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 Renewed Earth Soil
Renewed Earth specializes in custom soil mixes for greenhouse and nursery growers and for landscape construction projects. Meeting specification is critical in our function as a soil supplier. Even more important than meeting a specification is assisting landscape designers to specify practical planting soil.
Leaves collected from cities of Otsego, Portage and Plainwell are brought to Renewed Earths state-of-the-art composting facility located in Otsego, Michigan. Other composting activities at the site are focused on composting components used in the production of media used by professional greenhouse and nursery growers in the Great Lakes Area.
Some of these same media components are also used in Renewed Earth’s Gardeners Delight flowerbed soil. The Renewed Earth Compost is available to be used as a soil amendment. Yard Blend and Garden Blend also include the Renewed Earth Compost in varying quantities depending the desired final soil characteristics, and also depending on the organic and mineral component characteristics of the other ingredients.
These soil blends have the right kind and concentration of "life." They are more productive than other landscaping topsoils because of the healthy population of soil microbes, fungi, algae, mycetes, and bacteria. These "bugs" make up the living phase of the soil and are important in the complex reactions between diseases, insects, and plant growth.
Benefits of Renewed Earth Soils
- Contain essential micronutrients and humic acid necessary for increased turf vigor.
- Have beneficial soil bacteria and fungi for natural plant health.
- High organic humus content provides excellent macro and micro nutrient retention for slow release availability to turf roots.
- Better water holding capacity while providing necessary soil aeration.
- Easier to install because of resistance to compaction, even under wet conditions.
- Optimum soil structure promotes quick root establishment.
A note from Todd Herrick:
Modern landscape plants are increasingly faced with establishment on sites having soils with suboptimal physical and chemical characteristics. Improving soil structure and remediation with high quality fill soils ensures that a wide palette of plant material can be successfully utilized. Ultimately, however, specifications for fill soils must realistically balance cost pressures with site limitations.
For example, native Michigan soils commonly contain low organic matter levels and high pH. Of the two, organic matter is more easily modified, yet the organic source in fill soils can have a profound influence on plant health and vigor. While cheap and plentiful, wood residues should never be utilized to elevate organic content. They not only induce severe nutritional demands and imbalances on establishing plants, they also promote fungal growth (mushrooms). A stable, weed free compost is the most desirable organic source, simultaneously capable of improving soil structure, boosting the nutritional profile and reestablishing a healthy micro flora.
Overcoming high pH is a more challenging proposition, and suppliers of high quality fill soils recognize that few non-chemical amendments are effective in sustained reduction of pH. Nowhere is the relationship between cost and practicality more direct, since incorporation of peat moss and/or composted pine barks are often the only practical options.
Landscape specifications developed with a common sense approach recognize that “ideals” are site specific and fall within the framework of tight budgets. Renewed Earth takes an active role in working with customers to formulate soils whose specifications ensure long term sustainability while acknowledging budget pressures.
Todd Herrick
Grower Support Services
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Todd Herrick is Renewed Earths grower support specialist - he provides technical support for professional greenhouse and nursery growers but also assists the green industry with developing practical soil specifications for soil used in the final landscape.
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Yard Blend Topsoil
An economical compost amended soil blend for planting and maintaining all types of turf grass. Due to its high organic content when compared to native topsoil, Yard Blend is more resistant to compaction, installs easier under wet conditions, and promotes healthier plants.
What is it used for? It is used for lawn areas, constructing small berms, and raising the grade around a house foundation.
What is in it? It is a screened blend of topsoil, Renewed Earth Compost and structure sand. Percentages do vary depending on the characteristics of the topsoil. Typically a minimum of 20 percent compost is added. Extra effort is made to maintain consistently loose or friable material with enough of an organic component to create a long term productive environment for turf grass.
How much of each? It varies depending on the topsoil we are working with. Renewed Earth Compost is added to a good quality sandy loam topsoil. If needed, coarse or fine structure sand may be added to make the sand / silt / clay composition optimal for turf grass.
How is it made? A formula is established depending on the characteristics of the topsoil being used. The ingredients are pre-blended on a well-drained, hard surfaced soil production site. The pre-blended material is then run through a screening machine into large cone shaped storage piles. As needed, the finished soil is hauled to indoor storage. Pickup trucks and dump trucks are loaded with soil taken out of the indoor storage. Soil which does not meet certain quality standards is returned for further processing or utilized in other ways.
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Garden Blend Soil
Garden Blend is designed for medium to high care areas, such as ground cover beds, general landscape beds, and vegetable gardens. It can also be used to as a root zone mix for high quality lawns.
What is it used for? It is used for general gardening and for constructing and topdressing lawns.
What is in it? It is a screened blend Renewed Earth Compost, structure sand and topsoil.
What is the difference between Garden Blend and Yard Blend? Garden blend has more organics in it, it is a little fluffier, looser, but still looks and feels like topsoil. Garden Blend provides a very productive environment for plantings. The higher biological activity in compost based soils produces higher quantities of useable micro and macronutrients to the plants. Feeding you plants is still necessary with compost based soils, the compost simply helps convert the supplemental nutrients to useable food for the plants.
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Gardener's Delight Soil
Gardener’s Delight is a well drained soil blend which provides a long term soil structure for annuals, perennials and woody plants. It is specially formulated to be installed directly as bedding soil or can be used to improve existing soil.
What is it used for? It is a very well drained soil for annuals, perennials and woody plants. It is formulated to be installed as-is, but can also be added to garden blend or any other existing soil to create more air space in the final mix.
What is in it? It contains Composted Rice Hulls, Composted Pine Bark, Renewed Earth Compost, Structure Sand and topsoil.
When to use Gardener’s Delight? Use Gardener’s Delight if you take pride in your plants health and vigor. It is a coarse well drained soil, which helps plants achieve excellent growth characteristics but also means regular watering will be required. Supplemental feedings are required to achieve optimum plant growth and performance for all soil and growing media.
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Installation
When using Gardener’s Delight or Garden Blend in planting beds, incorporate the first few inches into the existing soil then add a minimum of 6" to 8" on top of this transition layer. When installing a lawn use a minimum of 4" of soil, loosen subsoil before adding the top layer of soil. |
Renewed Earth Compost
Adding Renewed Earth Compost to existing soil will loosen and aerate the soils and promote plant growth. It will promote the establishment of deep roots and healthy plants.
The compost is sourced from leaves collected by non-urban municipalities. The leaves are kept separate from other types of yard waste. Large windrows are actively composted at Renewed Earth’s state-of-the-art industrial composting facility in Otsego, Michigan. The finished compost is screened and made available as a soil amendment and used as an organic component in the production of bulk landscaping soils.
Renewed Earth Compost is available in bags or in bulk.
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Cow Manure
Composted cow manure is used as a source of organics for improving the physical structure of soil and also for its ability to provide micro and macronutrients. There can be problems relating to inconsistent nutritional values and inclusion of weed seeds, so use caution.
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Peat moss
 Canadian sphagnum peat moss is extremely high in organics. It provides little nutritional value. It is a high quality soil amendment effectively changing the moisture handling characteristics when incorporated into soil. There are many classifications of peat moss. More commonly sourced in Michigan is Reed Sedge peat moss. The sphagnum peat tends to be considered superior due to its fiberous makeup and lack of inorganic content. Peat moss is available in 2.2 cubic foot bags.
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Boulders