Can you imagine what your 1/2 acre lawn would look like with 80,000 people per year walking through it or stopping to lay out a blanket for a picnic and some sun?  With that dense foot traffic, your soil would be compacted and cracked like the Liberty Bell!

This is what many popular public landscapes, such as the Independence National Historic Park (INHP) in Philadelphia, PA, endure every year. As you can imagine, it is a huge challenge to maintain healthy turf, as there is no down-time for rest and recovery to properly address the damage and stress created from the heavy use.  Most often maintenance treatments like weed killer, grass seed and fertilizer are applied in an ever losing battle to just keep turf alive.  We call this the “life support approach”, feeding the plant from the “top down” where one is just buying time until inevitably a major renovation is required. This is when Laurel Valley Soils gets the chance to address the landscape properly from the “bottom up” and fix the soil profile by amending it with compost.  Whereas healthy soil equals healthy turf, this approach is more like curing a disease vs just treating the symptoms.

Independence National Historic Park, located in the heart of Center City Philadelphia, is a 15.5 acre park which famously houses the Liberty Bell and attracts approximately 5 million visitors per year.  As the birthplace of our nation, it is imperative for the INHP grounds to be beautiful and welcoming to the people who travel there from all around the world.

Brightview, the largest landscape contractor in North America, has been providing the ongoing maintenance for INHP.  Last year, they reached out to the National Parks Service with a very bold proposal.  Knowing that the maintenance they were performing on a limited budget was not providing the results the landscape deserved, they proposed doing a full “bottom up” renovation and offered to provide this service pro-bono.

Of course the Parks Service said yes!  Brightview then approached their network of suppliers to join them in donating products and services for this project. When Laurel Valley Soils got the call from Brightview’s Scott Chambers, INHP Project Manager, to invite us to be part of such an important project, we were thrilled and happily donated several loads of compost.

Brightview got right to work removing the stressed turf and extra soil.  Then they brought in 100 yards of LVS Premium Compost and tilled that into the remaining onsite soil.  This both aerated the soil to relieve compaction and increased the organic matter content at the same time.  Then they installed a new irrigation system and laid sod after the final grading.

Healthy soils have a well-balanced structural matrix with organic matter providing the glue that creates good aggregation.  Well aggregated soils provide pore space for oxygen, biology and drainage.  Good aggregation also improves the ability to resist erosion and compaction, while increasing the ability to store water and nutrients and promote deep penetrating root growth.

Soil’s macro pores should have a ratio of 60% water and 40% oxygen.  We all know that plants need water to survive.  But just as importantly, oxygen is required for root systems and soil microbes to be able to breathe. The organic matter supplied from the compost helps aggregate the finest soil particles such as silt and clay into larger soil particles called “soil peds”.  These soil peds are what build a good structural matrix that provide pore space/aggregation.  A helpful visual is to think of a jar of marbles.  The marbles will have void spaces between them.  Even when pressure is applied on these marbles, the matrix resists compaction maintaining the voids. Poorly aggregated soils that lack pore space will see compaction quickly set in and the water to oxygen balance break down.  Dense compacted soils will quickly flip flop from being water logged to being dried out. Additional, equally important benefits provided by compost are slow release micro and macro nutrients that will continue to feed plants for years after only one application.  These nutrients are organic based and safe for our children, pets and environment.  And let’s not forget the biology which compost provides to the soil.  Think of healthy soil biology as a natural immune system for soil that helps it fight off turf and plant disease.

During the dedication ceremony and official reopening of Independence Hall National Historic Park, we asked Scott Chambers what his biggest challenge was with this project.  Without missing a beat, he exclaimed “Mowing it!  We’ve had to mow three times already this week!”  Now that’s a challenge we think anyone would be happy to accept!

Watch a video of the project below:

Wait—what?  We hear about sustainability every day.  What has changed?

Soil scientists predict that within the next 50 years, if soil is not protected and regenerated, it will be impossible to feed the population, keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, and halt the loss of biodiversity.  So just sustaining soil is no longer acceptable.

50 years is well within many of our lifetimes, and certainly our children’s and grandchildren’s lifetimes.  So how can we, as professionals and homeowners, make a difference?

REGENERATE YOUR SOIL WITH COMPOST!

We must make a conscious effort to build soils through sustainable landscaping and farming practices and compost is just the tool for the job!

We have all seen depleted soil. It is lighter in color, dry, and incapable of growing anything except for maybe the hardiest of weeds.  Depleted soil is caused by many factors, including:

Erosion

Bare exposed soils are vulnerable to erosion from wind and water. As soil particles are removed, so is essential biology and nutrients required for plant growth including (N, P, K, Ca, S, Mg).

Loss of Organic Matter

Most soils are severely lacking adequate levels of organic matter. The US Composting Council, through their Strive for 5 campaign, recommends working towards achieving a soil organic matter (SOM) content of 5% to improve water holding capacity, soil structure, and most importantly, provide a habitat for microorganisms.  As SOM breaks down, it must be replaced either naturally or via amendments.  Soil cannot replace organic matter on its own.

Lack of Life

Soil biology decomposes organic matter, building soil structure and synthesizing otherwise soil-bound nutrients into plant-available nutrients. The image below is a great depiction of the relationship between soils rich in organics and biology which support healthier, more nutrient dense plants.  Humans, pets and livestock benefit greatly from these plants when consuming the vitamin, mineral and nutrient rich plant tissue. As an example, a tomato plant growing in soil rich in SOM, biology and nutrients will pass the micro and macro nutrients to its fruit, providing sustenance for the human consuming it.  Without biology’s help, the fruit will resemble a tomato in appearance only, and provide minimal nutrients and flavor.

One of the easiest and most environmentally friendly ways to regenerate soil is to amend with compost and compost-rich soil blends.  Laurel Valley’s locally produced Premium Compost provides organic matter, nutrients and indigenous biology.  Incorporating compost in your soil projects is a win for you and your clients by improving soil conditions today and for the future.

50 years will be here before we know it, and don’t we want to leave soil better than we inherited it?

The latest social challenge for millennial farmers and soil enthusiasts…

When was the last time you heard an adult say “I soiled my undies” and you couldn’t wait to see it?  Never?  Well we want to change that!

About a month ago, we decided to participate in the latest “millennial” challenge, and are grateful we didn’t have to dump buckets of ice water on our heads, or dance alongside our moving vehicle.  We just had to soil our undies!

Healthy soil contains a diverse community of microbiology.  In fact, one teaspoon of healthy soil contains over ONE BILLION microbes!  This biology contains a multitude of strains of beneficial bacteria and fungi that work together to provide a symbiotic relationship between soil and plants.  Plants secrete compounds that attract microbes, and in return, microbes eat organic matter and deliver nutrients to plants in a form in which plants are able to uptake them.

So here’s where the undies come into the picture…

Microbes aren’t picky when it comes to organic matter.  100% cotton underwear is just as appetizing to microbes as hay or leaves or banana peels.  For a fun, cheeky way to show the power of microbes,  Laurel Valley Soils has joined many farmers and fellow soil enthusiasts throughout the world in the #SoilYourUndies challenge.  We purchased some brand new Fruit of the Loom tighty whities to bury in our soil and compost to see for ourselves how quickly the microbes will decompose the cotton.  Based on the results from others who already completed the challenge, it was thought that to completely break down the underwear, it would take about 8 weeks.

We buried our undies in a fish tank filled with Laurel Valley Premium and Fresh Compost, in a raised vegetable garden filled with our Garden Soil, and in a windrow of Premium Compost.  Imagine our delight when after only 3 weeks, this is what we saw in the fish tank???  There were some HUNGRY microbes in there!

We will be displaying the results of our #SoilYourUndies challenge, along with lots of great information about making and using compost at the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival on September 8 and 9, 2018.  Stop by our Booth# B57 where you can have the pleasure of meeting 1 billion of our finest microbes, and even take some home for your garden!  We hope to see you there!

Want to Start Offering Topdressing?

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Check out our Topdressing Marketing Tool Kit!

Topdressing Flyer

Here is a flyer you can send to your customers via EDDM, add to a Val-Pak campaign, or slip into your door hangers after other services.  We will add your company info (for FREE!) and send the file to your printer.  Here is a sample:

Flyer Front

Flyer Back 

Eblast Template

Want to send an email to all your customers to promote Topdressing, but don’t have the time to design something catchy?  Well, look no further!  You can download this template, or call us to have it tweaked for you, and voila!  Instant Eblast!

Download Topdressing Eblast Template

 Have questions? Need help?  Call Suzanne at 610-268-5555 or email:  Suzanne@LaurelValleySoils.com.