Happy Earth Compost
Compost
Breaking down organic materials into nutrients
Yes, the decay of living matter in the soil is the essential ingredient for a healthy, beautiful lawn.
What Happened?
Lawn care has followed the chemical revolution. At the same time, we have forgotten that life gives life, leading to the depletion of organic matter in the soil.
Compost topdressing
Compost topdressing is a fundamental lawn care practice that restores and maintains the proper organic matter level in soil to keep it productive.
Compost: the quintessential fertilizer
Compost contains macro nutrients, micro nutrients and a large assortment of beneficial bacteria and fungi.
Manicured Landscapes
Today’s beautifully designed and maintained landscapes were not the norm 100 years ago. The front lawn has become the home’s “welcome mat” and is meticulously kept clean. Landscaping has come to mean that there are no leaves, lawn clippings, twigs or branches, weeds, or blemishes in the lawn. The ever-increasing landscape practices required to achieve a manicured lawn, such as clipping and leaf removal, repeated carbonless fertilizer applications, pesticide applications, weekly mowing, and frequent irrigation, have all contributed over the past few decades to Organic Matter (OM) depletion in the soil.
Benefits to a Lawn
- Providing Organic Matter
- Reducing and replacing fertilizer inputs
- Providing macro nutrients
- Providing a great seeding medium
- Providing micro nutrients
- Holding 4x the water capacity as dirt for the lawn
- Restoring trace minerals
- Improving soil’s natural defenses
- Providing biology
Keep your lawn young!
A blade of grass has a short lifespan- only about 6 weeks- and must continually produce new tillers or the lawn thins out.
A healthy lawn needs to produce new tillers faster than the older grass blades die off. Young grass produces tillers faster than older grass, so one of the most important secrets to maintaining a healthy, thick lawn is to keep your grass young.
Naturally, a lawn is only as young as the soil it is rooted in. Top dressing with new compost just once or twice a year is like adding youth directly to the soil. It invigorates the lawn, helping it to stay youthful and productive.
