Organic Soil Solutions had a fantastic 2011 season. Our crew helped make some of the lushest organic lawns yet.

Here's what some of our customers had to say:

"All is fine with our lawn…the end-of-summer slice seeding was very effective, and we now have a green, lush lawn."
-Kathy C.

"I just was planting my bulbs, and I had a chance to see how full and green and lush the grass is. Looks like your fall overseeding is really having a great effect, and I can see the potential of this lawn as it has had time to develop. Thanks!"
-Laurie B.

"The lawn looks great!  I guess all the rain plus your treatments have worked very well.  I have never seen it so lush."
-Steve D.

Every once in a while, we like to toot our own horn and share the love for Organic Soil Solutions with all of our customers, friends, family and fans.

Check out this latest compliment from one of our Melrose lawn care customers…

…Thank you for the great work you've done on our yard so far. Since you've been working on our yard, we actually have healthy looking grass instead of moss and sandy dirt. It's one of the few lawns in the neighborhood that birds and other wildlife seems to populate. All that natural goodness must lure them in.

Michael P. – Melrose, MA

Click here to read more customer testimonials and learn what makes Organic Soil Solutions stand far above the competitors.

We are in the midst of an organic movement – organic food, organic farms, organic lotions, organic bedding, organic everything! But, little do people know that everything organic must start with healthy, organic soil.

An article from The New Ecologist called "Top 10 Reasons To Buy Organic Products For Your Home" goes on to state, "When it comes to organic farming, people believe in the importance of soil and hence refrain from using pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Soil is the main component of nature that helps us to get nutritive food…the soil on which organic products are grown is highly fertile and brings a promise of a good supply of healthy food in any weather."

Improving the health of your soil starts with a soil analysis. Give us a call at 781.937.9992 for your soil analysis today!

A little wild in the landscape is a beautiful thing.  The birds need a place to nestle, the squirrels to rustle and the bunnies to hide.  I need an area to throw some sticks and yard debris.  My young son was helping me in a yard of lollipop trees and immaculate swales of mulch a few years back.  “Dad, it looks like Dr. Seuss,” he exclaimed.

Cartoon is property of The New Yorker © 2011 Condé Nast Digital. All rights reserved. 

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2011/09/05/cartoons_20110829#slide=5#ixzz1XPFpnVZg

I spoke to an irrigation guy today.  When people build a new house, he suggests investing in soil rather than irrigation systems.  With a foot of good top soil you probably won’t need to add much water.  Most new homes have a few inches of topsoil and need watering more often than we would like, which is deeply and infrequently.  There is no deep soil to hold water and roots.

 
When I visit a new lawn, I can often determine soil conditions by how the grass is growing.  Where the grass struggles, the soil is often different from areas where the grass is doing well.  It could be drier, compacted and lacking organic matter.

The best way to begin a lawn improvement program is with a soil analysis that measures the chemical and physical characteristics of the soil.

Give us a call at 781.937.9992 for your soil analysis today!

We recently slice seeded and added the early fall fertilizer to our customers' lawns.  We’ve been working to improve the soil through the year, and now is the time when we can really make things happen.  We want everyone's lawn to sing.  A thick, healthy lawn in October will be tough to beat in the spring.

We have great seed. 
After rebuilding our house, we planted a new lawn in the spring. The grass stayed green through the summer and there is very little crab grass.  We never watered and the roots are 12 inches deep.  The seed is a custom blend of tillering tall fescues and other varieties we put together three years ago specifically for organic lawns.  The seed company labels the bags Murray Organic, which I kind of like.  Tall fescues are the deepest rooted and most drought tolerant of the cool season grasses.  The roots can go over 5 feet deep in optimal conditions.

The seed was important for the success of our lawn, but the soil was the key. 
The grass was able to send roots deep into the soil, searching for water.  On some of those hot days, when the temperature was in the 90’s, I stuck a shovel in the ground and found the soil moist 8 to 12 inches down.  When we installed the lawn, the highly compacted subsoil was replaced with 16” or so of a beautiful soil/compost mix.  It has pore spaces to hold air and water, and good soil structure, making it easy for roots to travel. 

The soil in most yards is not so hot.  It can be a mixture of different soil types with rocks and tree roots.  It could be acid from decomposing pine needles, compacted and lacking biology, structure and organic matter.  No grass seed thrives in crappy soil, no matter what the marketing claims.  We’ve seen enough failed miracle seed lawns to know.  Our goal is to improve the soil so you can have a safe and healthy lawn.  That is why we are Organic Soil Solutions.

The seed will do best if kept moist, so a light watering a couple of times a day is helpful.  If we have the cool nights and periodic rain that usually occur in the fall, the seed should do fine on its own. 

If you have any questions or comments, please call me at 781-937-9992 or email mikem@organicsoilsolutions.com

Still green in August, never watered

It’s been great to see our newly seeded lawn doing so well.  Actually, we’re stunned.  It was seeded in April with our custom mix of tillering tall fescues and other types of seeds.  We expected the lawn to come in decent but succumb to the pressures of heat and crab grass as the summer wore on.  That is the fate of most spring seed.  We haven’t watered at all except for one morning in the front during the heat.
 

The lawn came in green and thick in May.  We did add seed more than once.  It stayed green through most of July, getting brown around the edges and inviting a few crab grass plants in for a brief stay.  The weather was great this spring with regular rain, so watering was not needed for the seed to germinate.
 
It would be nice to claim that we have a miracle seed or that we chanted magic spells.  We could attribute our success to a bio stimulant or a special proprietary formula.  But we know the lawn is doing well because of the deep, rich soil we put down after our new house was built.  There is plenty of pore space in the soil to hold water and allow the roots to grow deep to get it.  When I put in a shovel during our recent heat wave, the soil was moist at a depth of 6 to 8 inches under the surface, and the roots were growing down to get it.

Want a healthy lawn? Read our top ten tips for a great organic lawn!

Here's a little Q & A with an Organic Soil Solutions customer regarding grubs…

Question:
My grass looks great thanks to you and the rain…in the past I have had grubs and since I no longer put down chemicals to kill them, I am wondering about your nematodes (?) or whatever they are, that destroy the grubs….when is the time to add them?  I don't want to wait until they appear…

Answer:
We usually apply the nematodes in late August, and again in September.  They don’t prevent the grubs.  They need a host to survive.  Last year’s grubs are turning into beetles as we speak.  They swarm the 1st week of July and that is the time they may or not lay a new crop of eggs (soon to be grubs).  We can spread some compost at that time.  They don’t like to lay their eggs in compost.

Have questions about your organic lawn? Ask Mike and the Organic Soil Solutions team.

Treat your soil well and you will be rewarded.  Studies have found that inhaling soil bacteria (mycobacterium vaccae) may increase learning ability.  Eating soil, done by babies and in other cultures for eons, has received a lot of positive press lately for improving the immune system.  Scientists are wondering how the bacteria in your stomach affect your personality by selecting what they send to the brain.  Dinosaurs never ruled the world and we don’t control things like we think.  The predominant form of life on the planet is the bacteria and we should treat them with respect.  Bacteria are on everything we touch, in the snow that falls and the air we breathe.  They are the microbes that digest our food and keep us well.

Plants get all the glory.  They put on a spectacular show with colorful flowers and leaves while the birds and the bees flit about.  Meanwhile, the soil goes quietly about its business in obscurity.  There is more life below the surface than above it.  And for healthy, vigorous plants, it’s all about the soil.

You can grow grass on cement with chemicals, but is it really alive?  It is on life support.  You can buy a miracle grass seed (which for the most part is just repackaged varieties from a national seed company) but you won’t have 12” roots without good soil structure and air spaces for the roots to grow.  As biology moves through the soil it improves aeration and drainage.  Nematodes and protozoa swim in the film of water around soil particles and feed on bacteria.  Fungi decompose organic matter to obtain nutrients and energy.  Microbes must have a constant supply of organic matter or their numbers will decline. Conditions that favor soil life also promote plant growth.
 
When we rebuilt our house after a fire, good soil was a priority.  We dug up the compacted sub soil around the new foundation and replaced it with a foot of compost/soil mix.  There is plenty of organic matter for the biology to thrive.  I see a busy underground community, teeming with life and nourishing our plants and ourselves.  Be friends with your soil, embrace the bacteria and it will treat you well.  I just read that 80% of the antibiotics used in this country are fed to healthy animals to fatten them up.  This is a practice banned in Europe, Japan and most other countries.  So now we have super bugs that are resistant to antibiotics.  We do the same thing to our soil when we use pesticides and herbicides.   And you don’t want to get those soil bacteria mad at you.

Lawn Before Fire	Lawn After Fire