Star Nurseries

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When we approach new properties, we assess the whole property, buildings, people use, animals, drainage, existing plants, soils, water requirements, etc. in an effort to create a lasting and flourishing environment for you and all those that interact with this property. The local environment usually is only successful, when starting from the ground up literally. When modern building techniques are employed big machinery is used. Things like bull dozers, cranes, loaders, trucks, etc. roll over and are parked on the soil. On top of that recycled concrete is laid down for temporary or permanent parking and ends up getting pushed all over the property. Excess building materials are piled up, and old walks and driveway materials are piled up until they can be hauled away. As these materials are loaded on big trucks they are being mixed into the soil profile, which cannot be helped, because of the size of this equipment. The equipment and trucks put tremendous pressure on often very wet soils and further compact them. Now the standard solution to this is one of two processes. Often a new layer of screened topsoil is applied, and even if this layer is significant (4 inches or more) the construction debris in the soil profile, and the compaction underneath remain. There is also another problem with this method.the new topsoil has different chemical and structural characteristics than the soil underneath. Roots (plants) develop a relationship with the soil (microbes and nutrient) and develop a way to deal with this specific makeup. What happens when the roots meet the different compacted soil profile underneath? The second process employed by landscape companies is to add compost or other amendment and rotor till the topsoil. Of course a rotor tiller skips across compacted soil and even if many passes are made, and optimum depth is achieved it is rarely deeper that 8 inches. There are many far reaching impacts of compacted soils. First is that soil is meant to be a living environment, made up of many living organisms and air space so they may breathe. We always talk about planting trees to eliminate carbon dioxide, and I applaud this effort. What if these trees don't produce and live as they are meant to, do they still reduce carbon efficiently. Most of transpiration process (when Co2 is taken in and Oxygen is released) can only happen efficiently when the roots supply adequate water to the leaves. The stomata close up if they don't receive the water, and the Oxygen cannot be removed from a none existent water molecule without. This effect compounds the problem because the leaf opens stomata and releases water vapor to cool it down, the water vapor makes more clouds and rain, so then there is more drought. So this is the other part of the soil problem, available water, which is directly proportional to the air space in the soil. Air space is where water is temporarily stored or transported. The transport or movement of water downward does two things. The plant root is drawn downward in an effort to attain more water, and the other is the restoration of the water table.

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