you purchase a safe, eco-friendly product.
Because compost can be created from many different types of feedstocks, and with some manufacturers the components can vary dramatically from one batch to another, it is important to purchase compost that has been STA Certified. You want to make sure that your soil receives a safe, healthy and nutritional amendment.
Here is where you can purchase STA Certified compost at an Eastern PA/NJ/DE metro region garden center near you, or ask your lawn care provider to apply Laurel Valley Soils Compost and Compost-Enriched Topsoil. If you are a business interested in purchasing our products wholesale, please contact us at 866-LV-SOILS.
Cira Green, Philadelphia’s first elevated public park and first blue-green roof, is a 1.25 acre park located on top of Cira Centre South in University City, which sits ninety-five feet above street level! The oasis was built on a parking garage roof which overlooks Center City, University City and the Schuylkill River, and is an integral element in developing the Schuylkill River Greenway. The roof is both “blue” and “green,” with the blue roof located under the paved walking areas to provide storm water management by capturing rain water which is then directed to irrigate the planted “green roof” areas.
Laurel Valley Soils was founded in 1979 by a handful of the nation’s leading mushroom growers who had the foresight before “sustainability” was a hot keyword to realize the opportunities available for upcycling their abundant, high organic matter, post-harvest mushroom compost. “Mushroom farmers from around the world visit our 120 acre facility located in the Mushroom Capital of the World to learn how to emulate our state-of-the-art practices. We feel great pride to be leaders not only in mushroom compost production but environmental stewardship” notes our own Joseph DiNorscia, Manager of Laurel Valley Soils.
450 cubic yards of our “black gold” was blended into the growing media provided by rooflite® and used for Cira Green’s various green roofs as well as lawn areas and planters containing trees and perennials.
When selecting a location to kick off the nationally-focused 2016 International Compost Awareness Week being held May 1-7, 2016 and features the theme: Compost – The Soil and Water Connection, the “blue” & “green” Cira Centre South was the perfect choice. Events, including tours and education highlighting the benefits of incorporating compost into the engineered soils required for green roof projects are scheduled nationwide throughout the week.
DiNorscia, in conjunction with The US Composting Council (USCC), The Composting Council Research and Education Foundation (CCREF), The Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, and other notable industry leaders are kicking off the celebration on Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 1:30pm at Cira Green with a summary of how this project was constructed and the role of compost in its success.
As a visitor to Cira Green, it’s hard to imagine that this complete aerial ecosystem is man-made and was previously a parking garage roof. But one thing is for sure – with the warm weather upon us, it is proving to be a popular and dynamic green space in the city for all to enjoy!
Want to attend the ICAW Kickoff Event at Cira Green on Tuesday, May 3, 2016? Contact me! We would love to see you there!
Suzanne Longacre
866-LV-SOILS